Facebook tool to transfer images to Google Photos now available worldwide

It is expected the company will provide tools for Apple, Twitter, and Microsoft software in future

(Getty)

Facebook’s new feature to transfer photos from your profile to a Google Photos backup is now available globally, after previously only being accessible in the US and Canada.

The tool was later rolled out to parts of Africa, Asia Pacific, and Latin America in February 2020, European countries in March 2020, but can now be accessed by all users across the world.

The tool lets you make copies of all the photos and videos on your account, and move them to another platform more easily than having to mass download, and then reupload, the content. Users can do this by:

1. Going to “Your Facebook Information” in your Facebook Settings
2. Selecting “Transfer a Copy of Your Photos or Videos and entering your Facebook password
3. Choosing Google Photos – with the company stating that more options will be available over time
4. Clicking the “Confirm Transfer” button

It is currently unclear what other options will be available, but Facebook has previously said that if companies join the Data Transfer Project then they would be able to transfer content from Facebook to other platforms.

The project was established in 2018 to "create an open-source, service-to-service data portability platform so that all individuals across the web could easily move their data between online service providers whenever they want," according to its website.

Companies that have joined this project, apart from Facebook and Google, include Microsoft, Twitter, and Apple, implying that people may eventually be able to move Facebook Photos to Apple’s native Photos app.

Recently, Facebook also announced another new tool to help users archive their old posts, so that they continue to exist on your Facebook account but would not be visible to others. Facebook has suggested that similar tools will be available in the future.

The company's experimental app group has released two new pieces of software for iOS and Android: Venue is a "second-screen" app for live-steams, currently working in partnership with NASCAR to broadcast the Supermarket Heroes 500, while Collab is a music-making app that lets users swap in and out video clips of people playing instruments to make new arrangements.