Posted by Roxanna Aliabadi Walker, Product Manager and Yacine Rezgui, Developer Relations Engineer
The Embedded Photo Picker: A more seamless way to privately request photos and videos in your app
Get ready to enhance your app’s user experience with an exciting new way to use the Android photo picker! The new embedded photo picker offers a seamless and privacy-focused way for users to select photos and videos, right within your app’s interface. Now your app can get all the same benefits available with the photo picker, including access to cloud content, integrated directly into your app’s experience.
We understand that many apps want to provide a highly integrated and seamless experience for users when selecting photos or videos. The embedded photo picker is designed to do just that, allowing users to quickly access their recent photos without ever leaving your app. They can also explore their full library in their preferred cloud media provider (e.g., Google Photos), including favorites, albums and search functionality. This eliminates the need for users to switch between apps or worry about whether the photo they want is stored locally or in the cloud.
Seamless integration, enhanced privacy
The embedded photo picker in Google Messages
- Intuitive placement: The photo picker sits right below the camera button, giving users a clear choice between capturing a new photo or selecting an existing one.
- Dynamic preview: Immediately after a user taps a photo, they see a large preview, making it easy to confirm their selection. If they deselect the photo, the preview disappears, keeping the experience clean and uncluttered.
- Expand for more content: The initial view is simplified, offering easy access to recent photos. However, users can easily expand the photo picker to browse and choose from all photos and videos in their library, including cloud content from Google Photos.
- Respecting user choices: The embedded photo picker only grants access to the specific photos or videos the user selects, meaning they can stop requesting the photo and video permissions altogether. This also saves the Messages from needing to handle situations where users only grant limited access to photos and videos.
Implementation
Integrating the embedded photo picker is made easy with the Photo Picker Jetpack library. Â
implementation("androidx.photopicker:photopicker-compose:1.0.0-alpha01")
@Composable fun EmbeddedPhotoPickerDemo() { // We keep track of the list of selected attachments var attachments by remember { mutableStateOf(emptyList<Uri>()) } val coroutineScope = rememberCoroutineScope() // We hide the bottom sheet by default but we show it when the user clicks on the button val scaffoldState = rememberBottomSheetScaffoldState( bottomSheetState = rememberStandardBottomSheetState( initialValue = SheetValue.Hidden, skipHiddenState = false ) ) // Customize the embedded photo picker val photoPickerInfo = EmbeddedPhotoPickerFeatureInfo .Builder() // Set limit the selection to 5 items .setMaxSelectionLimit(5) // Order the items selection (each item will have an index visible in the photo picker) .setOrderedSelection(true) // Set the accent color (red in this case, otherwise it follows the device's accent color) .setAccentColor(0xFF0000) .build() // The embedded photo picker state will be stored in this variable val photoPickerState = rememberEmbeddedPhotoPickerState( onSelectionComplete = { coroutineScope.launch { // Hide the bottom sheet once the user has clicked on the done button inside the picker scaffoldState.bottomSheetState.hide() } }, onUriPermissionGranted = { // We update our list of attachments with the new Uris granted attachments += it }, onUriPermissionRevoked = { // We update our list of attachments with the Uris revoked attachments -= it } ) SideEffect { val isExpanded = scaffoldState.bottomSheetState.targetValue == SheetValue.Expanded // We show/hide the embedded photo picker to match the bottom sheet state photoPickerState.setCurrentExpanded(isExpanded) } BottomSheetScaffold( topBar = { TopAppBar(title = { Text("Embedded Photo Picker demo") }) }, scaffoldState = scaffoldState, sheetPeekHeight = if (scaffoldState.bottomSheetState.isVisible) 400.dp else 0.dp, sheetContent = { Column(Modifier.fillMaxWidth()) { // We render the embedded photo picker inside the bottom sheet EmbeddedPhotoPicker( state = photoPickerState, embeddedPhotoPickerFeatureInfo = photoPickerInfo ) } } ) { innerPadding -> Column(Modifier.padding(innerPadding).fillMaxSize().padding(horizontal = 16.dp)) { Button(onClick = { coroutineScope.launch { // We expand the bottom sheet, which will trigger the embedded picker to be shown scaffoldState.bottomSheetState.partialExpand() } }) { Text("Open photo picker") } LazyVerticalGrid(columns = GridCells.Adaptive(minSize = 64.dp)) { // We render the image using the Coil library itemsIndexed(attachments) { index, uri -> AsyncImage( model = uri, contentDescription = "Image ${index + 1}", contentScale = ContentScale.Crop, modifier = Modifier.clickable { coroutineScope.launch { // When the user clicks on the media from the app's UI, we deselect it // from the embedded photo picker by calling the method deselectUri photoPickerState.deselectUri(uri) } } ) } } } } }
Views
implementation("androidx.photopicker:photopicker:1.0.0-alpha01")
<view class="androidx.photopicker.EmbeddedPhotoPickerView" android:id="@+id/photopicker" android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="match_parent" />
// We keep track of the list of selected attachments private val _attachments = MutableStateFlow(emptyList<Uri>()) val attachments = _attachments.asStateFlow() private lateinit var picker: EmbeddedPhotoPickerView private var openSession: EmbeddedPhotoPickerSession? = null val pickerListener = object EmbeddedPhotoPickerStateChangeListener { override fun onSessionOpened (newSession: EmbeddedPhotoPickerSession) { openSession = newSession } override fun onSessionError (throwable: Throwable) {} override fun onUriPermissionGranted(uris: List<Uri>) { _attachments += uris } override fun onUriPermissionRevoked (uris: List<Uri>) { _attachments -= uris } override fun onSelectionComplete() { // Hide the embedded photo picker as the user is done with the photo/video selection } } override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState) setContentView(R.layout.main_view) // // Add the embedded photo picker to a bottom sheet to allow the dragging to display the full photo library // picker = findViewById(R.id.photopicker) picker.addEmbeddedPhotoPickerStateChangeListener(pickerListener) picker.setEmbeddedPhotoPickerFeatureInfo( // Set a custom accent color EmbeddedPhotoPickerFeatureInfo.Builder().setAccentColor(0xFF0000).build() ) }
// Notify the embedded picker of a configuration change openSession.notifyConfigurationChanged(newConfig) // Update the embedded picker to expand following a user interaction openSession.notifyPhotoPickerExpanded(/* expanded: */ true) // Resize the embedded picker openSession.notifyResized(/* width: */ 512, /* height: */ 256) // Show/hide the embedded picker (after a form has been submitted) openSession.notifyVisibilityChanged(/* visible: */ false) // Remove unselected media from the embedded picker after they have been // unselected from the host app's UI openSession.requestRevokeUriPermission(removedUris)
For enhanced user privacy and security, the system renders the embedded photo picker in a way that prevents any drawing or overlaying. This intentional design choice means that your UX should consider the photo picker’s display area as a distinct and dedicated element, much like you would plan for an advertising banner.
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