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<p>Album Importer for Google Photos lets you easily import images from a public Google Photos album into your WordPress site and display them as a gallery. Add the block to any post or page, paste a Google Photos album URL, and start the import. From there, the images are added to your site’s Media Library and displayed automatically.</p>
<h4>Basic Usage</h4>
<ol>
<li>Create or edit a post/page where you want the gallery.</li>
<li>Add the “Album Importer for Google Photos” block.</li>
<li>From Google Photos, share your album and copy the public link URL. The format of a public Google Photos album URL will be similar to: <code>https://photos.app.goo.gl/XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX</code>.</li>
<li>Paste the public link URL into the block.</li>
<li>Click Start Import.</li>
<li>The gallery is created automatically once complete.</li>
</ol>
<h3>External services</h3>
<p>This plugin relies on Google Photos (a third-party service operated by Google LLC) to read and import publicly shared album content. No data is sent to any external service unless an authorized user explicitly provides a Google Photos album URL to the plugin. There are two triggers for requests to Google:</p>
<ol>
<li>The “Album Importer for Google Photos” block in the post/page editor: pasting an album URL and clicking “Start Import”.</li>
<li>The “Import from Google Photos” button that the plugin adds to the media-selection modal of core Image, Gallery, Cover, and Media & Text blocks: pasting an album URL into the modal and clicking “Load album”.</li>
</ol>
<h4>Google Photos</h4>
<p>Google Photos is Google’s photo hosting and sharing service. The plugin uses it to fetch the contents of a publicly shared album so the images can be saved into the WordPress Media Library and rendered as a gallery.</p>
<p>What data is sent and when:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Verify the album (server -> Google).</strong> When an authorized editor pastes an album URL and triggers verification (clicking “Start Import” in the block, or “Load album” in the media-library modal), the plugin makes a server-side HTTP GET request to the album URL on <code>photos.google.com</code> or <code>photos.app.goo.gl</code> to retrieve the album’s public HTML page and parse the list of image URLs.</li>
<li><strong>Render thumbnail previews (browser -> Google).</strong> After verification returns the list of images, the plugin renders thumbnails directly in the editor by setting each image URL as the <code>src</code> of an <code><img></code> tag. This causes the editor user’s browser to make HTTP GET requests to <code>lh3.googleusercontent.com</code> for each thumbnail.</li>
<li><strong>Filename inference (server -> Google).</strong> For each image to be imported, the plugin makes a server-side HTTP HEAD request to <code>lh3.googleusercontent.com</code> to read the <code>Content-Disposition</code> header (the import continues even if this request fails).</li>
<li><strong>Image download (server -> Google).</strong> For each image, the plugin issues a server-side HTTP GET request to <code>lh3.googleusercontent.com</code> to download the image bytes and store them as a WordPress media attachment.</li>
<li>No user credentials, account information, or telemetry are collected or transmitted by the plugin. The only data the plugin sends is the album URL the editor pastes (and the derived image URLs from that album).</li>
</ul>
<p>Use of Google’s services is subject to Google’s terms:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://policies.google.com/terms" rel="nofollow ugc">Google Terms of Service</a></li>
<li><a href="https://policies.google.com/privacy" rel="nofollow ugc">Google Privacy Policy</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Source Code</h3>
<p>The full, unminified source code for this plugin is publicly available on <a href="https://github.com/a8cteam51/importer-google-photos" rel="nofollow ugc">GitHub</a>.</p>


Album Importer for Google Photos

Import Google Photos albums into your WordPress media library and display them in a beautiful gallery block.

Jan Zeman

<p>Embed a Google Photos shared album directly from the source, without uploading copies to your WordPress media library.<br />
Add one shortcode, choose a gallery, slider, or carousel layout, and the plugin turns your album into a responsive photo experience for desktop and mobile visitors.</p>
<p>It is built for photographers, bloggers, clubs, families, travel sites, event pages,<br />
and anyone who already organizes photos in Google Photos and wants to show them beautifully on a WordPress site.</p>
<h4>Why Install It</h4>
<ul>
<li><strong>No duplicate uploads</strong> – Keep your photos in Google Photos and show them on your WordPress site.</li>
<li><strong>Less gallery maintenance</strong> – Update the album at the source instead of rebuilding galleries by hand.</li>
<li><strong>A better visitor experience</strong> – Give people a responsive gallery, slider, carousel, fullscreen view, or lightbox.</li>
<li><strong>Photo and video support</strong> – Share mixed albums without splitting them into separate WordPress galleries.</li>
<li><strong>Mobile-friendly browsing</strong> – Let visitors swipe, tap, zoom, navigate, and enjoy slideshows naturally.</li>
<li><strong>Useful presentation options</strong> – Show descriptions, dates, counters, buttons, and image details when they help.</li>
<li><strong>Built for real albums</strong> – Caching, lazy loading, and progressive loading help larger albums stay practical.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Why People Use It</h4>
<p>Google Photos is convenient for storing and sharing albums.<br />
WordPress is where your audience is.<br />
This plugin connects the two.</p>
<p>Instead of exporting photos, uploading them to the media library, rebuilding galleries,<br />
and repeating the work after every album change, you can share the Google Photos album once and embed it where you need it.</p>
<h4>What Happens After Installing</h4>
<p>The plugin adds its own WordPress admin menu with a friendly Guide page,<br />
ready-to-use examples, a live shortcode playground, and the current parameter reference.</p>
<p>Start with a sample, paste your own Google Photos share link,<br />
preview the result, and place the shortcode where you want the album to appear.</p>
<h4>Community Inspiration</h4>
<p>The optional Community Directory helps you discover what other users are building with the plugin.</p>
<ul>
<li>Browse real shortcode examples for layout ideas.</li>
<li>Copy a configuration and adapt it to your own album.</li>
<li>Rate useful examples and share your own.</li>
<li>Add a sample page URL if you want curious visitors to find your site.</li>
</ul>
<p>Community features are optional. You can use the gallery plugin without joining or publishing anything.</p>
<h3>Credits</h3>
<ul>
<li>Uses <a href="https://swiperjs.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">Swiper</a> – MIT License</li>
<li>Uses <a href="https://plyr.io/" rel="nofollow ugc">Plyr</a> – MIT License</li>
<li>Developed by Jan Zeman</li>
</ul>
<h3>Privacy Policy</h3>
<p>This plugin does not collect or store any user data for its core gallery functionality.</p>
<h4>Use of external Google services</h4>
<ul>
<li>The plugin fetches public Google Photos album pages from <code>https://photos.google.com</code> and image files from <code>*.googleusercontent.com</code> in order to render the galleries.</li>
<li>Only publicly shared album links are supported; the plugin has no access to private albums or any content that is not already available via a public share link.</li>
<li>The plugin does not collect, store, or transmit user credentials or personal data. It only caches album HTML and image URLs in WordPress transients for performance, and this cache is stored locally in your WordPress database.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Community Directory (optional, opt-in)</h4>
<p>The Community Directory is optional. Browsing samples loads public examples from jzsa.janzeman.com.<br />
Sign-in, ratings, and publishing are used only when you choose to connect to the community.</p>
<p>If you publish an entry, the community service stores the information you submit,<br />
such as title, shortcode, description, tags, optional sample page URL, and optional display name.<br />
You can delete your community account from the plugin admin page.</p>
<p>The community backend does not use cookies, analytics, advertising, or newsletters.</p>
<h3>Support</h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>Bug reports:</strong> <a href="https://github.com/JanZeman/shared-albums-for-google-photos/issues/new" rel="nofollow ugc">Open an issue on GitHub</a></li>
<li><strong>Feature requests:</strong> <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/janzeman-shared-albums-for-google-photos/" rel="ugc">Post on the support forum</a></li>
<li><strong>Privacy, account, or sensitive questions:</strong> email <a href="mailto:support@janzeman.com" rel="nofollow ugc">support@janzeman.com</a></li>
<li><strong>Leave a rating:</strong> <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/janzeman-shared-albums-for-google-photos/reviews/#new-post" rel="ugc">Review on WordPress.org</a></li>
<li><strong>Buy Me a Coffee:</strong> <a href="https://www.buymeacoffee.com/janzeman" rel="nofollow ugc">buymeacoffee.com/janzeman</a></li>
</ul>


Shared Albums for Google Photos (by JanZeman)


I was excited to see your plugin in the new section here and downloaded it. to check it out.



It was an easy install with good instructions with easy-to-understand shortcodes.  It took a while to get the yellow and red banners away, but I learned more about the shortcode with each try.  If I may offer an opinion on some of the features, I liked the image quality and speed.  I ran through most of the shortcodes; I was hoping gallery mode meant a grid of images with pagination.  In carousel mode, I feel it would be best, if clicking on one of the 3 panel images, it took you to that particular image's full, non-cropped image.



I am not sure if any of these suggestions could be accomplished by shortcode, but I thought I would give you some feedback.  Appreciate your work!






Nice, but ...

Embed shared Google Photos albums directly from the source, without uploading copies to WordPress.

Album Importer for Google Photos vs Shared Albums for Google Photos (by JanZeman)