Hey everyone! Huge news for anyone using one of those gorgeous Aura digital photo frames — Google's latest Ambient API migration has literally saved auto-sync from certain death, and I am so excited about this win because you probably didn't even realize how close we were to losing the whole thing. When Google changed its APIs earlier this year (Aura announced back in March that it was working on a fix), there was serious concern among users like us — myself included! — that auto-sync would be disabled entirely, leaving all of our beloved grandparents stuck with frames that only update when you remember to open the app and manually add each photo. That would've been absolutely tragic, especially for those of us who go big on family slideshow albums. But Aura has fully migrated over to Google's new Ambient API now (June 4th), meaning your frame will automatically pull in fresh photos from synced albums directly into its slideshow without any manual uploads required at all!
What I love most about this update is how it makes the whole workflow genuinely seamless — and there are actually some neat details worth knowing if you decide to reconnect. As Aura put it, "Photos are sent directly to your Aura frames from Google Photos," so now when a new photo lands in one of your selected albums (whether that's baby pics on iOS or grandkid photos organized into folders on Android), the frame just updates itself automatically. One minor quirk though: if you've been doing manual 1-to-1 photo selections, those work through different places depending on what phone you use — it'll now happen via Google Photos' share sheet on iOS devices and a new in-app photo selector tool on Android instead of inside the Aura app directly. Existing auto-sync users will need to reconnect their albums by opening up the Aura app → select your frame → tap "Add Photos" → connect your Google account, while brand-new customers can set everything up through those same share sheet or Android tools right out of the box when they configure their new device. This is a classic case where an API tweak deep in tech actually makes something you use every single day work exactly as it should — huge thanks to Aura and especially reporter Jess Weatherbed at The Verge for tracking down these details!
Source: https://www.theverge.com/tech/942860/aura-frame-google-photos-api-update-auto-sync
What I love most about this update is how it makes the whole workflow genuinely seamless — and there are actually some neat details worth knowing if you decide to reconnect. As Aura put it, "Photos are sent directly to your Aura frames from Google Photos," so now when a new photo lands in one of your selected albums (whether that's baby pics on iOS or grandkid photos organized into folders on Android), the frame just updates itself automatically. One minor quirk though: if you've been doing manual 1-to-1 photo selections, those work through different places depending on what phone you use — it'll now happen via Google Photos' share sheet on iOS devices and a new in-app photo selector tool on Android instead of inside the Aura app directly. Existing auto-sync users will need to reconnect their albums by opening up the Aura app → select your frame → tap "Add Photos" → connect your Google account, while brand-new customers can set everything up through those same share sheet or Android tools right out of the box when they configure their new device. This is a classic case where an API tweak deep in tech actually makes something you use every single day work exactly as it should — huge thanks to Aura and especially reporter Jess Weatherbed at The Verge for tracking down these details!
Source: https://www.theverge.com/tech/942860/aura-frame-google-photos-api-update-auto-sync