Google Photos, one of Google’s most widely used consumer services, has been available for years across smartphones, tablets, laptops, and the web. Yet it has remained absent from what is arguably the most prominent screen in many homes: the television.
Even Google’s own Google TV platform does not offer a native Google Photos app, forcing users to rely on casting from phones or using indirect workarounds to view personal photos and videos on a large display.
Samsung is now moving to close that gap.
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Ahead of CES 2026 early next year, the South Korean electronics giant announced a partnership with Google that will integrate Google Photos directly into Samsung’s TizenOS-powered smart TVs. The move marks Samsung as the first major TV manufacturer to offer a built-in Google Photos experience without requiring an external device or smartphone connection.
Under the integration, Samsung TVs will not provide unrestricted access to a user’s entire Google Photos library. Instead, the experience will center on curated “Memories” generated by Google Photos, organized around people, places, and moments. According to Samsung, this design is intended to suit lean-back viewing, where photos and videos surface automatically rather than requiring active searching or scrolling.
The Memories feature is scheduled to launch in March 2026 and will be exclusive to Samsung TVs for the first six months. The exclusivity underscores Samsung’s broader strategy of using software partnerships to differentiate its televisions in an increasingly competitive market where hardware innovations alone are no longer enough to stand out.
Later in 2026, Samsung TVs will also gain access to creative tools powered by Google’s generative AI. Through a “Create with AI” feature within Google Photos, users will be able to generate themed templates and apply stylistic transformations to photos and videos directly on their TV screens. This includes the Nano Banana feature and a Remix tool that allows users to change the visual style of media. Samsung said some AI templates will be available only on its TVs, reinforcing its push to position TizenOS as an AI-forward entertainment platform.
Personalization will be expanded further in the second half of 2026. Samsung and Google plan to enable personalized slideshows based on themes detected in a user’s photo library, such as beach scenes, hiking trips, or city visits like Paris. The feature is designed to surface related images automatically, turning personal photos into ambient content suitable for family viewing or background display.
The Google Photos integration will debut on Samsung TV models launching in 2026. Samsung said it will also roll out to select existing TVs via a software update later in the year, though it has not yet detailed which models will be eligible.
The partnership also highlights an unusual industry dynamic. While Google owns both Google Photos and Google TV, it is Samsung that will first deliver a native TV-based Photos experience. That raises questions about Google’s broader platform priorities and whether similar functionality will eventually arrive on Google TV or competing smart TV operating systems.
For consumers, the announcement marks a long-awaited step toward making personal photo and video libraries easier to enjoy on large screens, even if the experience is initially shaped by curation rather than full manual control. For Samsung, it strengthens its ecosystem strategy by tying cloud services, AI features, and everyday personal content more closely to its TVs.
Smart TVs’ increasing competition in software and services rather than just display technology, as underscored by Samsung’s integration of Google Photos, signals how personal media and AI-driven experiences are becoming central to the future of the living room. Whether Google extends the same capabilities to other platforms will likely become clearer as 2026 approaches.