Amazon Photos: Photo & Video

Review by eFreeware

Amazon Photos is a cloud storage app for photos and videos from Amazon Mobile LLC. It has been on Google Play since November 2012, has passed 50 million installs and holds a 4.7 average from a large body of ratings, which tells you it is a mature, widely used service rather than a new experiment. The download is free and there are no ads.

The reason to consider it is simple: every Amazon customer gets 5 GB of full-resolution photo and video storage at no cost, and Prime members get unlimited photo storage plus a separate 5 GB for video. If you already pay for Prime, the photo side of that membership is effectively free storage you may not be using.

What makes it more than a backup bucket is the way it connects to the rest of Amazon's hardware and services. Photos can appear on an Echo Show or Fire TV, be searched by voice through Alexa, be shared in private groups, and be turned into prints or wall décor in the US. I'd treat it as a storage and display hub rather than a photo editor, because that is what it is built to be.

Storage that keeps your originals intact

The core promise here is full-resolution storage. Amazon Photos keeps the original resolution of your images rather than shrinking them, so what you upload is what you get back. For anyone who has watched a phone fill up with years of pictures, that matters: once a photo is in the cloud you can delete it from the device to reclaim space without losing the file.

The free tier gives all Amazon customers 5 GB shared between photos and video. That is enough for a modest collection, but video eats into it quickly, so the practical ceiling for most people is the Prime benefit: unlimited photo storage plus 5 GB set aside for video. The unlimited photo allowance is available in the US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Japan, so it is not a worldwide perk.

If you need more room than that, the app offers monthly and annual storage plans starting at $1.99, and the developer says you can cancel at any time. That is the only paid element I can point to, and it sits alongside the option of simply staying on the free allowance. There are no ads in the app, so the experience is not interrupted by marketing while you browse.

Backing up a camera roll without thinking about it

Auto-Save is the feature that does the heavy lifting. Switch it on in Settings and every photo and video you take is copied to your Amazon Photos account automatically, which is the difference between a backup you maintain and one that maintains itself. For someone who takes pictures daily and never remembers to move them, that is the main draw.

Cloud copies survive a lost, stolen or broken device, so the pictures are not tied to the hardware that captured them. It also notes that you can move an existing collection over from another provider in a few steps, which is the part most people dread when changing storage services.

I'd expect the automatic path to appeal most to families with a shared account and a growing pile of phone photos. The trade-off is that Auto-Save is something you have to enable rather than something that happens by default, so the first job after installing is deciding whether you want your whole camera roll uploaded.

Sharing, searching and remembering

Photos are not much use if you cannot find them, and this app approaches that in two ways. You can search by date or location to track down a specific shot, and Prime members get refined search filtering on top of that.

Sharing runs through private groups. You invite friends and family into a group and can share photos, videos and albums there, with comments on what you post. The developer positions this as a way to gather everything from one event, whether that is a vacation, a graduation, a party or a playoff run, into a single album that everyone can see and contribute to.

There is also a memory feature that resurfaces photos from the same date in past years, from one year back to five or more, presented as a curated slideshow set to music. It is the sort of thing that either delights you or you ignore entirely, and it costs nothing to leave running in the background.

Photos on the screens you already own

One of the more distinctive parts of Amazon Photos is that it treats your television and smart display as photo frames. Photos stored on a Fire tablet are accessible too, so the same library follows you across Amazon devices.

For households that already own that hardware, this is the feature that keeps the library in one place. A slideshow of family pictures on a kitchen display is a different proposition from a folder of files on a phone, and it is the clearest example of the app acting as a display service rather than pure storage.

Alexa support extends this further, since a good number of the app's features can be driven by voice on those devices. If you have not bought into Amazon's hardware, this section is simply not relevant to you, and the storage and backup side is what remains.

Turning files into physical objects

Amazon Photos also acts as a storefront for prints and gifts. The developer describes it as a one-stop shop for photo prints, custom gifts and home décor, with wall canvases and ready-to-hang pieces among the options, and you can shop from inside the app. US Prime members also get prints delivered free.

This is the most region-locked part of the service. Print ordering is available only in the US, and free prints delivery is a US Prime benefit as well, so readers elsewhere should treat the app purely as storage, sharing and display. If you are in the US and already order prints elsewhere, having the option in the same place you keep the originals is a mild convenience rather than a reason on its own.

Getting set up and what you need

You install the app, upload your collection, and turn on Auto-Save in Settings if you want future photos and videos secured automatically. Setup is short, and moving an existing library across from another provider is a quick process.

The requirements are worth spelling out because they shape who this suits. The unlimited photo storage and free prints delivery depend on a Prime membership, and the unlimited photo allowance is limited to eight countries. Print ordering is US-only. The free 5 GB tier, by contrast, applies to every Amazon customer.

The app was last updated in October 2026 with general bug fixes and improvements, which suggests routine maintenance rather than a major overhaul.

Who gets the most from it

This app makes the most sense for people who are already inside Amazon's world. If you pay for Prime, own an Echo Show or Fire TV, and take a lot of phone photos, the combination of unlimited photo storage, automatic backup and photo display on your existing screens is a genuinely useful package, and the free prints delivery in the US adds a small bonus.

It also suits anyone who wants a no-cost place to keep a modest collection safe. The 5 GB allowance covers photos and video for all Amazon customers, and there is no charge to try it. What it is not is a photo editing tool or a social network; the sharing is deliberately private, through invited groups rather than public feeds.

The friction points are regional and account-based rather than technical. If none of those apply to you, the free tier still works, but the value proposition is thinner.

I'd sum it up as a storage and display service that rewards loyalty to Amazon's ecosystem. The more of that hardware and membership you already have, the more the app gives you back.

A sensible home for an Amazon household's photo library

Amazon Photos is a mature, free-to-download cloud service with a strong rating and a very large install base, and its strengths are automatic backup, full-resolution storage and tight integration with Amazon's screens and voice assistant. The Prime tier is where it becomes compelling, since unlimited photo storage and a separate video allowance cover most households comfortably.

The caveats are real but narrow. Prime membership is required for the unlimited tier, the unlimited photo storage is limited to eight countries, print ordering and free prints delivery are US-only, and storage beyond the free allowance means a paid plan starting at $1.99 a month or year. None of that is hidden, and the free 5 GB tier remains open to everyone.

I'd suggest it to Prime members with an Echo Show or Fire TV who want their photos backed up without effort and visible around the house, and to any Amazon customer who wants a free 5 GB home for a small collection. If you have no interest in Amazon hardware and no Prime membership, the free tier is still worth trying, but the app's best features will stay out of reach.

What's new

General bug fixes and improvements.