As part of its ongoing efforts to turn Google Photos into more of a social media platform, the tech giant has added a private chat feature to its popular photo-hosting service. The new feature, which the developers say will make it easier for users “to share the individual, everyday moments”, will enable them to add photos and videos to private conversations as an option whenever they share any media file with their friends and family.

“This gives you one place to find the moments you’ve shared with your friends and family and keep the conversation going. For me, this means I can show my mom and dad how my pumpkin pie turned out in just a few taps”, said Jahnvi Shah, the product manager at Google Photos.

Once the new feature is implemented, users will not only be able to ‘like’ the photos and post comments, they’ll also be able to save these photos and videos to their own gallery if they want. “This feature isn’t designed to replace the chat apps you already use, but we do hope it improves sharing memories with your friends and family in Google Photos”, said the company.

The feature will be gradually rolled out over next week across Android, iOS and the web. It will certainly be a welcome addition to the service – one that many will find helpful, given how popular Google Photos has become over the years. It is already the de-facto gallery app in most Android smartphones, so the new functionality will surely hit the spot with at least some of them.