Shared Albums for Google Photos (by JanZeman)

Embed a Google Photos shared album directly from the source, without uploading copies to your WordPress media library. 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. It is built for photographers, bloggers, clubs, families, travel sites, event pages, and anyone who already organizes photos in Google Photos and wants to show them beautifully on a WordPress site. Why Install It

• No duplicate uploads - Keep your photos in Google Photos and show them on your WordPress site.
• Less gallery maintenance - Update the album at the source instead of rebuilding galleries by hand.
• A better visitor experience - Give people a responsive gallery, slider, carousel, fullscreen view, or lightbox.
• Photo and video support - Share mixed albums without splitting them into separate WordPress galleries.
• Mobile-friendly browsing - Let visitors swipe, tap, zoom, navigate, and enjoy slideshows naturally.
• Useful presentation options - Show descriptions, dates, counters, buttons, and image details when they help.
• Built for real albums - Caching, lazy loading, and progressive loading help larger albums stay practical.

Why People Use It Google Photos is convenient for storing and sharing albums. WordPress is where your audience is. This plugin connects the two. Instead of exporting photos, uploading them to the media library, rebuilding galleries, and repeating the work after every album change, you can share the Google Photos album once and embed it where you need it. What Happens After Installing The plugin adds its own WordPress admin menu with a friendly Guide page, ready-to-use examples, a live shortcode playground, and the current parameter reference. Start with a sample, paste your own Google Photos share link, preview the result, and place the shortcode where you want the album to appear. Community Inspiration The optional Community Directory helps you discover what other users are building with the plugin.

• Browse real shortcode examples for layout ideas.
• Copy a configuration and adapt it to your own album.
• Rate useful examples and share your own.
• Add a sample page URL if you want curious visitors to find your site.

Community features are optional. You can use the gallery plugin without joining or publishing anything.

2.3.7

• Improved plugin intro
• Improve warning about "gallery-columns" in the "justified" mode

2.3.4

• Email-based login for the Community feature
• Extensive unit and end-to-end testing

2.3.1

• Tested with WordPress 7.0
• New: Lightbox - an alternative to native fullscreen
• Thanks to @valterbruno for the Lightbox feature request!
• Basic shortcode real-time validation
• Preparation of the Community feature for the release
• Once more huge thanks to @naveenbachwani for sharp and inspiring feedback about this feature!

2.2.0

• New: Community Directory - browse, copy, and publish shortcode configurations and inspire others :-)
• Privacy by design: your email is never sent; account identity uses one-way hashes, and publishing data is sent only when you choose to share
• Passwordless authentication: Connect from your WordPress admin, with no email or external account required
• Interaction points and shortcode ratings are community fun, not a competition
• Delete your account and all published entries at any time
• Special thanks to @naveenbachwani for the truly inspirational "Gallery links" request!

2.1.8

• Fullscreen support of mosaic. Many thanks @luisbenitez777 for sharing the idea.
• Warning added: Google truncates descriptions to 100 chars. Thanks @naveenbachwani for the detailed repro steps.

2.1.7

• Fixed info-wrap bug

2.1.6

• Fixed slider mode getting stuck on loading spinner (regression from 2.1.5)

2.1.5

• Reworked Guide page loading to reduce blocking and improve responsiveness
• Improved cache/help guidance on the settings page
• Big thanks to @naveenbachwani for detailed testing, UX observations, and support-thread feedback

2.1.4

• Screenshots added

2.1.3

• Add "How the cache works" section
• Improve Guide page loading experience

2.1.2

• Make caching description more clear and prominent

2.1.0

• Settings page moved to top-level admin menu with subpages for easier navigation and reference
• Google Photo description can be supported after all :-)
• Introduce a halo effect to improve text readability

2.0.11

• Swiper loop navigation

2.0.10

• Lighter loading for large sliders

2.0.9

• New fullscreen-display-max-width and fullscreen-display-max-height
• New info-wrap and info text alignment parameters
• New gallery-buttons-on-mobile behavior for touch devices
• Responsive layout improvements

2.0.8

• File name bug fix

2.0.7

• New dynamic photo info overlays
• EXIF placeholders with background loading
• Slider, carousel, gallery and fullscreen photo info
• All Settings page samples are editable by now, not only the Playground

2.0.6

• Touch devices: Controls appear on tap and fade out on inactivity

2.0.5

• Fullscreen vs inline controls
• Video download support
• Download UX & settings improvements

2.0.4

• New: Mosaic thumbnail strip (mosaic="true") for slider and carousel modes
• Mosaic feature inspired by Mateusz Starzak's fork
• Added fullscreen-background-color (default #000) to control fullscreen background separately
• Fixed gallery mode where show-download-button="true" did not render the download button
• Fixed slideshow option logic: use disabled, manual, or auto for slideshow and fullscreen-slideshow
• Fixed fullscreen-toggle="click" for video slides in gallery mode
• Improved iPhone pseudo-fullscreen behavior, including fullscreen arrow navigation
• Added restore-to-last-viewed position when closing fullscreen
• Thanks to Peter and Ulf for detailed bug reports and testing

2.0.3

• New parameter: "cache-refresh"
• Clear Cache button added

2.0.1

• Fixed album titles being truncated (dates and special characters are now preserved)

2.0.0

• Gallery mode support
• Experimental video support
• Shortcode parameters and their default values changed (Breaking. Apologies!)

1.0.6

• New animated logo

1.0.3

• Improved Settings page with more intuitive onboarding and richer, example-driven documentation
• Added Shortcode Playground on the Settings page to test and preview [jzsa-album] shortcodes without leaving admin

1.0.2

• Initial Settings page and onboarding content

1.0.1

• Release related improvements

1.0.0

• Initial release
• Modern Swiper 11 library integration
• Fullscreen mode with dedicated button
• Play/pause button in fullscreen with spacebar keyboard shortcut
• Download button with server-side proxy (optional, disabled by default)
• Zoom support (pinch on touch devices)
• Keyboard navigation (arrows to navigate, spacebar to play/pause in fullscreen)
• Lazy loading for optimal performance
• Progressive image loading with error recovery and placeholders
• Click-to-fullscreen option
• Random start position for galleries
• SSRF protection and proper escaping
• WordPress coding standards compliance
• 24-hour caching mechanism
• User-friendly error messages for invalid album URLs
• Responsive design with touch gestures