Of the six Android gallery apps compared on this site, three open photos stored outside the phone: Google Photos shows the photos backed up to your Google Account, A+ Gallery's listing names Dropbox, Facebook and Amazon Cloud Drive, and Piktures connects to Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Koofr, Yandex Disk, Nextcloud, any WebDAV server and SMB network drives. Fossify Gallery, Simple Gallery, F-Stop and Aves describe galleries for the phone's own storage and mention no cloud account. Facts checked on 15 October 2026 from each app's listing, help or README; tell us if an app changed.
Which Android gallery apps open photos stored in a cloud?
The table lists what each app's publisher says it connects to. "Not mentioned" means the app's listing, help pages or README name no such service: it is what the publisher documents, not a test of the app.
| App | Publisher | Clouds and servers it opens | Price | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Piktures | Diune | Google Drive (the files it uploaded), OneDrive, Dropbox, Koofr, Yandex Disk, Nextcloud, any WebDAV server over HTTPS, SMB network drives such as a NAS; a USB drive with a paid plan | Free with a few ads; No ads, Premium (one-time), Prime (monthly). First cloud or drive free, more with Premium or Prime | How to add a cloud |
| Google Photos | Google LLC | Its own storage: the photos backed up to your Google Account, 15 GB shared with Gmail and Drive. Other apps and galleries are sources to transfer photos from, with backup on | Free; more storage through Google One | Piktures vs Google Photos |
| A+ Gallery | AtomicAdd Team | Dropbox (view, sync, back up), Facebook (view, download albums), Amazon Cloud Drive (named in the listing; Amazon closed Amazon Drive in 2023) | Free with ads and in-app purchases | Piktures vs A+ Gallery |
| Fossify Gallery | Fossify | Not mentioned. "No ads, no unnecessary permissions" | Free, no ads, open source | Piktures vs Fossify Gallery |
| Simple Gallery Pro | Simple Mobile Tools | Not mentioned. "The lack of internet access gives you more privacy"; last updated on Google Play in October 2023 | Free, no ads, open source | Piktures vs Fossify Gallery |
| F-Stop Gallery | Seelye Engineering | Not mentioned | Free with ads and in-app purchases; a paid Pro key | Piktures vs F-Stop Gallery |
| Aves | Thibault Deckers | Not mentioned. Internet access for "Map view, reverse geocoding" only | Free, no ads, open source | Piktures vs Aves |
Which services does each app connect to?
| Service | Piktures | Google Photos | A+ Gallery | Fossify, Simple Gallery, F-Stop, Aves |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Drive | Yes, only the files Piktures uploaded itself | No: Google Photos has its own storage, separate from Drive files | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Google Account photo storage | No | Yes, with backup on | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| OneDrive | Yes | Not mentioned | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Dropbox | Yes | Not mentioned | Yes | Not mentioned |
| Koofr | Yes | Not mentioned | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Yandex Disk | Yes | Not mentioned | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Nextcloud | Yes | Not mentioned | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Any WebDAV server | Yes, over HTTPS | Not mentioned | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| NAS or computer, SMB | Yes, on the same Wi-Fi network | Not mentioned | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| No | Not mentioned | Yes | Not mentioned | |
| Amazon Cloud Drive | No | Not mentioned | Named in the listing | Not mentioned |
Piktures' row comes from its help center: How to add a cloud, Google Drive, Network drive (SMB), Webdav. The Google Drive cell for Google Photos rests on Google's own storage page, which lists Photos, Drive and Gmail as three products sharing one storage quota.
Does a gallery that shows cloud photos copy them to the phone?
It depends on the app's model, and the two models differ:
- Backup galleries copy the phone's photos to the publisher's cloud. Google Photos is one: with backup on, "any photos you take from a device with backup turned on are saved to your Google Account", and the listing promotes freeing the phone's space afterwards.
- Browsing galleries open the photos where they are. Piktures is one: it has no cloud of its own, shows a cloud's folders as albums, keeps thumbnails in its cache so albums open quickly, and copies a photo to the phone only when you ask. Phone photos go to a cloud only when you copy, move or back them up there yourself, and automatic backup, with Premium or Prime, goes to a cloud or NAS you chose, not to Piktures.
A+ Gallery's listing describes both: viewing Dropbox photos, and syncing or backing up albums to Dropbox.
How were these apps checked?
From each publisher's own words, on 15 October 2026: the Google Play listing, the help pages or the README, read on that day and quoted on the comparison page linked in the first table. No app was tested on a phone for this page. A service that the publisher does not document is marked "Not mentioned", never "No". When an app changes, its comparison page is re-checked and the month in its title moves.
Apps not compared on this site, such as the official OneDrive, Dropbox or Nextcloud apps, or self-hosted photo servers with their own Android apps, are not in the table: this is a comparison of gallery apps, not a ranking of everything that shows a cloud photo.
Questions
Which gallery app shows OneDrive or Nextcloud photos as albums?
Among the apps compared here, Piktures. See View OneDrive photos in an Android gallery app and A gallery app for Nextcloud and WebDAV photos on Android.
Which gallery app opens photos on a NAS?
Among the apps compared here, Piktures, over SMB on the same Wi-Fi network, or over WebDAV when the NAS offers it. See View the photos on a NAS or network drive from Android.
Does Google Photos show my Google Drive files?
Google's storage page describes Photos, Drive and Gmail as separate products sharing one storage quota, and its backup page describes the Photos app's content as the device's photos and the photos backed up to the account. Piktures, for its part, sees on Google Drive only the files it uploaded itself: see View Google Drive photos in an Android gallery app.
Is a cloud gallery free?
Each app in the table has a free version. Piktures' first cloud or drive is free; a second needs Premium or Prime. Google Photos' storage is free up to 15 GB. A+ Gallery is free with ads and in-app purchases.
Sources
All read on 15 October 2026. Each comparison page linked above lists its own sources in full.
- Google Photos: Back up photos & videos and About your Google Photos activity & storage, Google Photos Help; the Play listing.
- A+ Gallery: the Play listing, "Facebook/Dropbox/Amazon Cloud Drive".
- Fossify Gallery: the Play listing and the README.
- Simple Gallery Pro: the Play listing, updated 9 October 2023.
- F-Stop Gallery: the Play listing and the Pro key listing.
- Aves: the Play listing and the README, permissions table.