Explorer for Google Photos ยท Apple TV

This app has been retired

Explorer for Google Photos no longer works, and it will not be coming back. Thank you to everyone who used it to bring their photos to the big screen since 2018.

What happened

The app worked by asking Google for permission to view your Google Photos library, so it could show your albums and pictures on your TV.

On 31 March 2025, Google withdrew that permission from all third-party apps. Since then, apps can only see photos they uploaded themselves, which for a viewer like this one means nothing at all. Google's replacement asks you to pick photos one at a time on a phone or computer, which does not work for browsing your library from a TV remote.

There is no way to fix the app within Google's new rules, so it has been withdrawn from the App Store and the sign-in service has been switched off.

What you can do now

  1. Delete the app from your Apple TV. Highlight it on the Home Screen, press and hold the touch surface or clickpad, then choose Delete.
  2. Remove its access from your Google account. It can no longer reach your photos, but tidying up is good practice. Look for "Explorer for Google Photos" and choose Remove access.
    Manage connected apps
  3. To keep watching your photos on TV, open the Google Photos app on an iPhone or iPad and use Screen Mirroring from Control Center to show it on your Apple TV.

Your photos and your data

Your photos are untouched. The app only ever had read-only access, and it never copied or stored your pictures on its servers.

If you signed in recently and the app showed no photos, that was not a problem with your account. Every sign-in since April 2025 has run into the same Google change.