I have used Google Photos for years now, backing up decades of photos and videos to its servers. But with my ever-growing library, my desire to have more control over it increased. So, I installed a Google Photos alternative and painfully transferred all my photos, fully prepared to leave Google's service behind. A few weeks later, I realized Google Photos is so deeply integrated with Android that leaving it changed how I accessed my pictures. I thought I was replacing a backup service Immich stored all my photos, but Android could no longer see them I had a straightforward plan. I would replace Google Photos with Immich, host it on my NAS, and move my entire library there. That way, I would have complete control over my photos and videos, while ending my dependence on Google's servers. Initially, I was happy with the switch. I could easily access my library through the Immich app, and a recent update fixed many of the issues that bothered me. For the first few weeks, it seemed like I had successfully replaced Google Photos. Then, I tried uploading an old photo to another app. That's when I discovered the mistake I had made by leaving Google Photos. Android Photo Picker makes it easy to select and upload pictures inside supported apps. It provides a single unified view of all the photos and videos stored locally on your phone alongside the cloud. Google Photos was my primary photo backup service for years, so decades of memories appeared alongside recent snaps. I never had to remember whether an image was stored locally or only in the cloud. More importantly, the Photos integration provided more than access to my photos and videos. I could search my Google Photos library using people's faces and browse my existing albums.