Access app-created media items

After making calls to list the contents of a photo library or album, instead of storing the returned media items, your application should store the IDs of the media items. This is because the content of the media items may change and after a certain time, the URLs included in the response expire. The media item ID uniquely identifies a media item, such as a photo or a video inside a user's library.

Required authorization scopes

Accessing app-created media items requires the photoslibrary.readonly.appcreateddata scope. For more information on scopes, see Authorization scopes.

Media items

A mediaItem is a representation of media such as a photo or a video that's been uploaded to the Google Photos library. It is a top-level object and its properties can differ based on the underlying media type.

The following table lists the mediaItem properties:

Properties
id A permanent, stable ID used to identify the object.
description Description of the media item as seen inside Google Photos.
baseUrl Used to access the raw bytes. For more information, see Base URLs.
productUrl

A link to the image inside Google Photos. This link can't be opened by the developer, only by the user. URLs point to a media item in the library. If the URL was retrieved from an album search, it points to the item within the album.

mimeType The type of the media item to help easily identify the type of media (for example: image/jpg).
filename The filename of the media item shown to the user in the Google Photos app (within the item's info section).
mediaMetadata Varies depending on the underlying type of the media, such as, photo or video. To reduce the payload, field masks can be used.

Get a media item

To retrieve a media item, call mediaItems.get using the mediaItemId. The request returns a single media item.

The mediaItem contains properties, such as the ID, description, and URL. The additional information within photo or video is based on the metadata within the file. Not all properties may be present.

If the media item is a video, the video file must be processed first. The mediaItem contains a status field inside mediaMetadata which describes the processing state of the video file. A newly uploaded file returns the videoProcessingStatus with the value PROCESSING first, before it is READY for use. The baseUrl of a video media item isn't available until the video has been processed.

REST

Here is a GET request:

GET https://photoslibrary.googleapis.com/v1/mediaItems/media-item-id
Content-type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer oauth2-token

The response for a photo media item looks like this. The photo property contains metadata for photo items.

{
  "id": "media-item-id",
  "description": "item-description",
  "productUrl": "url-to-open-in-google-photos",
  "baseUrl": "base-url_do-not-use-directly",
  "mimeType": "mime-type-of-media",
  "filename": "item-filename",
  "mediaMetadata": {
    "width": "media-item-width",
    "height": "media-item-height",
    "creationTime": "media-item-creation-time",
    "photo": {
       "cameraMake": "make-of-the-camera",
       "cameraModel": "model-of-the-camera",
       "focalLength": "focal-length-of-the-camera-lens",
       "apertureFNumber": "aperture-f-number-of-the-camera-lens",
       "isoEquivalent": "iso-of-the-camera",
       "exposureTime": "exposure-time-of-the-camera-aperture"
    }
  },
  "contributorInfo": {
    "profilePictureBaseUrl": "profile-picture-base-url_do-not-use-directly",
    "displayName": "name-of-user"
  }
}

The response for a video media item looks like this. The video property contains metadata for video items.

{
  "id": "media-item-id",
  "description": "item-description",
  "productUrl": "url-to-open-in-google-photos",
  "baseUrl": "base-url_do-not-use-directly",
  "mimeType": "mime-type-of-media",
  "filename": "item-filename",
  "mediaMetadata": {
    "width": "media-item-width",
    "height": "media-item-height",
    "creationTime": "media-item-creation-time",
    "video": {
     "cameraMake": "make-of-the-camera",
     "cameraModel": "model-of-the-camera",
     "fps": "frame-rate-of-the-video",
     "status": "READY"
    },
  },
  "contributorInfo": {
    "profilePictureBaseUrl": "profile-picture-base-url_do-not-use-directly",
    "displayName": "name-of-user"
  }
}

Get multiple media items

To retrieve multiple media items by their identifiers, call mediaItems.batchGet using the mediaItemIds.

The request returns a list of MediaItemResults in the order of the media items identifiers supplied in the request. Each result contains a MediaItem or a Status if there was an error.

The maximum number of media items you can request in one call is 50. The list of media items must not contain duplicate identifiers and cannot be empty.

REST

Here is a GET request that shows successful and unsuccessful access of media items. Specify each media item identifier as a new mediaItemIds query parameter as part of the request:

GET https://photoslibrary.googleapis.com/v1/mediaItems:batchGet?mediaItemIds=media-item-id&mediaItemIds=another-media-item-id&mediaItemIds=incorrect-media-item-id
Content-type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer oauth2-token

The GET request returns the following response:

{
  "mediaItemResults": [
    {
      "mediaItem": {
        "id": "media-item-id",
        ...
      }
    },
    {
      "mediaItem": {
        "id": "another-media-item-id",
        ...
      }
    },
    {
      "status": {
        "code": 3,
        "message": "Invalid media item ID."
      }
    }
  ]
}

Base URLs

Base URLs in the Google Photos APIs provide access to the raw bytes of media items, enabling your app to download or display them. These URLs are included in responses when listing albums (Library API) or accessing media items (both Library and Picker APIs). Remember, base URLs require additional parameters to function correctly.

For the Picker API:

All PickedMediaItem.mediaFile objects include a baseUrl.

Base URLs remain active for 60 minutes, but can expire sooner if the user revokes your app's permissions through their Google Account settings.

For the Library API:

Base URLs remain active for 60 minutes.

The various base URLs are:

  • baseUrl: Directly access photo, thumbnail for a video or download video bytes.
  • coverPhotoBaseUrl: Directly access the cover photo for the album.
  • profilePictureBaseUrl: Directly access the profile photo of the owner of a mediaItem.

Image base URLs

Here is the list of options you can use with the image base URLs:

Parameter
w, h

Description

The width, w and height, h parameters.

To access an image media item, such as a photo or a thumbnail for a video, you must specify the dimensions that you plan to display in your application (so that the image can be scaled into these dimensions while preserving the aspect ratio). To do this, concatenate the base URL with your required dimensions as shown in the examples.

Examples:

base-url=wmax-width-hmax-height

Here is an example to display a media item no wider than 2048 px and no taller than 1024 px:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/p/AF....VnnY=w2048-h1024
c

Description

The crop, c parameter.

If you want to crop the image to the exact width and height dimensions you have specified, concatenate the base URL with the optional -c parameter along with the mandatory w and h parameters.

The size (in pixels) should be in the range [1, 16383]. If either the width or the height of the image, exceeds the requested size, the image is scaled down and cropped (maintaining the aspect ratio).

Examples:

base-url=wmax-width-hmax-height-c

In this example, the application displays a media item that is exactly 256 px wide by 256 px high, such as a thumbnail:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/p/AF....VnnY=w256-h256-c
d

Description

The download, d parameter.

If you want to download the image retaining all the Exif metadata except the location metadata, concatenate the base URL with the d parameter.

Examples:

base-url=d

In this example, the application downloads an image with all metadata except the location metadata:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/p/Az....XabC=d

Video base URLs

Here is the list of options you can use with the video base URLs:

Parameter
dv

Description

To access the bytes of a video mediaItem, concatenate the baseUrl with the download video, dv parameter.

The dv parameter requests a high quality, transcoded version of the original video. The parameter is not compatible with the w and h parameters.

Base URLs for video downloads can take up to a few seconds to return bytes.

Before using this parameter, check that the media items's mediaMetadata.status field is READY. Otherwise, if your media item has not finished processing you may receive an error.

Examples:

base-url=dv

The following example shows you how to download the bytes of a video:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/p/AF....BsdZ=dv
w, h, c, and d

Description

To access the thumbnail of the video use any of the image base URL parameters.

By default, all video thumbnails include an overlay of a playback button. See the -no parameter to remove this overlay.

Examples:

Refer to the image base URLs table for examples.
no

Description

The remove thumbnail overlay, no parameter.

If you want to retrieve the thumbnail of a video without the overlay of a playback button, concatenate the base URL with the no parameter.

The no parameter must be used with at least one of the image base URL parameters.

Examples:

base-url=wmax-width-hmax-height-no

The following example displays a video thumbnail that is exactly 1280 px wide by 720 px high and does not include a playback button overlay:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/p/AF....VnnY=w1280-h720-no

Motion photo base URLs

Motion photos contain both photo and video elements. You can use parameters from either image base URLs or video base URLs for motion photo baseUrl requests.

Parameter
dv

Description

To retrieve the video element of a motion photo media item, use the dv parameter as you would to download from video base URLs.
w, h, c, and d

Description

To retrieve the photo element of a motion photo media item, use the format for image base URLs.