Pixel Gallery Android

Comparison

Pixel Gallery vs Piktures

Verdict: Pick Piktures if you want cloud, NAS and USB photos in one gallery. Pick Pixel Gallery if you want face grouping and search by content on the phone, with no ads in the free version.

Piktures is a gallery for your phone, SD card, USB drives, clouds and NAS, with cleanup and editing. Pixel Gallery focuses on the phone, with on-device AI.

Last updated . Piktures website

Pixel Gallery vs Piktures at a glance

Pixel Gallery vs Piktures feature comparison, data as of November 8, 2026.
Capability Pixel Gallery Piktures
Photos stay on the phone Yes Pixel Gallery never uploads your photos or videos. Partly No Piktures cloud; Premium/Prime can auto-back up phone albums to your own clouds or network drives
Works without an account Yes Yes No Piktures account; plans are bought through Google Play
On-device smart search Yes SigLIP2 model, ~375 MB optional download. No Search covers file and folder names, places, dates, camera models and tags; no content search documented
Face grouping Yes Runs on the phone. No Not documented in the help center
Duplicate and similar cleanup Yes Yes Smart Cleanup on the phone; duplicates, similar and best-shot need Premium or Prime
Encrypted metadata database Yes Not documented
No ads Yes No Free Basic plan shows Google ads; any paid plan removes them
No subscription Yes Free, plus an optional one-time Premium purchase. Partly One-time No ads or Premium unlock, or an optional Prime monthly subscription with the same features.
Cloud backup No Pixel Gallery has no cloud. Backup is up to you. Yes Automatic backup to your own clouds or network drives with Premium or Prime
Open source No No Help center states Piktures is not open source
Cloud and NAS access (Drive, OneDrive, Nextcloud, SMB) No Yes First remote free, more with a paid plan.
USB drive access No Yes Paid plan.
Private space for hidden media Partly Blurs items behind a biometric lock; files are not encrypted. Partly Secret Space hides items; it is light protection, not encryption.
Photo and video editor Yes Yes
Collages Yes Grid collage with Premium. Yes
Sources (6)
  1. Piktures on Google Play, accessed
  2. Piktures official site and FAQ, accessed
  3. Piktures help: In-app purchases, accessed
  4. Piktures help: Our product principles, accessed
  5. Piktures help: Smart Cleanup, accessed
  6. Piktures help: Search and filters, accessed

For a phone-centric library, yes. Piktures is excellent at reaching photos wherever they are: SD cards, USB drives, Google Drive, OneDrive, Nextcloud, WebDAV and SMB. Pixel Gallery stays on the phone and goes deep: face grouping, semantic search and text recognition, computed on the device.

What does Piktures do better?

  • Every source in one place. Clouds, NAS and USB drives next to local photos.
  • Backup to your own storage. Automatic backup to your clouds or network drives with a paid plan.
  • A detailed help center. Clear, dated documentation and principles.
  • On-device AI. People, search by what a photo shows, captions on supported devices.
  • No ads in the free version. Analytics stay off until you consent.
  • Cleanup included. Piktures needs a paid plan for duplicate and similar cleanup.
  • An encrypted index. The metadata database is encrypted on the phone.

Who should pick which?

Pick Piktures if your photos are spread across clouds and drives. Pick Pixel Gallery if your library lives on the phone and you want it searchable by content and people.

How to switch from Piktures

Install Pixel Gallery and allow photo access. Items in Piktures Secret Space need to be moved out first to be indexed.

What makes Pixel Gallery different

  • On-device AI

    Faces, semantic search, text recognition and captions run on the phone. Gemini Nano captions on supported devices.

  • Never uploads your photos

    Pixel Gallery never uploads your photos or videos. No account, no cloud library.

  • Encrypted metadata database

    The index of faces, places, text and embeddings is encrypted on the device.

  • No ads, no subscription

    Free to use with no ads. Premium is a one-time purchase.

Beyond the table

19 more things Pixel Gallery does

The table sticks to where Pixel Gallery and Piktures differ most. This is the rest of the app, all on the phone. Features marked Premium are part of the one-time purchase.

On-device AI

Search & discover

Organize

Create & edit

Insights

Sharing

Experiences

Gallery basics

All features What's in Premium

Pixel Gallery vs Piktures: questions

Is Piktures free?

The Basic plan is free with ads. A one-time No ads or Premium purchase, or an optional Prime subscription, unlocks more. Pixel Gallery has no ads in its free version.

Does Piktures have face recognition?

Face grouping is not documented for Piktures. Pixel Gallery groups faces on the phone.

What is the best Android gallery with NAS support?

Piktures is strong there. Pixel Gallery does not open NAS or cloud folders; it focuses on photos stored on the phone.

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Free on Google Play

Requires Android 13 or newer. No account. Optional one-time Premium upgrade.

Get it on Google Play Details & requirements