Google is getting ready to unveil Google Photos, it's claimed.

The latest rumour comes from Bloomberg, which has said Google wants to split the Photos feature from Google+ and make it into a standalone storage and photo-sharing service, but this isn't the first time we've heard about such a move.

Sundar Pichai, a senior vice president at Google, told Forbes, for instance, that Google views Hangouts, Photos, and the Google+ stream as three important areas and is therefore working on the "next generation" ideas for them.

It now appears one of those ideas is a new photo tool that will let you post images to Facebook and Twitter. Google wants to launch a new web product while also compete with rivals, so it might debut the Google Photos tool soon.

Many rumours have also claimed Google was exploring ways to attract photo-savvy consumers who don't use or engage on Google+, so it's basically long considered repackaging Google+ Photos for non-Google+ users as a separate product.

In other words: it looks like Google has spent too much time trying to encourage Google+ usage and growth, and now it wants to focus on making some of the social network's features more prominent and independent.

It's thought that we can expect to see Google Photos (which is just the tool's rumoured name) for the first time later this month, when Google kicks off its annual developer conference known as Google I/O, but that's not confirmed as of yet.

It's also not yet clear if Google will slowly phase out the Google+ social network at the same time, or if it simply wants to place an emphasis on the social network's standout features.