Google Tests Much-Needed Google Photos Feature Upgrade

Google is testing a much-needed new feature that will help prevent Google Photos from showing you content you’d rather not see.

May 6 update below—This article was originally posted on May 3

According to a new report, Google Photos is preparing a new “show less” function that will let users hide specific faces from the platform’s automatically-generated “Memories” feature without untagging them from photos saved in the main photo library.

The new function provides a much-needed way of avoiding emotionally sensitive reminders of selected individuals while retaining the ability to search for them in your photo collection. A typical example would be when a loved one has recently passed away: You want to keep them tagged in your photos, but you don’t want to receive unexpected notifications containing videos and photos of them.

The feature, discovered by tipster AssembleDebug and revealed in a report by Android Authority, is not yet available to users, but the code already exists in the latest version of the Google Photos Android app.

According to the report, a new “Hide face from memories” menu item will appear in Google Photos when editing an individual from the “People and Pets” view. Tapping this will offer up two options: The first is the “Show less” feature detailed above, while the second, “Block face,” will additionally prevent that person from being tagged in photos with others.

Also likely to appear in a future Google Photos update is this new one-tap video enhancement feature, discovered by the same tipster.

May 6 update—New automatic folder backup option

Another potential new—and potentially risky—Google Photos feature, again uncovered by AssembleDebug for Android Authority, might soon allow Google Photos to automatically discover and back up any new folders detected on your device.

When backup is enabled, Google Photos automatically backs up images from your device’s camera folder and any additional folders you may have selected manually. However, this potential new feature appears to bypass the manual selection process and immediately start uploading the contents of any new folders to Google’s cloud servers.

Use With Care

This new feature would be helpful if you want to ensure that every single image on your device is backed up, but it could also cause significant problems. For example, the automatic backup process could send pictures and videos you’d prefer not to have stored and processed by Google. There’s also the potential for large folders to cause the backup to exceed your mobile data plan or Google One storage quota.

If Google decides to roll this feature out widely, it will be interesting to see whether its benefits outweigh these potential issues.

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