What you need to know
- Google Photos now shows faces directly in the Search tab, making it faster to find photos of people and pets.
- The update removes extra steps by skipping Collections and People & pets when searching for specific faces.
- Face Groups must be enabled for the feature to work.
Google is rolling out a new update for the Photos app on Android and iOS that makes it easier to find photos of important people in your life much faster.
Until now, searching for photos of a specific person in Google Photos required heading to the Collections tab, then People & pets, and tapping the person whose photos you wanted to view. While this workflow has worked, it can be time-consuming, especially if your library includes photos of many people. The new update aims to simplify this process.
Google says that when the Face Groups feature is enabled, you will now see a prominently displayed row of faces in the Search tab, including within the new Ask Photos search. Tapping a person’s face from Search will instantly take you to all photos of that person or pet.
Google Photos finally makes people search less annoying
By default, the feature surfaces faces that appear most frequently in your library. If you want to see photos of other people, you can tap the three-dot menu, which takes you to the People & pets page where all recognized faces are listed.
It is worth noting that this feature only works when Face Groups is enabled in Google Photos. Face Groups automatically clusters photos of the same individual into a single, accessible collection, making it easier to find all images where they appear. You can enable this by going to Settings > Privacy and turning on the Face Groups toggle.
The feature has already started rolling out. I was able to see it working on my Google Pixel 10 Pro running version 7.57.843 of the Photos app. If you do not see it yet, make sure the Photos app is updated via the Google Play Store.
