In a world where storage feels cheap, our photo libraries can be filled with thousands of pictures from different eras in our lives — some good and some full of unpleasant memories. This is why it can be painful when certain faces appear in the Google Photos memory highlight.
According to a new code breakdown from Android Authority, Google appears set to help you recover from a bad memory by hiding certain faces in the Memories feature.
Google is working on tools to help hide people throughout the Photos app from appearing in the Memories feed or throughout the entire library.
Android Authority’s APK teardown points to a potential future update where Google makes hiding unwanted people from your photo feed much easier.
Currently, if you want to hide someone in Google Photos, you need to find an image in the library, open up the metadata for that photo and tap the undesired face in the People section. This creates a library for that person. Tapping the action menu in that library reveals the “Hide face from memories” option. Frequency can be adjusted from there.
You can also do this by going to Photos, followed by Preferences and Memories, and finally, hiding people and pets.
Both processes work but are cumbersome and can require a lot of jumping back and forth.
The new method found in the code involves opening a photo, tapping the metadata, hitting the action button and tapping “Hide face from memories.” From there, you can adjust the frequency.
It appears much cleaner and quicker, enabling bulk hiding from a single image. It also appears to allow editing of the face label and cover photo using the same method.
According to Android Authority, the feature looks “basically done.” However, that doesn’t mean it will get a release or come out soon. With Google launching the Pixel 9 series in a couple of weeks, perhaps we’ll see more about these photo changes then.