Google Photos may make it easier to hide people from Memories

Google Photos – the media manager on Android devices – may be developing new functionality that will make hiding certain people from your photo library a lot easier, according to a report. The feature could let users select faces and hide them from the Memories tab without too much of a hassle. The discovery was reportedly spotted during an APK teardown of the app for the Android platform. Notably, the app was recently spotted testing another new feature that would let users share their weekly highlights.

Hide People in Google Photos

In a reportAndroid Authority’s C. Scott Brown, working with tipster Assemble Debug, revealed that Google is testing a new feature called Hide face from memories. It was reportedly discovered after an APK teardown of the Google Photos for Android app.

Option to hide faces in Google Photos
Photo credits: Android Authority/C. Scott Brown

As the name suggests, the feature is speculated to allow users to select specific faces and then hide images and videos containing those faces from the Memories tab. Alternatively, they can choose to hide the faces from their entire photo library on their Android smartphones. While this functionality was already present in previous versions of Google Photos, the reported feature that is still in development could make the process more streamlined.

The report suggests that users may be able to hide people from their Memories tab by navigating to a photo and then swiping up to reveal its metadata. They can then tap the three-dot menu that reportedly appears next to the face in the People section. Then, simply select the Hide face from memories option. Users can choose to see that particular face less often or hide it completely from their image gallery.

The report further suggests that there is no information on the timeline of the rollout. Features discovered during APK teardowns are usually for testing purposes only and it may take some time before the company rolls them out to the public version of the Google Photos app for Android smartphones. There is also a possibility that these features are just experimental and may not make it to the app at all.