How to hide Google Photos memories?

Relationships end, friendships fall apart, pets and relatives leave, and we are not always willing to deal with remembering photos of all of them. Many people sometimes suffer – from emotion – when receiving a notification from the Google with old photos. In this tutorial, you will learn how to hide the memories of the Google Photos.

What is Google Photos?

O Google Photos is a free application of the company that serves for the storage of photos and images of a user. With it, it is possible share the map with your travel mates e save media anytime and without any effort.

But, without a doubt, the main advantage of the tool is the possibility of store photos through an artificial intelligence device able to organize and recommend media from smart suggestions. 

The problem is that this intelligence is (still) unaware of our relationships, often remembering those moments we lived with ex-boyfriends, ex-friends or trips that we would like to erase from our memory.

How does Google Photos organize image memories?

O Google Photos offers its users a variety of features that help in the process of organizing images, such as automatic grouping based on people, places and things – in turn, all separated with the help of the platform's artificial intelligence. 

However, to do so, the service will need a certain amount of photos uploaded by users to start the grouping process. The user will have to grant the necessary permissions on their mobile device and Google account. If your camera doesn't have access to your location, then these images won't have the necessary information embedded in them, and therefore Google Photos won't be able to sort them by location, for example.

One of the best-known features of Google Photos, in terms of organizing images, is the face recognition feature, allowing users to search for media for a specific person, without the need to manually tag photos, as with social media. The same also serves to identify images of pets.

Based on your location history, Google Photos also automatically groups media from each location you've visited. If your camera doesn't have access to your location, then these images won't have the necessary information embedded in them, and therefore Google Photos won't be able to sort them by location, for example.

How to hide Google Photos memories?

Since 2019, the memories feature in Google Photos started offering options to hide people and pets – in order to avoid not-so-pleasant memories for its users. In addition, the platform has also added a feature to hide specific dates from your cell phone.

To start the process of hiding notifications with the dreaded photos of the past, enter the Google Photos app on your phone — available for Android e iPhone (iOS). Then click on the profile icon located in the upper right corner.

Once clicked, a section will appear with several options. It is recommended to click on the “Google Photos Settings” option to hide your memories.

Then select the “Memories” option. There you have a menu with all the options related to hiding “sensitive” images for your memories.

Hide photo memories per person

You can choose to hide old photos of specific people and pets, as well as dates.

In the “People and pets” option, a grid will be presented with the images of the faces most easily detectable by the platform's artificial intelligence, which will segment the photos from faces. The same will also be done with pets.

Hide photo memories by date

In the “Hide by dates” option, you will manually put which dates should be hidden to prevent your cell phone from notifying you with memories of the past. Although this demo has been done in the iOS app, the same walkthrough will also be applicable for Android phones.

Choose which types of memories Google Photos will display

Also through the Google Photos manager, the user can choose the types of memories that they will be able to view above their image grid. When at least one type of memories is selected, the media carousel will be displayed above the grid.

To start the process of choosing which types of memories Google Photos will display, click on the profile icon located in the upper right corner.

Then select the “Memories” menu.

Then click on “Featured Memories” to customize the types of memories the platform can show you.

Finally, enable or disable the options regarding memories, whether based on specific dates or themes (which feature photos of people, places and varieties).

If you liked the post, have any tips or questions regarding the execution of the indicated procedures, leave a comment! 😀

See also other features

How to create an automatic family album in Google Photos in 4 steps

Sources: The Verge e Google Photos