Image Search by Faces in Google Photos

With constant updates and the introduction of new features, Google Photos has come a long way from being just a gallery alternative. One of these features is the ability to recognize group faces on its own.

Face search is an amazing tool to find pictures of your loved ones in a few clicks. We will show you how to enable Grouping by Face in Google Photos on mobile and PC and how to search for pictures by face. So let’s get started.

How to Enable Face Grouping in Google Photos

To be able to search pictures by face, you must first enable Face Grouping in Google Photos. When enabled, Google Photos automatically recognizes and groups faces.

Read on to learn how to enable grouping by face on mobile and PC.

Enable Face Grouping in Google Photos on Mobile

Stage 1: Launch the Google Photos app on your phone. Click on your profile picture in the top right and select Photo settings.

Step 2: Now tap on ‘Group similar faces’ and turn on the switch next to Face grouping.

And that’s about it. Grouping by face is now enabled in your account.

Enable Grouping by Face in Google Photos on PC

Alternatively, you can enable grouping by face in Google Photos from the web version. Here’s how.

Stage 1: Open your preferred web browser and go to Google Photos. Now click on the Gear icon at the top to open Settings.

Step 2: Expand Group similar faces and turn on Face grouping from there.

Likewise, you can repeat the above steps on mobile or PC to turn Face Grouping off at any point. Disabling it deletes all face groups.

How to Search by Face in Google Photos?

After enabling Face Grouping, Google Photos will automatically group pictures of different people. From there, you can view photos of any person by touching their face.

Read on to learn how to search for images by faces in Google Photos on mobile and PC.

on mobile

Stage 1: Launch the Google Photos app on your phone and switch to the Search tab. Here, you will see a row of faces at the top. Click View all to see all faces.

Step 2: Now tap on any face you want to search from among the available faces and Google Photos will show you all the photos of that person. You can also tag the face here.

on PC

Similarly, you can use the web version of Google Photos to search for photos by face. Here’s how.

Stage 1: Open your preferred web browser and log into your Google Photos account.

Step 2: There, go to the Discover tab and under People you will find a series of faces. Click View all to see more faces.

Stage 3: Now click on any face and you will find all the photos of that person in your account.

That is all. Grouping by face in Google Photos makes searching for images unrelated to the platform you’re using a breeze.

How to Add a Face in Google Photos

For the most part, Google’s algorithm is great at finding and grouping faces on its own. It will miss a few oddballs, though. To fix this, Google Photos also allows you to manually tag such faces.

Here’s how you can do the same on mobile and PC.

on mobile

Stage 1: Launch the Google Photos app on your iPhone or Android device.

Step 2: Open the photo of the person whose face you want to add. Tap the three-dot menu icon in the top right.

Under People, you will find faces detected by Google Photos. You can also tap the Pen icon to add new faces to the photo.

Stage 3: Here you can remove detected faces by tapping the minus icon. Similarly, under Addable, you can use the ‘+’ icon to add a new face.

Then, to add a face, you can use the search tool to choose from existing faces or tap the ‘+’ icon to add a new face.

Step 4: Now tap the Face again to add a name. You can choose one of your contacts or enter a new name.

on PC

PC users can follow the steps below to add a face to Google Photos.

Stage 1: Open your web browser and go to Google Photos.

Step 2: Open the photo of the person whose face you want to add. Click on the info button at the top and click on ‘X faces that can be added’.

Stage 3: Now select a face you want to add.

Step 4: Then use the Search option to add an existing face or use the ‘+’ button to add a new face.

This way you can add faces and follow the same steps to remove faces using your computer.

How to Hide a Face in Google Photos

No matter how good Google’s face recognition is, not all faces detected by Google Photos will help. For example, Google Photos detects faces from photos of a statue, a poster, or even people in the background. Fortunately, you can hide unwanted faces from Google Photos on both mobile and PC. Read on to find out how.

on mobile

Stage 1: Launch the Google Photos app. On the Search tab, tap View all to see all the faces.

Step 2: Now long tap on the face you want to hide and click on the Hide button in the top right corner.

If you decide to show a face, click the three-dot menu icon and select Show and hide faces from the list. Tap the face you want to hide and tap Done.

on PC

If you prefer to use the web version to hide faces, here’s how it works.

Stage 1: Open the web browser and go to Google Photos. Switch to the Discover tab and click on Show and hide faces on the right.

Step 2: Then select the faces you want to hide and click Done.

You can also click on the hidden faces to hide them.

This much. The face is now hidden and you will no longer see the hidden face in your AI-generated memories, creations and search page.

Your Search Ends Here

Google Photos Face grouping is a really powerful tool. Calling people by their faces virtually eliminates the need to create separate albums for loved ones. And for those concerned about privacy, unlike Facebook, Google says it doesn’t share this information between accounts. You can also disable this feature at any time using the steps outlined above.