Google Photos May Give Users More Control Over Who They See and When

Google Photos seems to have a new feature in the pipeline that would allow users more control over the faces they see in their libraries.

While Google Photos already offers the “Block face” option, which lets users hide someone from their memories and even group photos, the change would leave a bit more wiggle room. With “Show less,” a user can instead reportedly block a face from appearing in their memories feed while still allowing them to show up in group photos.

The new “Show less” feature was spotted by Android Authority contributor “Assemble Debug,” who also provided screenshots.

It’s a handy feature that truly gets to the heart of the best technological updates, ones that identify how people live their lives. Being able to hide a face without simply deleting the image speaks to so many use cases, whether that’s a painful breakup, the death of a loved one, or that one person in a friend group you can’t stand but can’t get rid of. Being afforded more flexibility with the “Show less” update merely makes the existing setting more useful. It’s one thing to be surprised when scrolling through memories, but maybe users don’t want entire group photos lost or impacted because of a single person.

Both the “Block face” and “Show less” options will appear under Settings, where users can navigate to Preferences and then Memories, Android Authority reports. There, the option “Hide people & pets” will appear. This is very similar to how users can already search for the “Block face” feature currently, so it shouldn’t create too much confusion.

However, the new setting isn’t actually out yet. The tech outlet reports Google is in the middle of testing the feature within the Google Photos app and that “it may roll out in the future.” So not only is it unclear when the option would hit users, but it’s not certain whether it will fully launch to the Google Photos masses at all.

Still, even if the upgraded “Show less” option doesn’t come to Google Photos, users can still utilize the harsher “Block face” option. Take that, nostalgia.

Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.