Notice to those who shoot everything that moves, Google Photos is launching Stack, a function that allows you to group together all similar photos. Perfect for putting some order in your gallery!
Like the vast majority of photo galleries on Android, the Google Photos app – the online photo library which automatically stores images taken with your smartphone in albums, which can then be shared with your loved ones – offers storage by date – in other words , your most recent photos are at the top of the feed. Therefore, if you want to find an image taken several years ago, you have to scroll for a while before getting your hands on it. Otherwise, you can create personalized folders, but not everyone necessarily has this reflex.
To make it easier to organize your photos, Google is currently deploying the Stack function, which allows you to group similar photos taken at the same time in the same folder so as not to pollute your feed. This is very practical if you tend to take the same photo ten times, with the aim of sorting it out “later” – so never! – and only keep the best results. Spotted in the Android app code last month, Stack begins its deployment in mid-November 2023 – a user on Reddit was asked to activate the option, after a recent update of its Pixel 8.
Stack: an optional function
This new function is very simple to use. After uploading your photos to the service, Google Photos automatically analyzes your photos in order to group together those that have similarities. For example, if you captured six images of your dog chasing his ball, the app will only display one of those photos in the timeline – usually it’s the one judged to be the ” best” by the algorithms. She is also entitled to a small icon for this image, indicating the presence and number of other similar photos “hidden” behind the one currently displayed.
To open the folder, simply press the small icon located at the top right of the featured image. You can then choose to ungroup the photos if you are not satisfied with the rearrangement of Google Photos, modify the image in one of the folder, or even keep only the best result and automatically delete all the other photos. You can of course deactivate the option from the Settings if you do not wish to modify the application’s display.
To find out if the function has already been deployed on your Google account, go to the application settings, then to Preferences, where you will see the option appear in the menu, alongside those allowing you to group similar faces together. or display Memories above the photo grid. If you are not yet eligible, don’t panic, Stack will appear soon.