Search by people, things & places in your photos

Search your photos for anything. For example, you can search for:

• A wedding you attended last summer
• Your best friend
• A pet
• Your favorite city

Important: Some features are not available in all countries, all domains, or all account types.

Before you get started

Download and install the Google Photos app.

Search your photos

1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Photos app .
2. Sign in to your Google Account.
3. At the bottom, tap Search.
   • To search by text:
     • Tap the box at the top, and enter what you want to find, for example:
     • New York City
     • A name or nickname, if you've labeled people or pets
   • To search using suggestions:
     • You can explore categories of:
       • People & Pets: all of the photos & videos of your close ties
       • Places: the map lets you explore your photos in physical space
       • Things: objects and concepts we've detected in your photos
     • You can also scroll to the bottom for more utilitarian search, like:
       • Screenshots, Selfies, and Videos

Find photos of a person or pet & add a name

To more easily search and manage your photos, you can apply a label to people or pets that appear in photos grouped by Google Photos.

Important: This feature is not available in all countries, all domains, or all account types.

Step 1: Find photos of a person or pet

1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Photos app .
2. Sign in to your Google Account.
3. At the bottom, tap Search.
4. You'll see a row of faces. To see photos of them, tap a face.
   • To see more faces, tap View all.

If you don't see a row of faces:

• The feature is not available in your country.
• You turned face grouping off in settings. Learn how to turn on face grouping.
• No face groups have been created.

Step 2: Apply a label

1. At the top of a face group, tap Add a name.
2. Enter a name or nickname.

You'll be able to search with that label using the search box. Only you can see the private face labels you choose, even if you share those photos.

Turn face grouping off or on

Google Photos: How face groups work

To turn it off or on:

1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Photos app .
2. Sign in to your Google Account.
3. At the top right, tap your account profile photo or initial.
4. Tap Photos settings Group similar faces.
5. Turn Face grouping off or on.
   • To turn off face grouping only for photos of pets, turn off Show pets with people.

You can stop grouping photos based on faces that appear in your photos.

If you turn off face grouping, you delete:

• Face groups in your account
• Face models used to create those face groups
• Face labels you created

Learn about Google Photos' face grouping retention policy.

Advanced tips

Combine face groups

If the same person is in more than one grouping, you can merge them.

1. Label one of the face groups with a name or nickname.
2. Label the other face group with the same name or nickname, choosing from the suggestions.
3. When you confirm the second name or nickname, Google Photos will ask if you want to merge the face groups.

You may also get a suggestion to merge two face groups. If they are the same person, tap Yes.

Change or remove a label

You can edit or remove your face group labels.

• To change a label: Tap People folder More   Edit name label.
• To remove a label: Tap People folder More   Remove name label.

Remove a face group from the search page

If you don't want to see a certain face group on your search page, you can remove it.

1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Photos app .
2. Sign in to your Google Account.
3. At the bottom, tap Search.
4. Next to the row of faces, tap View all.
5. At the top right, tap More   Hide & show faces.
6. Tap the faces you want to hide. To show a face, tap the box again.
7. At the top right, tap Done.

Remove an item from a group

If you see a photo that's in the wrong group, you can take it out.

1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Photos app .
2. Sign in to your Google account.
3. At the bottom, tap Search.
4. Select the face group that you want to remove something from.
5. Tap More   Remove results.
6. Select the photos or videos you want to remove from the group.
7. At the top right, tap Remove.

Tip: If you remove an item from a group, it will not delete the photo or video from your Google Photos library.

Change a feature photo

1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Photos app .
2. Sign in to your Google account.
3. At the bottom, tap Search.
4. Tap a face group.
5. At the top right, tap More   Change feature photo.
6. Select a photo to make it the featured photo.

Learn about face models

Face grouping occurs in 3 steps:

1. We detect whether any photo has a face in it.
2. If the face grouping feature is on, algorithms are used to create face models that numerically represent the images of faces, predict the similarity of different images of faces and estimate whether different images represent the same face.
3. Photos with very similar faces that are likely to be of the same person are grouped together in a face group. You can always remove a photo from a face group if you think it's in the wrong group.

You can also add a name or nickname label to any face group.

When face grouping is on, Google Photos may also include photos in a particular group based on other characteristics. This includes photos being taken close together in time and detecting that a person is wearing the same clothing across photos when a face is not visible.

Face groups, face labels & sharing

• By default, face groups and labels in your account are only visible to you.
• Face groups are not shared when you share photos.
• Face labels are private to each account and not shared across accounts.
• You can choose to label a face group as "Me". This will help your contacts’ Google Photos apps recognize your face in photos, and get suggestions to share photos of you with you. Learn how to label your face group.

When face grouping is on, you let us know that you want us to make models of the faces appearing in your photos. These models may be considered biometric data in some jurisdictions.

To delete your face models, turn off Face grouping. We will store and use your face models, face groups, and face labels until you either delete them or your Google Photos account is inactive for more than two years. Learn about Google Photos’ face grouping retention policy.

Remove, add, or change people & pet labels to your photos

If Google Photos misses or incorrectly groups a photo, you can change, remove, or add a photo to a face group.

This feature isn’t available in all countries.

Change which face group a photo belongs to

You can add, remove, or change a face label when Google Photos labels the wrong person or pet.

1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Photos app .
2. Select a photo  tap More . 
3. Scroll to “People” and tap Edit .
4. Remove, add, or change a label:
   • To remove a label: On the face label, tap Remove .
   • To add a label: Under “Available to add,” tap Add  on the face label. Then, in the photo, tap a label to add, or select Add  to create a new label. 
   • To change a label:
     1. On the face label, tap Remove .
     2. Under “Available to add,” on the face label, tap Add .
     3. Select a face label to add. 
5. Tap Done.

Related page

Can't find your photos? Get help finding photos.