Find & manage your featured Memories

You can use Google Photos to automatically organize your photos and videos into a timeline of meaningful moments. You can customize your memories and share them with others.

Find featured memories

  1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Photos app Photos.
  2. At the bottom, tap Photos.
  3. At the top, tap a featured memory.
    • To move to the next or previous photo: Tap on the right or left of the screen.
    • To skip to the next or previous memory: Swipe right or left on the screen
    • To pause on a photo: Touch and hold it.
  4. To exit a memory, at the top, tap Close .

Tips:

  • Featured memories are updated frequently.
  • You can find some of your featured memories as albums in the Memories view.
  • To turn off the music:
    1. Open a featured memory.
    2. At the bottom, tap Volume .
Add the Memories widget to your home screen
Important: This feature is available for iPhones and iPads with iOS 14 and up.
If you recently installed the Google Photos app, you’ll need to open it before the widget appears in the widget gallery.

Memories widget

  1. On your iPhone or iPad, touch and hold the home screen.
  2. At the top, tap Add Add.
  3. Enter “Google Photos” into the search bar.
  4. Tap the Google Photos app Photos and then Add Widget.
  5. Place the widget on your home screen.
  6. Tap Done.
Tip: To add a widget to multiple accounts, follow the on screen instructions on how to switch accounts. 

Edit your featured memories

Important: Any edits you make to a memory in the featured memories carousel will also apply to the album in your Memories view.

  1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Photos app Photos.
  2. In your featured memories carousel, tap a memory.
  3. At bottom, tap the album thumbnail.
  4. Tap More More and then Edit.
Edit a featured memory title

If you edit the title of any featured memory, the title changes in Memories view. To edit a memory’s title from your featured memories carousel:

  1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Photos app Photos.
  2. In your featured memories carousel, tap a memory.
  3. At the bottom, tap More More and then Edit album title.

Share a featured memory

  1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Photos app Photos.
  2. At the top, tap on a memory in your featured memories carousel.
  3. At the bottom, tap Share and then Share memory and then Share .
  4. Select people to share the featured memory with.
  5. Tap Send Send.

Tip: If you want to remove a photo or change the memory title before you share, click Edit.

Manage your featured memories

Important: Changes you make to these settings only apply to the featured memories carousel, not the Memories view. Learn how to edit your memories.

You can change your settings to control what appears in your featured memories carousel.

Turn off featured memories
  1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Photos app Photos.
  2. At the top, tap your account Profile photo or initial and then Google Photos settings Settings.
  3. Tap Preferences and then Memories and then Memory types.
  4. Turn off Time-based memories and Themed memories.
  5. Tap Creations.
  6. Turn off all types of creations:
    • Animations
    • Cinematic photos
    • Collages
    • Color Pops
    • Stylized photos

Tip:

Control which memories you receive 

You can choose the types of memories you find in the featured memories carousel. When you select at least one memory type, the featured memories carousel appears above the photo grid.

  1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Photos app Photos.
  2. At the top, tap your account Profile photo or initial and then Google Photos settings Settings.
  3. Tap Preferences and then Memories and then Featured memories.
  4. Select the types of memories you want to find.
Hide someone

Important: The “hide a face” settings apply to photos in the featured memories carousel.

  1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Photos app Photos.
  2. At the top, tap your account Profile photo or initial and then Google Photos settings.
  3. Tap Preferences and then Memories and then Hide faces.
  4. Under “Show less” or “Blocked,” tap Select faces.
    • Show less: You won’t get memories about them, but they may still appear in group photos included in memories.
    • Blocked: They won’t appear in memories, including group photos with others.
  5. Choose who you want to hide.
  6. Tap Done.
    • To show a face that was previously hidden, tap Remove Remove next to the face.

You can also hide a face when you’re viewing a memory:

  1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Photos app Photos.
  2. In your featured memories carousel, tap a memory.
  3. Swipe to a photo that contains the face you want to hide.
  4. At the bottom, tap More More.
  5. Next to the face you want to hide, tap More More and then Hide face from memories.
  6. Tap Show less or Block face.

Tip:

  • It may take some time for these changes to take effect.
  • Face hiding may not work perfectly in all photos.
  • If you can’t find faces, you can also hide a date.
Hide a date
Important: When you hide a date, you won't get photos taken on that date in the featured memories carousel.
  1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Photos app Photos.
  2. At the top, tap your account Profile photo or initial and then Google Photos settings Settings.
  3. Tap Preferences and then Memories and then Hide Dates.
  4. Add dates you want to hide.
    • To remove a hidden date, tap Remove Remove.

You can also hide a date when you’re viewing a memory:

  1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Photos app Photos.
  2. In your featured memories carousel, tap a memory.
  3. Tap More More and then Hide and then Hide this date from all memories.
Hide a photo or memory from your featured memories
  1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Photos app Photos.
  2. In your featured memories carousel, tap a memory.
  3. Tap More More and then Hide.
    • To hide a memory: Tap Remove this memory.
    • To hide a photo from a memory: Tap Remove this photo from this memory.
Tip: You can also hide a face or a data from appearing in the featured memories carousel:
  • To hide a date from all memories: Tap Hide this date from all memories.
  • To hide people and pets from all memories: Tap Hide people & pets.
Control whether your memories contain creations

You can select which types of creations you can find in your memories.

  1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Photos app Photos.
  2. At the top, tap your account Profile photo or initial and then Google Photos settings Settings.
  3. Tap Preferences and then Memories and then Featured memories.
  4. Tap Creations.
  5. Select which types of creations you want to find in your memories.
Manage your memories notifications

You control what notifications to receive when there is a new memory, or a new creation available.

  1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Photos app Photos.
  2. At the top, tap your account Profile photo or initial and then Google Photos settings Settings.
  3. Tap Preferences and then Memories and then Notifications.
  4. Under "Memories," choose your notification preferences:
    • Previous years: Receive notifications when new time-based memories are available.
    • Themed memories: Receive notifications when new themed memories are available.
    • Creations: Receive notifications when new creations are available.
Tip: If you don’t want to view featured memories at all, you can turn them off. Learn how to turn off featured memories.
Create a new featured memory

When you create a new album in Memories view, the album highlight can also appear in your featured memories carousel. Learn how to edit your memories.

Change date & timestamps

When you take photos on a different device, the date displayed in Google Photos may be incorrect. If your featured memories display the wrong date, you can change the date and timestamps on the photos.

Important: When you change the date and time of your photo, Google Photos displays the updated date and time. If you share the photo to other apps or download it, the photo may show the original date and time saved by your camera.

  1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Photos app Photos.
  2. At the top, tap on a memory in your featured memories carousel.
  3. At the bottom, tap More More and then View day.
  4. Tap a photo.
  5. At the top, tap More More.
  6. Tap the date & timestamp.
  7. Select a new date and time.
  8. Tap Done.

Tips:

  • Photos taken before 4 AM are sorted into the previous day.
  • You can only change the date and timestamps in the Google Photos app for backed up photos.

Learn about creations

Creations made for you may appear in Memories view and in your featured memories carousel.
Check if something was created for you
  1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Photos app Photos.
  2. At the bottom, tap Photos.
  3. Creations will arrive in your Memories carousel at the top.

Tip: If you back up photos that are good candidates for a Pop Out effect, Google Photos may generate it automatically for you. Learn more about creations.

Save creations

You can save creations that are made for you like highlight videos or animations.

To save creations from your featured memories carousel, at the bottom, select Save. You can find saved creations in your Photos view.

Find creations you saved
  1. On your iPhone or iPad, open Google Photos Photos.
    • In the Photos tab, your saved creations appear with other photos and videos.
  2. To search for the creations you saved, at the bottom, tap Search.
  3. Tap the search bar.
    • To find all saved creations: Enter "Creations."
    • To find a specific type of creation: Enter the name of the creation, such as "Animations" or "Highlight videos."
  4. Tap Search.
Make creations
You can make your own collage, animation, or highlight video from your photos and videos.

To make your own creation:

  1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Photos app Photos.
  2. At the top, tap Create Create.
  3. Find options to create an Animation, Collage, or Highlight video.

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