What you need to know
- Google Photos is rolling out a new setting today that uses your "activities" in Memories for better "personalization."
- The company states Photos will pay attention to the Memories you've viewed and skipped to customize your app experience.
- Users can disable this feature, and doing so will delete any data Photos had stored about your activity.
Google Photos is rolling out a new setting today (Feb. 28) that users can enable for more personalization based on their content.
Google has updated its Photos support page to include information on a new "activity data setting" (via 9to5Google). The company states if the setting is enabled, users "allow Google Photos to show you even more personalized memories." The page adds this is based on how users interact with Photos' various features.
The app will pay attention to the "types" of Memories you've recently looked at and whether or not you've skipped them.
Google states this setting is on by default, however, users can turn it off. If disabled, users can still access their stored content, minus any increased "personalization" Photos tried to provide. Android users can disable this in the app by tapping their Profile icon > Settings > Privacy > Activity data > Activity-based personalization.
Since the Photos app is using your stored photos and videos for its personalization feature, Google acknowledges users' security concerns. The company states if the feature is disabled, all of your data used for its activity-based personalization is deleted. Your photos and videos remained untouched.
While the update is rolling out today, it doesn't appear to be widespread. It would be worth giving Google time before your device picks it up.
Memories have been with Photos for years, and Google has continued to update it with additions such as last year's inclusion of AI. The new Memories view tab arrived late last summer and was placed between the "Photos" and "Library" tabs. The company stated the feature would leverage AI for automatic organization and curation. The update offered generative AI capabilities to help users think of album titles.
Recently, Photos gained an update that expanded its new Android 14 share menu to more Pixel phones beyond the Pixel 8 series. The new setup replaces the old one (which was quite slow), and the new view supports multiple images. This is nestled above several sharing options involving people or apps that users can look through.
