5 settings that make using Google Photos easier.

Google Photos has many great features, including Cinematic Photos, animations and AI enhancements, a pretty good photo editor, and a collage maker. But some features are actually quite annoying. Luckily, disabling many of these annoying features is fairly easy once you know where to look.

 

Hide unnecessary things.

Screenshots, GIFs, and memes

 

The Memories slider at the top of Google Photos is designed to show your best moments from years past. But sometimes, it displays a meme you saved years ago or a shipping confirmation screenshot. Not exactly the nostalgic trip Google intended.

The problem is that Google Photos backs up everything from your photo library, including screenshots, downloaded photos, and even GIFs you 've shared once and then forgotten about. All of these get mixed up with your actual photos. Luckily, if you have a Pixel device, Google has a Hide clutter filter that automatically separates these utility images from your personal photos, allowing you to access them but not see them.

To hide unnecessary content on your Pixel phone, go to Profile Preferences > Photos view and turn off Show content from other apps . If you want to hide unnecessary content from specific apps, tap Customize by app , select the app and how it's displayed on the same screen.

Turn off autoplay

Prevent videos and animations from playing in the grid.

 

When you scroll through the grid of photos, Google Photos automatically plays videos and animations. The purpose is to give you a quick preview without opening each file. In reality, it's distracting – your eyes will be drawn to the movement while you're trying to find a specific photo.

Autoplay also uses mobile data if your videos are stored in the cloud, which can increase costs if you have a large library. To turn it off, go to Photos settings > Preferences > Photo grid playback . Here, you can turn off video and photo playback separately, so if one type is bothersome, you can keep the other. After making this change, scrolling through your library feels calmer, and you can focus on finding what you're looking for.

Block people from Memories

Hide the faces and dates you want to forget.

Memories in Google Photos don't always know which memories are welcome. After a breakup or the death of a loved one, the last thing you want is for Google to randomly display their photos. The same applies to specific dates—perhaps an anniversary you don't want to remember, or photos from a difficult period in your life.

Google Photos lets you completely hide specific people and dates from your Memories. Go to Photos settings > Preferences > Memories > Hide people & pets . You'll see a grid of faces that Google has identified in your photos. Tap any face to hide that person from future Memories. That person won't disappear from your library, but will simply stop appearing in the auto-show carousel.

For dates, go back to the Memories menu and tap Hide dates . You can add specific dates or even a range of dates. If there's a week or month you don't want to see again, you can block the entire period. Use this feature to hide a few days, and it makes browsing Memories less tedious.

 

Turn off promotional information.

Turn off print service notifications.

Google Photos has an integrated printing service for photobooks, individual photo prints, and other products. This feature of Google Photos is ideal for preserving memories if you really want a physical copy. But otherwise, the constant promotional notifications can be annoying.

These notifications appear as discount offers and limited-time promotions, even if you've never expressed interest in printing. To turn them off, go to Photos settings > Notifications . Under printing, turn off Printing promotions , Printing drafts, and Prints for you. This will disable all three types of print-related alerts. If you've already turned off Google Photos notifications at the system level, you might not see this section, so you're already covered.

Share without Quick Edit

Eliminate an unnecessary step before sharing.

 

Google recently added Quick Edit, a lightweight editing screen that appears every time you tap Share on a photo. It lets you crop or apply Enhanced filters before sending the image. Sounds useful until you actually use it.

The author tried the Enhanced option on several photos—concert shots, food photos, and a few cat photos—but it made them all worse. The filter increased brightness and vibrancy excessively, creating results that looked more processed than improved. The regular Enhance button in the full editor is already quite powerful; this one is even more so. And since editing in Google Photos is already simple—just open the photo and tap Edit— Quick Edit saves you one step but offers far fewer options.

However, what's really annoying is that "Quick Edit" pops up every time you share a photo, even if you don't want to make any edits. It adds an unnecessary step to what should be a quick process. To turn it off, open any photo, tap Share , then click the gear icon in the upper right corner and select Turn off . If you change your mind later, you can turn it back on in Photos settings > Sharing > Quick Edit before sharing.