Summary
- Google Photos is improving gallery management with an upcoming manual override for Photo Stacks.
- Currently, automatic grouping into stacks can be limiting, but manual control is in the works.
- Once released, users could stack similar images for better organization and visual decluttering in the app.
Google Photos is one of our favorite gallery apps on Android, with features that are both convenient and easy to understand if you’re a first-time user. However, as the images start piling up, the main home feed starts to resemble a wall of chronologically sorted images, which can be a pain to sift through. Borrowing a trick from professional cameras, Google Photos will soon give users manual override permissions for the Photo Stacks feature for better gallery management.
In its current state, Google Photos offers automatic photo grouping into Stacks if you shoot photos in burst mode and if you have Photo Stacks turned on in the app settings. The second feature was rolled out to users late in 2023, and when switched on, visually similar images are automatically grouped together. Otherwise, you’re forced to sit down and manually group images into albums or folders so they are easy to find in a hurry. With stacks, you can choose the cover or main image, called Top Pick, and access handy tools which help swiftly delete all the other images too.
However, the biggest demerit here is the feature’s automatic nature. Google forces you to trust the algorithm to group images correctly. However, the company realizes that automations falter, and is working on a manual override of sorts, that would let you create your own stacks.
Popular app researcher and tipster @AssembleDebug on X told Android Authority of a new line of code in Google Photos version 7.12 that suggests Google is working on manual grouping of images. However, the researcher couldn’t activate any visual components associated with this change that would tell us how it might work.
Better image management might be around the corner
Do it yourself
<string name=”photos_allphotos_menu_cleangrid_manual_grouping”>Stack Photos</string>
It’s worth noting that Photo Stacks only work if you have cloud backups to Google Drive switched on, because the company needs to analyze image content to identify the similarities. Once manual stacking rolls out, users should be able to bulk-select images in the main view and choose the option to stack them from the bottom sheet.
In groups like you might see on purpose-built cameras, similar images or photos with the same theme will take up less visual room in your Photos feed, freeing up space for other images without necessarily requiring album creation and other workarounds. This can be particularly handy for group photos, images of the same thing from multiple angles, or shots from a single location you visit.
That said, what we have today is just a code sighting. So, it is nearly impossible to tell when Google might release this feature to the public.
