Google Photo Stacks Are Now Available on Android

Google has been testing a new feature in its Photos app that uses AI to stack similar images. The new feature, called 'Photo Stacks,' was only available to a few iOS users, but it appears that the tech behemoth is now spreading it out to Android users as well. The new AI-powered function helps decrease clutter and organise your photo collection by automatically arranging them into stacks and creating a little album. Using AI, it attempts to identify the best shot and places it at the top of the stack, although users can alter the image that displays as the stack cover or disable the feature altogether.

What are Photo Stacks?

Navigating your Google Photos library might feel like a daunting task when faced with numerous photos of your dog enjoying a game of fetch, mouthwatering dinners, or captivating sunsets. Enter Photo Stacks, a helpful feature that automatically organizes these visually similar photos into tidy, space-efficient stacks.

How does it work?

• Google's AI analyses your photos based on composition, colour, and lighting.
• Similar images taken within a short time frame are grouped.
• Only one representative photo deemed the "top pick," is displayed initially.
• Tap on a stack to reveal all the hidden photos, giving you quick access to your entire collection.

If your account is qualified for Photo Stacks, enabling it will appear automatically when you run the Google Photos app. If you cannot allow it or do not choose to enable it by default, the toggle may be located in the app settings, which are reached by touching the profile picture icon in the top right corner of the screen. While users can make stacks of up to 100 photos, only images stored on Google's cloud servers can be used. Also, you may need to enable Google Photos backup on your account to be eligible for Photo Stacks.

Another nice feature is that the Photos app will now organise screenshots and documents in individual albums. While Google has stated that Photo Stacks will be available to more Android users in the coming days, because the update is server-side, you may have to wait a few weeks or months for it to show on your device.