Google Photos just introduced a year-in-review feature that’s a bit like Spotify Wrapped and PlayStation Wrap-Up, with a collection of your most memorable photos from the year, along with “fun graphics and cinematic effects.” I can’t wait to see the gorgeous photos of my cats.
In addition to random graphics and effects, the system will also generate captions to help mark two important events of the year for each user. These captions will be generated by Gemini, although users have to give their consent. Google provided us with examples of attending a wedding and traveling to Seoul.
The Summaries feature will even provide “insights” in the form of tidbits about a particular user’s photography habits. This could be anything from a user’s favorite color to the person they smile with the most. Google also promises that Recap will detail a user’s “2024 vibe”.
Just like competing year-in-review tools, people can easily share everything on social media platforms. There’s also an element of competition here, as each link will contain data on a particular user’s longest photo series. Nothing creates more bragging rights than saying “you only took 560 photos this year, while I took 570”.
This feature is already available to all users. Just look for the notification in Google Photos that the photo is ready for viewing. Recently, the app also added a tool to detect images that have been manipulated by artificial intelligence, as well as other tools for manipulating photos with AI.
