Google Photos: Enable face detection

The Google Photos app offers a face detection feature that allows you to have the app automatically recognize and categorize the people in your pictures. However, this feature is not unlocked in Germany, so you need a VPN app first. After that, you enable face recognition.

How to enable face recognition in Google Photos

A face recognition feature is already integrated in the Google Photos app. With this, you can automatically recognize different people in a picture and then have the pictures sorted into different albums or categories. Face recognition is not activated in Germany and is only possible in the US. However, you can use a VPN app to bypass this lock.

1. Download a VPN app of your choice from the App Store and open it.
2. Activate the VPN for the US here.
3. Then open the Google Photos app.
4. Click on the three horizontal lines at the top there to get to the menu.
5. Within the menu, go to "Settings" and then click on "Group similar faces". In some cases, it may take a while before this option appears.
6. In addition, activate the "Back up & Sync" item in the settings.
7. Now you just need to activate the "Face grouping".
8. After that, the photos will be uploaded to the cloud and grouped.