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I have began investigating Google Photos now that they offer unlimited free storage.

I have uploaded a handful of photos from my iPhone using the Google App. Now when I try to view photos, either through iOS or Web, I do not see an option for tagging faces.

How do you tag faces using the web front end for Google Photos?

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  • Thanks, it looks like you can only tag people in Google Plus, in the same way as Facebook does.
    – rf_wilson
    Jun 1, 2015 at 13:36
  • Not true any more. Please see my answer.
    – ale
    Nov 11, 2015 at 17:54

4 Answers 4

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I don't know when it was added, but shortly after the functionality for naming groups of faces in Android and iOS it is now available on the web interface of Google Photos.

  1. Click into the "Search" box
  2. Find a group of faces you want to name. You may need to click "More" to see all of the groups

  3. Click "Who's this? Add a private label to search by name" and give the group a name. Face group name prompt

    You'll be prompted with names of people in your Contacts and possibly in your Google+ Circles, but you can put any text you want.

Now you can search for that person by the name you have given.

This is also how you can merge two face groups when a single person has been mistakenly identified as two different people.

More information from Google Support.

Do note: Facial recognition/grouping is not available in all countries.

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  • ok, but can't I simply select a photo, and tag a face on that photo? I should scroll in faces and have luck. Google could link to face groups in individual photos.
    – pihentagy
    Mar 16, 2017 at 11:07
  • @pihentagy: Nope, that's not how Google Photos works. If you open a photo with faces, it'll show who it thinks those face belong to in the information pane. If any are unnamed (or incorrectly named) you can fix it.
    – ale
    Mar 16, 2017 at 14:01
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You can do it, but depends on which country you are.

If in your country the solution is not available, then the solution of @Al E will not work. So, in order to work you will need a VPN.

I did it with my Android phone.

Steps:

  1. In settings, select Apps, then select Photos and click in "Clear Data". (Be sure you made backup on google photos already.)
  2. Install the VPN (In my case was TunnelBear, other options could be Hola)
  3. Select USA
  4. Open Google Photos (They make me login again.)
  5. Go Settings (In Google Photos) and enable Group similar faces

After that you don't need anymore the VPN

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It seems you can only tag people that have accounts on Google Plus, in a similar way to Facebook. I was expecting to be able to add text labels to faces, without linking to an account, in a similar way to Photos/iPhoto for OSX.

Thats a shame, as I am not looking for another Facebook!

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  • This answer is outdated, and no longer relevant. It should be removed.
    – Folk
    Aug 15, 2016 at 15:56
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It seems face recognition is not enabled for your Google Photos account. Follow the steps described in following site :- http://www.labnol.org/internet/facial-recognition-in-google-photos/28892/.

Hope it helps.

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  • 1
    The article you linked to specifically states that groups of photos with the same "faces" cannot yet be labelled/tagged by name, which is what the OP seems to be looking for. As an aside, I believe that the desktop version of Picasa has a facial recognition feature that does let you tag faces, but that is not a webapp.
    – SightSpirit
    Nov 9, 2015 at 18:45
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    @SightSpirit: Groups of faces can now be given a label in the web interface of Google Photos.
    – ale
    Nov 10, 2015 at 1:23
  • @Al E.: Good to know; it's about time!
    – SightSpirit
    Nov 10, 2015 at 1:56

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