Google Photos users now have access to Year-End Recap, a version similar to Spotify Wrapped but unique to the photo hosting site. Like all annual reviews, the Google Photos Recap lets you look back on the past year in photos, combining memorable highlights enhanced with graphics and other effects, photo stats, and more.
Users in the U.S. will also have access to new features powered by Google’s AI Gemini, which lets you showcase your hobbies and other notable highlights, the company said.
First introduced in 2024, Google Photos Recap aims to capitalize on the data-driven review trend popularized by services like Spotify Wrapped and time travel apps like Timehop over the past few decades.
However, this year’s Google Photos recap also serves as a testing ground for Gemini. The company unleashes AI on photo archives to surface more moments that users want to review. Google says the Gemini model can understand the context of a photo and pull out more detailed information. Specifically, the model was used to identify things like your “one true passion” and other top four highlights that “made your year” in the roundup.
Additionally, the roundup provides photo statistics for the year, including total number of photos, top people, and new this year, total number of selfies. With this feature, you can now also hide certain people or photos. After doing this, you can regenerate the updated version of the summary.
“Recap” photos and memories can be easily shared on social media etc. New integration with CapCut adds a button at the end of summaries to export to photo and video editing apps, and allows you to further customize summaries using other Google Photos templates.
There’s also a new carousel at the end of Recap with short videos, photos, and collages designed for sharing in group chats and social media. One of the options also allows you to share the summary directly to your WhatsApp status.
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If you don’t see a summary right away, you can request that Google Photos generate one using the option at the top of the app. Once you view your overview, it will remain in the app throughout December. To access it again during this time, you can find it at the back of the Memories Carousel or pinned to the Collections tab.
In addition to its annual review, Google Photos will release a series of 2025 highlights during December, the company said.
