Never want to see a photo of your ex again? Google Photos can help with that

By Lulu Chang October 29, 2015

hide ex google photos googlephotos — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Taking the whole “out-of-sight, out-of-mind” ideal to heart, Google Photos is now allowing you to virtually burn all the photos of you and your ex-lover. Well, hide them, at least. In Google Photo’s latest Android v1.8 release, which began its initial roll-out on Wednesday, you can now “hide a person from appearing under People. This also prevents events with that person from appearing in ‘Rediscover this day’ cards in the Assistant.”

Thanks to Google’s improved facial recognition software, this new feature behaves essentially like TiVo in reverse — now, you can now teach Google Photos not to show you old photographs that bring up painful memories, which is something of a godsend in our hyperconnected 21st-century lives. And along with Facebook’s updates to its “On This Day” feature, technology is slowly but surely attempting to help you heal by not accidentally reopening old wounds.

Of course, should there be a chance for reconciliation with your ex in the near future, fret not — the latest Google Photos feature doesn’t require you to go through the arduous process of actually deleting old photos; rather it’ll simply refrain from showing them to you.

While the latest updates are currently only available to those using Android devices, Google promises that iOS and web updates are coming “very soon.”

Also included in the release is face grouping in an increased number of countries (Latin America, Canada, the Caribbean, Australia, and New Zealand), which will allow you to “see similar faces grouped together in Search, and privately label faces to quickly search for the person you’re looking for.” Parts of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa will also be privy to this feature. And just in time for Halloween, Google also promises “Spooky fast performance improvements and bug fixes,” because what better way to describe an upgrade than with the adjective “spooky?”

So get to snappin’ pics, friends. And if you ever feel like not seeing some of them again (the photos, I mean), Google can help with that.

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Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…

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