Android Authority Walkthrough Shows How to Strip Google Photos of Unsolicited Alerts and Auto-Creations

The review said the app is the most feature-rich gallery on Android but that its defaults go well beyond displaying photos, generating notifications and creations users did not request. The author described spending a few minutes in the settings menus to disable each item.

Memory and printing alerts are handled in one place. Under the profile icon, Photos settings and then Notifications, the report lists toggles for Time-based memories, Themed memories, Printing promotions, Print drafts and Prints for you. The review described the memory pings as arriving at random hours and the printing alerts as promotion dressed as notifications; the memories feature itself remains available inside the app.

Automatic creations are controlled separately, under Photos settings, Preferences and then Creations, where toggles cover Animations, Cinematics, Collages, Color pops and Stylised photos. According to the report, disabling them stops the app from assembling collages from random images or producing highlight videos, while the same tools can still be invoked manually from the Create tab.

The quick edit prompt appears every time a photo is shared and adds a step before sending, the review said. It is switched off under Photos settings, Sharing and the Quick edit before sharing toggle, and manual editing before sharing is unaffected.

Autoplay is addressed under Photos settings, Preferences and Photo grid playback, where Videos and Motion photos can be turned off so that only static thumbnails appear while scrolling. The review said videos playing in sequence could prevent a user from previewing the clip they wanted, and described the silent playback as distracting.

For the Ask Photos feature built on Gemini, the report pointed to Photos settings, Preferences and Gemini features in Photos, where the option labelled Allow us to access your queries can be disabled. The same menu offers View and manage your activity for reviewing and deleting Ask Photos history. The review said Google states that queries are not tied to user accounts and that the company takes steps to protect privacy, but that the author remained uneasy about the arrangement; turning the setting off does not remove access to Gemini features, according to the report.

The walkthrough also noted a toggle for hiding screenshots, GIFs and memes from the main Photos view, which the review said reduces clutter from images received in other apps.

Android Authority's account is a first-person review of the app's settings rather than a statement from Google, and the report did not include comment from the company on the individual toggles beyond its stated privacy position on Ask Photos queries.