Google Photos is one of our favorite gallery apps on Android because it packs several useful features into a simple UI which also matches the visual style of all other Google apps. Photos also give users the convenience of backups to Google Drive cloud storage, so the device storage isn’t always full of photos. Now, the company is rolling out a feature called Stacks to help you collate similar images together on Android devices.
The grid view in your device gallery can quickly descend into a cluttered mess if you snap many similar-looking photos in a short window of time. It happens all the time, like when clicking pet photos or snapping multiple group selfies to ensure nobody is caught mid-blink. The Pixel Camera app exclusive to Google’s Pixel range of devices has a feature called Top Shot which automatically snaps a burst of photos and highlights just the best, blink-free one in your gallery. However, it is Pixel-exclusive, and unavailable on other devices.
Stacks is very similar to Top Shot in that it groups visually similar images or photos taken in quick succession under a single thumbnail in the grid view on Google Photos. However, it launched on iOS in November 2023 after the first sighting in October when it was still under wraps. The wait for Android users ends now because the feature seems to be rolling out widely on devices with Google Photos installed (via 9to5Google).
To check if you have the feature or to enable it manually, just tap your Google profile picture in the top right corner of the Photos app, select Photos settings → Preferences → Stack similar photos. Here, switch on the toggle for Stack similar photos. Alternatively, Google Photos should display a full-screen prompt like the one below once the feature is available on your device.
Once activated, photo stacks will appear as a single thumbnail in the grid view, but just like with burst photos, you’ll see an icon in the upper right corner of the thumbnail indicating this is a photo stack. When you open a stack, all the images appear in a filmstrip of sorts, like the one you would see for images shot in a burst. The strip also has a 2×2 button on the left which shows all the images as a grid instead. Here, you also get the option of choosing your own top pick from the lot, deleting everything except the images you choose, or deleting the specific images you choose.
Google’s support documentation for the feature explains that you can share all the images in the stack by long-pressing the stack in the grid view, hitting Share, and then choosing Includes Photo stacks. If you choose Selected items only from the same menu, Photos will only share the top pick.
If the option is too cumbersome to use, you can turn it off in the settings, or just long-press a Photo stack and choose the Unstack photos option. That said, Google’s gradual rollout may take a few days before you can start using Photo stacks.
