The insider pro trick to find any photo on your phone in seconds

Technology April 24 2021

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Our phones are jam-packed with photos. Pick 25 at random, and I bet only a handful are decent photos you want to keep around.

Duplicates and the shot right before the good one make up a lot of that junk. Clearing it is easy with the right tools. Tap or click for simple ways to find and delete all your duplicates.

Then there’s editing. Most of us don’t have Photoshop skills or want to pay for it. Today’s free software can transform your quick snaps into works of art worthy of printing and hanging. Tap or click for some fantastic, totally free photo editing options.

But when you’re stuck trying to find one photo in a sea of thousands, what can you do? Turn to some of your phone’s built-in features.

Find that perfect sunset shot on your iPhone

Back in the day, sorting through photos was a pain. Not anymore. Facial recognition, scene and object detection, and artificial intelligence give you the power to narrow down what you're looking for and display only photos that match your search.

Open the Photos app and tap on the magnifying glass icon in the lower right-hand corner.
Enter the name of a place, a person (if you’ve assigned them in the Photos app), or search terms. Try a place like Phoenix, an event such as a wedding, or an object like pancakes.
You can also search by month or year, category, or business name.

I mentioned assigning a person in the Photos app. That’s easy too, and it makes finding pictures of your husband, a friend, or even your dog easy. Here’s how to set that up:

Find a photo of the person you want to add. Swipe up, and you'll see a thumbnail of that person under People.
Tap the image, then choose Add Name. Type in the name or choose it if it auto-fills.
Select Next, then Done.

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If you don't find what you're looking for, get creative. Try variations of what you're looking for, or try putting in multiple keywords to refine.

Finding a photo on an Android

Take the same steps in the Android photo app. Again, play around with different names, places, events, and things.

Open the Gallery app, then tap the magnifying glass icon near the top.
Enter your search term to display matches.

Search for an image in Google Photos

If you use Google Photos, you’re in luck. Its search features are as powerful as you’d guess.

Open the Google Photos app.
From here, you can choose a person or pet, see places or things, or even browse by category, like screenshots, selfies, and videos.
To look for something specific, type it in the search bar at the top of the page.
Results will pop up, probably before you even finish typing.

Google Photos has a lot of other nifty ways to see memorable photos. Try out the Spotlight, Recent highlights, and flashback features. Just open the app and click the cards at the top.

GET YOUR PRIVACY BACK: 5 ways to keep your online searches private

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