Google Photos upcoming ‘Photos stacks’ feature to lump similar shots together, helping you declutter

Spotted by AssembleDebug on X/Twitter, Google apparently has a new feature termed “Photo Stack” in the works, and it could be the key to decluttering the massive collection of Google Photos you’ve accumulated over the years. At the very least, you could sift through them easier or assist you in eliminating shots that are similar or redundant.

Decluttering your digital memories

“Photo Stack” is in active development, and is being created to clump together the five to ten shots you took consecutively. You know you likely only want one or two and will pick a few and leave the rest to rot. When this releases, pictures that meet this criteria will be “stacked” on top of each other in the main home page feed of Google Photos. My guess is that tapping on them will allow you to thumb through them like a stack of polaroids, pick the ones you like and discard the rest.

In doing so, you’ll have less overwhelm, and Google will save some server space – at least, that’s how I think it will work. There’s no doubt that this is likely an extension of the recently added “Memories” tab that the company has invested so heavily into. I quite like it and it feels like a scrapbook wall of memories, which is what they were going for, of course.

Is this similar to Top Shot on Pixel?

This kind of reminds me of ‘Top Shot‘ – a feature Google advertised on previous Pixel devices. this takes it a step further and gives it to everyone instead of just those with the latest Pixel phone, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Google paywalled this feature behind a Google One subscription like it’s done for a handful of other tools in Photos.

More details about “Photo Stack”

According to Assemble, a few code strings are visible in his version of the Photos app (version 59) for Android that state things like “Photo stacks automatically groups similar photos that were taken together,” and “Turn on photo stacks to organize similar photos that were taken together.” If you don’t like it though, you’re in luck, because it does look as though it will be able to be toggled on or off in the settings.

“Change top pick or edit stack”
“Manage photo stacks anytime”

Additional code strings discovered by AssembleDebug

Our thoughts

With that being said, I’m personally fine with that as it does seem like a nicety and not a necessity, and a good one at that. Let me know in the comments if you think this would be interesting, or if you’d even use it to begin with. Until we actually see this in action, we’re only left to speculate, but I think I’m probably spot on with the functionality here.