Google Photos unveils its ‘Spotify Wrapped’ style end-of-year recap. How to access it

As the holiday season approaches, many apps take users on a trip down memory lane with end-of-year recaps, and Google Photos is the latest tool to join in. As it’s so convenient to take photos on your smartphone, you likely took many pictures of this year’s big moments, and Google is packing these memories up for you to revisit. 

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On Friday, Google introduced the 2024 Recap experience, which includes a Recap memory highlighting memorable photos you took in the past year, presented with graphics and cinematic effects.  

As a leader in the AI race, Google’s experience had to have an AI component, with an opt-in option for US users to have their Recap memory include two personalized captions generated by Gemini detailing what it finds to be the two biggest moments of your year. 

The experience also features interesting insights about the photos you took throughout the year, such as the number of smiles, who you had your longest photo streak with, who you took the most pictures with, and even the top colors photographed during the year. 

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The 2024 Recap experience will only be available for Google Photos users with Face Groups turned on. However, this setting shouldn’t affect most users as it is automatically turned on, and you would have had to opt out of it manually. 

The 2024 Recap feature is now rolling out to the Google Photos app. If you have notifications turned on, you will be notified when it is ready to view. The Recap will be accessible from your Memories carousel all month. Once January rolls around, the Recap will move to your grid. Like most Google Photos-generated memories, you can easily share the Recap on social media or messaging platforms.