Face Detection in Google Photos App Now Recognizes Cats and Dogs by Name

Google updated its Photos app on Monday with a new facial recognition feature that lets users organize pictures of their family pets more easily.

Since it was launched, Google Photos has employed facial recognition to identify humans and help users sort their snaps by friend or family member, similar to how Faces works in Apple Photos.

The latest version of Google's own photos app builds on its face detection feature by recognizing cats and dogs by name, so users no longer need to type in "cat" or "dog" into the search field to bring up the relevant pictures.

Going forward, simply labeling a photo of a furry friend will cause any other photos of the cat or dog to be grouped under that name, just like they do for people.

In addition to the pet grouping feature, Google says users can also now "search by breed to see photos of your Poodle or Maine Coon", or even search using a single cat or dog emoji.

The new pet detection naturally feeds into the app's automated movie generator, found in the Assistant view, and users can create their own short films by tapping on the new photo group of their pet, selecting their favorite pictures, and tapping the "+" symbol.

Google has also included six "pet-inspired songs" to choose from in the movie editor to be twinned with four-legged family collections.

Google Photos is a free download for iPhone and iPad available on the App Store. [Direct Link]