How to Hide Old Photos of an Ex on Your Android

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If you've broken up with your partner, you may find yourself wishing that your phone wouldn't keep reminding you they exist. Photo galleries in most modern phones automatically create all kinds of interesting collages and slideshows, which is great when the memories in question are happy, but can be triggering after a painful breakup. I've written before about getting rid of your ex's photos from your iPhone, and this guide will help people who use Android phones do the same.

It should be noted that various Android phone manufacturers use their own versions of the photo gallery app. The steps to hide or remove your ex's photos from those apps may vary, so I'm focusing on an app included on most Android phones sold in the U.S.—Google Photos. It's the preferred photo backup service for most people who use Android. Unfortunately it doesn't allow you to automatically delete all photos of any one person, but it has some neat workarounds that let you hide your ex's photos quickly.

Hide a specific person from Google Photos

To hide all photos of someone from your camera reel, open Google Photos and tap the profile icon in the top right corner. Go to Photos settings > Preferences > Memories > Hide people and pets. This will reveal a grid of all the different people and pets identified in your photos. Select all the people (or pets) you want to hide, and you will no longer see their images in memories or other highlights created by Google Photos.

Hide photos taken on a specific date from Google Photos

Google Photos also creates memories based on specific dates in a calendar year. This can lead to suggestions you watch slideshows of your anniversary with an ex-partner, birthday parties, or other moments that were significant in your life. You can stop Google Photos from creating these memories too. Go to Profile icon > Photos settings > Preferences > Memories > Hide dates. Add the dates you want to exclude and Google Photos will leave out any photos from those days when it creates memories.

Archive all photos of a specific person

If you're sure you don't want to view any pictures of your ex, but don't want to delete those photos outright, use Google Photos' Archive feature. This will move those photos to a separate folder and prevent them from being added into any new memories the service creates. To do this, open Google Photos and press and hold any image of your ex. Keep scrolling and selecting all the photos you don't want to see, until you've found them all. When you're done, swipe right on the bottom toolbar and select Archive.

Delete your ex's photos altogether

This is the nuclear option, but in Google Photos, it requires a lot more manual work than in Photos on iPhone. You'll need to select all pictures of your ex manually and choose the Delete option from the bottom toolbar to get rid of these photos for good. They'll still be in the Bin folder, which you can access by going to the Library tab in Google Photos and selecting Bin. Removed photos are permanently deleted after 60 days.