Try these hidden photo tricks on your smartphone

Have you stopped to think about your smartphone camera? Probably not. We’ve gotten used to carrying around high-quality cameras everywhere we go. We can snap photos with abandon without having to think about the price of film. We don’t even need to fiddle with the settings much, though we can if we want to.

Even the best phone cameras are limited by the subject you’re shooting. You can capture the perfect shot with ideal lighting only to find that something snuck into the photo. You can take the picture again or you can try removing the object. Tap or click here to learn how.

Finding the one image you’re looking for can be a challenge when you have free rein to take as many as you want. And how do you hide your photos from prying eyes? Read on for more information.

Find your photos fast

With the power to take thousands of photos with your phone thanks to large storage capacities and cloud access, you may be overwhelmed.

You can search for photos on your phone to narrow things down and find the one you want. Here’s how to do it on iPhone.

  • Open the Photos app.
  • Tap Search and type what you are looking for in the search bar. Try a person’s name, date or location. You can also search categories such as beach or selfies or events such as concerts or birthdays.
  • Use the Moments, People, Faces and Categories options to help organize your searches.

Have an Android phone? You can search by people, things and places in the Google Photos app:

  • On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Photos app.
  • Sign in to your Google Account.
  • At the bottom, tap Search.
    • To search by text:
      • Tap on the search box at the top, and enter what you want to find, for example:
      • New York City
      • A name or nickname, if you’ve labeled people or pets
    • To search using suggestions:
      • You can explore categories of:
        • People & Pets: all of the photos and videos of your close ties
        • Places: the map lets you explore your photos in physical space
        • Things: objects and concepts we’ve detected in your photos
      • You can also scroll to the bottom for more practical searches, like:
        • Screenshots, Selfies, and Videos

Hide your photos

When a friend asks to use your phone or you want to show them some photos from a recent trip, what do you do? You hand it over. Then your nerves start kicking in. Didn’t you take some personal photos on that last trip? Your friend doesn’t need to see that.

Luckily, you can hide photos you don’t want others to see.

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Google Photos Locked Folder coming to more Android phones - How to set it up

Over a trillion photos are taken each year on smartphones. Every photo we take ends up stored in our phones — even when we wished they wouldn’t.

Your phone is probably loaded with memes, screenshots and other junk hiding the photos you actually care about. Tap or click here for steps to find and delete pesky duplicate photos.

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