Google Photos starts rolling out manual face tagging feature on mobile
(Digital Photography Review)

As promised this past summer by Google Product Lead David Lieb, Google Photos has been updated to support manual face tagging. The feature first started rolling out to some users last week, according to Android Police, only days after XDA spotted signs of the new feature in an app teardown. The feature still has not arrived for all users, however. Manual face tagging is a new Google Photos feature that builds upon the service`s existing face-detection algorithm. With this new tool, users are able to manually correct errors made by the algorithm and to also immediately tag images of new people who haven`t yet been identified by the app. Users who have access to the feature note one big limitation with the new tool: the app does not allow users to tag faces that weren`t detected by the algorithm. As well, it isn`t yet clear whether manually tagging people and correcting mistakes will help improve the algorithm`s ability to detect those people in subsequent photos. Users who have access to the new manual face tagging option can find the tool within the Google Photos app`s `Albums` menu. Tap on `People & Pets,` then tap on an image. Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to reveal the menu containing EXIF data, then swipe up again. The person featured in the image will be listed under a section title `People.` If you have access to the manual face tagging feature, you will see a new pen icon located next to the person within this `People` section. Android Police notes that this feature is rolling out through a server-side update, meaning that users can`t manually update the app to get access to the new tagging option.