Finding photos of you

At a big event, hundreds or thousands of photos pile up fast. But you only want the pictures of you. With face search you find them in seconds – no scrolling through the whole gallery.

There are three ways to get there:

• Way A – tap a face: Pick a detected person from the face picker.
• Way B – combine several people: Show only photos where all of you appear together (for example as a couple or group).
• Way C – Find me: Upload a selfie or use your profile image; Photogala marks your photos automatically.

Check availability

Face search is an AI / premium feature. It only appears if the host has enabled it and it is included in the event’s plan. If you don’t see a Filter by People section in the filter, the feature is off for this event. The other filters (album, task, media type …) are always available regardless.

Step 1 – Open the filter

All people and face features live inside the Filter dialog.

1. Tap Filter in the gallery toolbar. If filters are already active, the button shows a small count and a filled funnel icon.

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   Open the dialog with Filter in the toolbar.

2. The Gallery Filters dialog opens (subtitle “Apply filters for albums, tasks, and more”). Besides people, you can filter by album, task, media type, date, likes and more.

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   The filter dialog with all its sections. ① Quick Filters: My Uploads shows only what you uploaded yourself, My Likes only your hearts, Tasks only photos taken for a photo task – one tap switches a filter on, the next one off again. ② Media Type: All, Photos, Videos, Motion Photos. ③ Apply commits your choice; to its left Clear resets everything and Cancel closes without changes. Further down come Sort Order and Albums – and, depending on the event, Tasks, Filter by People, Filter by Number of People and Filter by Number of Likes; on a phone you scroll to reach them. There is no filter for a date or a time range.

Tip

On a phone the Filter button sits on the left of the compact toolbar and the dialog scrolls vertically. On a computer the dialog opens as a centered overlay.

Way A – Tap a person by face

Scroll to the Filter by People section. There you see small tiles with the faces detected at the event. The count next to the title is the number of faces. The hint reads: “Select one or more faces to show photos containing all selected people”.

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Each tile is a detected person – with a photo count and (if set) a name.

1. Tap a tile. It gets a thick selection ring in the brand color and a checkmark in the top right. The photo count appears in the bottom right.

2. Below the tile you see – if available – the person’s name and the number of photos (“n photo/photos”). Most tiles are nameless; that’s normal (see the box below).

3. Confirm at the bottom with Apply. The gallery now shows only that person’s photos. Clear resets the people selection (only active when something is selected).

4. If there are more faces than shown, load the next 12 tiles with View More (n) – the number in brackets tells you how many are already loaded.

Why don't the tiles have names?

Only moderators and hosts can name face clusters, merge or split them – guests cannot. That’s why most tiles are just a face with a photo count. Also, only people with at least one published photo appear, so you won’t see empty tiles.

Way B – Combine several people (AND logic)

You can select several tiles at once. Important: this is AND logic – only photos where all selected people appear are shown, not the sum of their photos.

1. Tap the tiles you want one after another – each gets a ring and checkmark.

2. Tap Apply. The gallery shows only the photos where all selected people appear together – ideal for finding the two of you or a group.

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Two tiles selected – ring and checkmark mark the choice. The result: only photos showing both of them.

Tip

Each selected person also appears at the top of the dialog as an Active Filter chip and – after applying – as a removable face chip with a thumbnail in the gallery. Use the small X on the chip to remove a single person without resetting the whole filter.

Way C – Find me via selfie or profile image

Instead of hunting for the right tile, you upload a selfie. Photogala matches your face against every event photo and marks your hits automatically.

1. Start

In the Filter by People section, tap the Find me card – “Upload a selfie to find your photos”.

2. Choose a source (three options)

You then have up to three options:

• Take Selfie – opens the (front) camera. Fastest on a phone.
• Choose Photo – pick a file from your device. Allowed formats: JPEG, PNG, WebP and HEIC/HEIF.
• Use Profile Image – appears only if you already set a profile image. Uses it directly, without a new upload.

Below the buttons there’s always a privacy notice: “Your selfie is private and only used to find your photos in this event”. Use Cancel to leave the picker.

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Without a profile image set, two sources remain: Take Selfie and Choose Photo – with the privacy note below.

Note

The Use Profile Image button is missing when no profile image is set. Set one in your profile first – see Your profile. Then the option becomes available.

For camera or file, you first see a round preview. Start the search with Find me, or discard the image with Cancel.

3. Processing

A short scan animation runs with the hint “Searching …”. On a weak connection it can take a moment longer (Photogala uses live updates and, if needed, background polling). Use Cancel to abort; that also deletes the selfie you just uploaded.

4. Success

On a match a green flash appears: “Found in N photos”. Then something handy happens automatically:

Applied automatically

After a successful search your matches are set as a filter immediately and the dialog closes on its own – you land right in your filtered gallery. You do not need to tap Apply for the selfie flow (that’s only for tapping individual tiles in Way A/B). Your matched tiles also carry a small “You” badge.

5. Re-apply later

Once your selfie is saved, the section shows a Find me button next time with “Found in N photos” and a magnifier. Tapping it re-applies your personal filter and closes the dialog – no need to upload a new selfie.

6. No match

If the search finds nothing, the grey hint “We couldn’t find you in this event’s photos” appears. Possible reasons: there are no or too few photos of you yet, the event photos are still being processed, or the selfie was poorly lit. Try again later or with a better photo.

7. When something goes wrong (error messages)

Fixing errors

• “We couldn’t detect a face — try a clearer, well-lit photo”: Use a frontal, sharp, well-lit photo with just one person.
• “Processing took too long or got interrupted — please try again”: Check your connection and restart the search.
• “Something went wrong — please try again”: Generic error; simply try again.

In all cases you can pick a new photo right away via Try Again.

8. Remove selfie (opt-out / privacy)

Next to the Find me button there’s a trash icon. Tapping it opens the confirmation “Remove selfie” – “This will remove your selfie and face data for this event”.

How to delete your face data

The trash icon is also your opt-out: it deletes your selfie and the biometric data derived from it for this event. There is no separate toggle – deleting = opting out. If you never want to be recognized at all, contact the host.

Filter by number of people

As soon as there is at least one detected person with published photos, an extra Filter by Number of People section appears (“Filter photos by the number of faces detected”). It filters not by who, but by how many:

• Minimum People – e.g. 3 for group photos only.
• Maximum People – e.g. 1 for portraits and single shots.

Both are plain number fields:

• The smallest allowed value is 0.
• 0 means “no filter” – leave a field empty or enter 0 and that limit simply isn’t applied.
• There is no fixed upper limit; only values that actually occur in your photos make sense, of course.

You can combine both fields to narrow down a range (e.g. at least 2 and at most 4).

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Minimum People and Maximum People sit below the people tiles – both start at 0, so without any effect.

Example

You are after the shots with just the two of you – without half the wedding party in the background.

In the filter you tap your own tile in the Filter by People section first, then your partner’s. Both get a ring and a tick. Important: this is AND logic – you only get photos where both of you appear, not the sum of your pictures.

Now the second half: under Filter by Number of People you enter 2 as the Maximum People. That drops the group shots where the two of you are indeed present, along with twelve other people.

Apply – and the gallery now carries two face chips with thumbnails. If that leaves too few matches, raise the maximum to 3, or remove it via the X on the chip without resetting the whole filter.

More filters

The dialog can do much more than faces. These filters work independently of the AI feature and combine freely:

• Quick Filters: My Uploads is always offered; My Likes only appears when likes are on for the event, and Task Items only with photo tasks on.
• Media Type: All / Photos / Videos / Motion Photos.
• Sort Order: Upload and Capture are always offered; Likes only appears when likes are on for the event, Comments only with comments on. Below that the direction – Newest/Oldest, or Most/Least for likes and comments.
• Albums plus Without Album (only photos with no album). The section only appears when albums with photos exist; several albums can be selected at once.
• Tasks – only when photo tasks are on and at least one task has photos.
• Search by Text across tags, scenes, descriptions, AI descriptions and detected text.
• Filter by Number of Likes with Minimum Likes and Maximum Likes – number fields from 0 as well, where 0 means “no filter”. This section, too, only appears when likes are on.

At the very bottom sit Clear, Cancel and Apply. While the dialog is open you see an Active Filters summary at the top, where you can drop individual filters even before applying.

The quick sort bar above the gallery

For sorting you don’t have to open the filter at all in daily use: the quick sort bar sits right above the photo grid.

• On the left Sort by (just an icon on a phone), followed by Upload, Capture and – depending on the event – Likes and Comments.
• On the right an arrow button for the direction: Newest or Oldest (Most or Least for likes/comments).

The bar writes the same settings as the Sort Order section in the filter – these are not two separate sort orders but two interfaces onto the same one. The difference: in the bar the change takes effect immediately, in the filter only with Apply. Day to day, the bar is the quicker route.

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The bar sits between the filter button and the grid. Upload is active, on the right the arrow for the direction.

Note

The bar is an event option (Settings → Features → “Quick Sort Bar”) and is on by default. If it’s missing, the host switched it off – then you sort via the filter.

Active filters in the gallery

What you applied doesn’t vanish into the dialog: above the grid an Active Filters box appears with the count and one chip per filter – people with a thumbnail, albums with their cover, plus chips like My Uploads, Photos Only, Without Album or the likes and people limits.

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After applying Way B: Active Filters (2) with one chip per person – below it only photos showing both of them together.

• The small X on a chip removes exactly that filter – everything else stays.
• Clear All at the top right of the box resets everything at once.
• Likes chips (My Likes, Liked by, the likes limits) only appear when likes are on, and the Task Photos chip only with photo tasks on. If such a filter came in via a shared link and the feature has since been switched off, the box still counts it but shows no chip for it – Clear All removes it.
• If only a single album (or only a single task) is filtered, the chip row turns into a large card with cover, description and photo count – including an Upload to Album or Solve Task button.

Tip

Your active filters stay in the address (URL). So you can share a filtered view by link – the filters are active as soon as it’s opened.

For moderators and hosts

1. Enable the feature (host): Open the Admin Portal from the profile menu in the top right and go to Settings → Features → AI Processing → Face Recognition. There you confirm a GDPR consent checkbox; an info dialog explains what guests see.

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   The profile menu leads to moderation and the admin portal – visible only with the matching role. ① your points and solved tasks, ② Profile options with My Profile, Language, Theme and Help, ③ Management with Account Settings, Moderation and Admin Portal – this section is missing until you hold a role for it, ④ Account with Sign out.

2. Name people (moderators): Naming, merging or splitting clusters happens in the moderation / admin view. Once a name is set, guests see it on the tile and the filter chip too.

Troubleshooting

Caution

• No “Filter by People” section? The feature is off or not in the plan – ask the host.
• Tiles there, but none of you? Your photos are still processing or simply don’t exist yet – try again later.
• “Use Profile Image” missing? You haven’t set a profile image yet – add one in your profile.
• Search stuck on “Searching …”? Usually the connection – Cancel and restart.
• Nameless tiles? Normal – only moderators assign names.
• Filters gone after reload? They live in the URL; a shared link keeps them.
• No “Filter by Number of People” section? There is no detected person with published photos yet.
• “Likes” or “Comments” missing from the sort options? That feature isn’t on for the event.
• No “My Likes” quick filter and no “Filter by Number of Likes” section? Likes are off for this event – so there is nothing to filter by.
• No “Task Items” quick filter? Photo tasks aren’t on for this event.
• No sort bar above the gallery? The host switched it off – use Sort Order in the filter.
• Still too few photos after clearing your selection? Check the Active Filters box above the grid – it shows what’s still in effect.

Related help

• Using the gallery – basics, likes, selection, fullscreen.
• Browsing albums – album filter, quick select and overview.
• Your profile – set a profile image (unlocks “Use Profile Image”).
• Likes & comments – prerequisite for sorting by likes.