How to Teach Your iPhone or iPad to Recognize People’s Faces in the Photos App: Complete Guide

Introduction

Organizing one’s photos by date or occasion is by far the most common methodology in photography. More than ever with iOS, Apple is trying to alleviate the issues outlined above by giving prominence to more forward-thinking photo organization algorithms, including improved facial recognition software to detect recurring faces in your photos.

Photos has received a lot of attention in last autumn’s software refresh and as a matter of course, facial recognition is not the only new filter brought about by the new and intelligent algorithms.

This is because for one, properly teaching your device to recognize your friends alone comes with a lot of subject matter already, and two, we already have tutorials for browsing photos by location and smart Memories. As a final precursory remark, there are two different approaches to go about teaching your device faces in photos, which we will run by you separately and it’s ultimately down to you which one you want to utilize.

Why Face Recognition in Photos Matters

In our experience helping clients organize their digital lives, we have found that photo management becomes increasingly challenging as our photo libraries grow. Traditional organization methods like date-based sorting often fall short when you’re looking for specific people. Apple’s facial recognition technology transforms this experience by automatically grouping photos of the same person, making it easier than ever to find and organize your memories.

Understanding the Face Recognition System

How it works: iOS uses advanced machine learning algorithms to analyze facial features in your photos and automatically group similar faces together.

Privacy first: All facial recognition processing happens on your device, ensuring your personal information stays private and secure.

Continuous learning: The system improves over time as you provide feedback and corrections, becoming more accurate with each interaction.

Method 1: Teaching Faces via the ‘People’ Smart Album

If you’re not dealing with a particular photo you just took of someone, but more broadly want to begin from scratch with the teaching of faces and names of protagonists already starring in your stored pics, stick to this tutorial for now.

Step 1: Access the People Album

1) Find the People album in your Albums tab.

Where to find it: Open the Photos app, tap the Albums tab at the bottom, and scroll down to find the People album. It’s typically located near the top of your albums list.

Step 2: Familiarize Yourself with the Interface

2) Take a moment to familiarize yourself with the interface: you should be looking at a whole bunch of nameless faces iOS has intelligently detected and grouped behind one cover photo of that particular person.

What you’ll see: The smaller digit under the frame indicates how many of your device’s photos have already (automatically) been linked to the identified person at the hands of the OS.

Pro Tip: Each face thumbnail represents a group of photos that iOS believes contain the same person. The number below shows how many photos are in each group.

Step 3: Start the Learning Process

3) Let’s assume you see the mugs of multiple friends or family members in front of you, some of which are pretty comprehensively lumped together (we’re fixing photo omissions or mistakes later) and you want to start getting that person and your device acquainted. Start the learning process by touching the face of a person.

Choose wisely: Start with someone who appears in many of your photos, as this will give the system more data to work with and improve accuracy faster.

Step 4: Add a Name

4) The subsequent view will congregate all photos on your device automatically associated with the person and offer a + Add Name text field in the center of the top bar – touch the field and type in the (nick)name of the person. Hit Done.

Naming tips: Use names that are easy to remember and type. You can use first names, nicknames, or even descriptive terms like “Mom” or “Best Friend.”

Pro Tip: Be consistent with naming conventions. If you use “John” for one person, don’t use “Johnny” for the same person in another group.

Step 5: Complete the Process

5) Now that your phone has a name to the photos, hit the return arrow in the top left corner and watch what happens next.

There you go, your iPhone now has a name associated with the face behind the thumbnail. Step one is accomplished.

Favoriting People in Your Smart Album

Before we touch on adding photos to incomplete collections of your friends and teaching your device how to recognize their faces better in the future, a quick word on the smart album’s structure.

If you want your favorite people to be featured in a larger format, try one of the following two techniques to promote them:

Method 1: Using the Heart Icon

1. Simply tap on the Heart icon on a person’s smart album.

What this does: Favoriting a person makes their face appear larger in the People album and gives them priority in the interface.

Method 2: From Any Photo

2. The alternative way of tagging someone as a favorite person (this is not the same as marking a photo as a favorite photo) comes in handy chiefly when you’re not already inside the smart album ‘People’. Provided you are elsewhere in your Photos app though and stumble upon a photo of a friend you want to spontaneously promote to a favorite person, do this:

1. From anywhere in your Photos app, expand the photo to full view.
2. Scroll down to the people thumbnail directly below the photo and touch it
3. This will link you to the automatically generated photo wall of your friend.
4. Again, scroll down, find and tap Favorite This Person.

Quick Note: Favoriting people is a great way to quickly access photos of your most important friends and family members.

Merging Separate Thumbnails of the Same Person

Sometimes your iPhone or iPad may create multiple groups for the same person, especially if they have different hairstyles, wear glasses in some photos, or if the lighting conditions vary significantly. Here’s how to fix this:

Step 1: Identify Duplicate Groups

1) Identify the cases where your iPhone or iPad has correctly amassed photos of a person behind their respective thumbnail, however failed to combine certain photo stacks (aka your device is under the wrong impression that these are different people).

Look for: Multiple face thumbnails that clearly show the same person, perhaps with different expressions or lighting.

Step 2: Enter Selection Mode

2) Click the Select button in the top right corner.

What happens: This enables selection mode, allowing you to choose multiple face groups to merge.

Step 3: Select All Instances

3) Now mark all instances of the same person wrongly identified as another individual by tapping all the identical faces once. Kind of like playing a game of memory, right?

Selection tips: Tap each face group that represents the same person. You’ll see a checkmark appear on each selected group.

Step 4: Merge the Groups

4) As soon as they’re all tagged, hit Merge in the bottom right corner, as seen in the screenshot just above this step.

What merging does: This combines all the selected face groups into one, consolidating all photos of that person under a single thumbnail.

Step 5: Confirm the Merge

5) Confirm you want to merge the respective mugs when prompted:

6) The merger is executed.

Pro Tip: After merging, you may want to add a name to the newly consolidated group if it doesn’t already have one.

Adding Photos to Existing Face Groups

Sometimes iOS may miss some photos when creating face groups. Here’s how to add missing photos to existing groups:

Step 1: Open the Person’s Face Group

Tap on the face thumbnail of the person you want to add photos to.

Step 2: Add Missing Photos

Scroll through the photos and look for any that might be missing. If you find photos that should be included but aren’t:

1. Tap the photo to open it in full view
2. Scroll down to see if there’s a people thumbnail below the photo
3. If the person isn’t tagged, tap the people thumbnail and select the correct person

Step 3: Verify Accuracy

After adding photos, take a moment to verify that all the photos in the group are actually of the same person. If you find any mistakes, you can remove them by tapping the photo and selecting “Not This Person.”

Advanced Face Recognition Tips

Improving Recognition Accuracy

Provide diverse photos: The more varied the photos (different angles, lighting, expressions), the better the system can recognize the person in different conditions.

Correct mistakes promptly: When the system makes an error, correct it immediately. This helps the algorithm learn and improve over time.

Use consistent naming: Stick to the same name for each person across all your devices to maintain consistency.

Managing Large Photo Libraries

Start with important people: Begin by naming and organizing photos of your closest friends and family members.

Work in batches: Don’t try to organize everything at once. Spend 10-15 minutes each day working on face recognition to avoid feeling overwhelmed.

Regular maintenance: Periodically review your People album to ensure accuracy and add any new faces that appear in recent photos.

Common Issues and Solutions

Face Recognition Not Working

Check iOS version: Face recognition requires iOS 10 or later. Make sure your device is running a compatible version.

Enable iCloud Photos: If you’re using iCloud Photos, make sure it’s enabled and syncing properly.

Check storage space: Ensure your device has enough storage space for the Photos app to function properly.

Incorrect Face Groupings

Merge duplicate groups: Use the merging feature described above to combine groups of the same person.

Remove incorrect photos: Tap on photos that don’t belong and select “Not This Person” to remove them from the group.

Add missing photos: Manually add photos that the system missed to the appropriate face group.

Performance Issues

Restart the Photos app: Close the Photos app completely and reopen it if you experience lag or freezing.

Restart your device: Sometimes a simple restart can resolve performance issues with the Photos app.

Check for updates: Make sure you’re running the latest version of iOS, as updates often include performance improvements.

When to Seek Professional Help

While face recognition in Photos is designed to be user-friendly, some situations may require professional assistance. Consider seeking help if you experience:

• Persistent technical issues that prevent face recognition from working
• Large-scale photo organization needs for business or professional use
• Data recovery issues related to your photo library
• iCloud sync problems affecting your Photos app
• Storage management issues preventing the app from functioning properly

Our technicians can help resolve these issues and ensure your Photos app works optimally for your needs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Does face recognition work with all types of photos?

A: Face recognition works best with clear, well-lit photos where faces are clearly visible. It may struggle with very blurry images, extreme angles, or photos where faces are partially obscured.

Q: Can I use face recognition across multiple devices?

A: Yes, if you’re using iCloud Photos, your face recognition data will sync across all your Apple devices signed in to the same iCloud account.

Q: Will face recognition drain my battery?

A: Face recognition processing happens in the background and is designed to be battery-efficient. The initial processing of a large photo library may use more battery, but ongoing use is minimal.

Q: Can I disable face recognition if I don’t want to use it?

A: While you can’t completely disable face recognition, you can choose not to interact with the People album. The system will still process faces in the background, but you won’t see the organized groups.

Conclusion

Teaching your iPhone or iPad to recognize people’s faces in the Photos app is a powerful way to organize your photo library and quickly find photos of specific people. While the initial setup may take some time, the long-term benefits of having an organized, searchable photo collection are well worth the effort.

Start with the basics – naming the people who appear most frequently in your photos – and gradually work your way through your library. Remember that the system learns and improves over time, so the more you use it, the better it becomes at recognizing faces accurately.

With patience and regular maintenance, you’ll soon have a photo library that’s not just organized by date, but by the people who matter most in your life.

Need help setting up face recognition or experiencing issues with your Photos app? If you’re having trouble with photo organization or need assistance with other iOS features, call Chapin Business Services at (203) 262-1869. We offer both remote support and on-site visits throughout the Chapin area.