Google Photos is rolling out its year-end Recap, a personalized look back at your past year that feels a lot like the “Wrapped” trend—only built around your photo library. It pulls together memorable moments from your camera roll, adds playful graphics and visual effects, and rounds things out with quick stats that summarize how your year looked through the lens.
For users in the U.S., this year’s Recap also introduces a new AI-powered layer using Google’s Gemini. The idea is to go beyond a simple slideshow and surface themes from your photos—like the hobbies you spent the most time on and the standout moments that defined your year. According to Google, Gemini can read the context within your images to identify your “one true passion,” along with four other top highlights that helped shape your Recap.
Alongside the highlight reel, Google Photos Recap includes yearly photo stats such as your total photo count and the people who appeared most often. A new addition for this year is a selfie total, giving you another fun data point to compare year over year. You’ll also get more control over what appears: the Recap now lets you hide specific people or photos, then regenerate the Recap to produce a refreshed version that better matches what you actually want to revisit.
Sharing is clearly a big focus, too. Your Recap can be posted to social media or sent elsewhere, and there’s a new option to export the Recap to CapCut at the end of the experience. From there, you can further personalize the result using additional Google Photos templates. Google is also adding a share-friendly carousel at the end of the Recap filled with short videos, photos, and collages designed for group chats and social platforms, including an option to post directly to WhatsApp Status.
If the Recap doesn’t appear right away, you can manually request it using an option located at the top of the Google Photos app. Once generated and viewed, it will remain available throughout December. You can find it again later in your Memories carousel or pinned in the Collections tab.
Beyond the main year-end Recap, Google says it will also roll out a series of additional 2025 highlights across December, giving users even more bite-sized ways to revisit and share their favorite moments.
