HOW TO Use new pet recognition tools in Photos

Identify a pet

We’ll start by identifying pets in iOS Photos since you use your iPhone to snap the shots. Tap Albums, then tap on the People & Pets album. (If there are no pets in your Library this will just be labeled the People album.)

Summon info

Scroll through the shots of your named pet. Tap on a more flattering pic. Tap the Info icon (the “i” may be replaced by a cat icon). Tap the circular thumbnail at the bottom left of the pic to summon a drop–down menu.

Remove pets

To remove unwanted pets that may belong to other people, go to the People & Pets album. Tap on an unwanted pet’s thumbnail. Tap the “…” icon at the top right. Tap the “Remove This Pet from People & Pets” option.

Find pet thumbnail

You’ll see a collection of circular thumbnails depicting people. Scroll down to locate the pet thumbnails. Tap on a particular pet’s thumbnail, and tap Add Name. In our example here, we’ve typed “Ebony”. Tap Next, then Done.

Key photo

Tap Make Key Photo. This menu also enables you to remove pictures of misidentified cats by tapping This Is Not Ebony. You can also choose to Feature Ebony Less to prioritize other pets in the People & Pets album.

Image lookup

You can use Visual Look Up to find out more about your pet. Here the “i” icon has been replaced with a dog symbol. By tapping it, we can then tap Look Up Cocker Spaniel for information on this breed from Wikipedia.

Find other shots

When you tap the named thumbnail in the People & Pets album, you’ll see a scrollable collection of pictures of that pet. However, Photos may not have chosen the best pic of your pet as the thumbnail’s key photo.

People and pets

If a shot features a named person and an unnamed cat or dog, tap the Info icon. You’ll see small circular thumbnails for the person and the pet. Tap the pet’s circular thumbnail — it’ll have a “?” by it. Tap Name This Pet.

Continue in macOS

You can continue to identify your pets in the macOS version of Photos. Tap a pic or still’s Info icon. Tap a circular thumbnail. A circle will appear around your pet’s face. Add a label to the circle to name your pet.