How To Find Your 2025 Recap In Google Photos And Customise It Step By Step

Google Photos is rolling out a more personal way to look back on your year, and it’s called Recap. Instead of the usual scattered highlights, you get a clean story pulled from your photos, topped off with short videos and collages you can share.

It shows up right inside your memories carousel, and if you have notifications turned on, the app will tell you the moment your Recap is ready.

Make Sure Your Recap Can Generate

Before Recap appears, Google Photos needs a few things from you. You should’ve taken enough photos throughout the year, your Face Groups must be on with your own face selected, and your app should be updated to the latest version. Backup needs to be switched on for this year’s content. If you’re in the US, turning on Gemini features inside Photos improves the experience, but it isn’t required.

Once these pieces are in place, Google handles the rest in the background.

How To Find Your Recap On Android

The new Recap shows up at the front of your featured memories carousel. You’ll spot it as soon as you open the app.

Steps to open your Recap on Android:

1. Open the Google Photos app.
2. Sign in to your Google account.
3. Tap the Photos tab at the bottom.
4. Look at the featured memories carousel at the top.
5. Tap the Recap tile to open it.

If you’ve already viewed it this month, it shifts toward the back of the carousel. Google also pins it inside the Collections tab throughout December so it’s easy to revisit.

After the new year begins, the Recap moves automatically to your main grid under December. You can also save it manually if you prefer keeping it in your photo timeline.

How To Find Your Recap On iPhone or iPad

The flow is basically the same on iOS. You’ll see the Recap tile right at the front of your memories carousel.

Steps on iPhone or iPad:

1. Open Google Photos.
2. Sign in to your account.
3. Tap Photos at the bottom.
4. Look for the Recap tile in the memories carousel.
5. Tap it to open your year-end story.

If you need to revisit it later, it will appear at the back of the carousel as “Viewed” or pinned under Collections until December ends.

Editing Your Recap

Google lets you personalize your Recap in two different ways, depending on how much control you want.

If you just need minor tweaks, you can edit directly inside Google Photos. You can hide certain faces, remove photos you don’t want appearing, and regenerate the Recap video with your changes applied. It’s quick and works well if you simply want to tidy things up.

If you want more room to experiment, you can open your Recap in CapCut. This gives you creative templates built for Recap, better control over transitions, and a full music library to score your video. You can curate the photos you want to use, remove shots you don’t like, and rebuild the Recap in a more customized style.

CapCut is a separate app run by ByteDance, so you’re exporting your Recap over to it, not editing inside Google Photos itself.

Sharing Your Recap

Once you’re happy with how it looks, you can share your Recap straight from the app. Google lets you pick what format you want to send, whether it’s a short clip, a collage, or the full Recap video. You can post it on social media, send it in a chat, or just save it for later.

One limitation for now is that Recap isn’t available on desktop. Everything happens on Android, iPhone, and iPad.

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