Google Photos Adds a Toggle to Turn Off the Shimmer Effect on Android

Google Photos for Android has finally added an off switch for Shimmer, the animated sparkle that sweeps across people and objects every time you open an image. The setting is arriving in version 7.85 of the app as part of a small group of changes that also includes a camera shortcut inside the AI templates and a redesigned settings screen.

Shimmer has been one of the most complained-about additions to Google Photos since it appeared earlier this year. It is not decoration: the outline marks the subject the app thinks you might want to cut out as a sticker or share on its own. But it fires automatically, on every photo, and users have spent months asking for a way to stop it — including people who said the repeated motion made them queasy while scrolling.

Where to find the new setting

The control is called Show shimmer and it lives under the Photos view section of the app's preferences. It is switched on by default, so you have to go and turn it off yourself.

• Open Google Photos and tap your profile picture in the top-right corner.
• Choose Photos settings, then Preferences.
• Open Photos view and switch off Show shimmer.

There is a faster route if you are already looking at an image: tap the three-dot overflow menu on any photo and pick Photos view, which drops you straight onto the same screen.

What the toggle actually stops

This is the detail worth getting right, because it has been described inconsistently. Turning Show shimmer off stops the animation from playing on its own when you open a photo. It does not remove the underlying subject-detection tool — long-pressing a person or object to lift it out as a sticker still works exactly as before.

In other words, you are switching off the prompt, not the feature. If you never used the cutout tool, the practical result is a still image when you open a photo. If you did use it, nothing you rely on disappears.

A camera button inside the AI templates

The same update adds a large floating camera button to Google Photos' AI creation templates, including Remix and Photo to video. Until now, feeding one of those templates meant leaving the app, taking a shot, and then digging the result out of your library.

The shortcut is aimed at throwaway input — a quick object, a face pulled for a video effect — rather than photos you intend to keep. It is a small change, but it removes three steps from a flow that previously bounced you between two apps.

Settings get the Material 3 Expressive treatment

Third on the list is a visual refresh. The main settings page, along with the Backup and Preferences sections, now groups individual options into rounded containers in line with Google's Material 3 Expressive design language. Other pages, including Notifications and Privacy, still use the older layout, so the app currently looks like it is mid-renovation.

How the rollout works

All three changes are tied to Google Photos 7.85 on Android and are going out gradually, which is Google's usual pattern for the app. Installing the update does not guarantee the toggle appears immediately — some accounts get flipped on before others.

If Show shimmer is missing on your phone, the only useful steps are to update Google Photos from the Play Store, check the app version under Photos settings, and then wait. There is no menu, developer option, or flag that forces it on. Google has not said whether the same setting is coming to the iPhone version of the app.

For anyone who spends real time in their gallery, this is the more meaningful of the two functional changes. If you are auditing what your camera roll actually needs, it pairs well with a look at the best camera apps on Android and, when things go wrong, our guide to recovering deleted photos on Android.