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Google Photos now lets you disable that sticker animation – here’s how to turn it off

Google Photos rolled out the ability to convert photo subjects into stickers last year, indicated by a little “shimmer” animation. Now, Google is giving users the ability to turn off that animation.

When creating a sticker in Google Photos, the app will automatically highlight a compatible subject with an outline and a “shimmer” effect. This is designed to show the user that, firstly, a photo subject is eligible to be used as a sticker, but also to show what part of the photo is being cut out for the sticker.

It’s useful, but it’s also a bit distracting. As such, Google is now giving users the ability to disable this animation going forward, as explained on a support page:

While the shimmer effect with stickers helps highlight subjects, we understand some users prefer to view their photos without it. Based on your feedback on this feature, we have added a new setting that allows you to turn off the sticker shimmer effect

You can turn off sticker “shimmer” in Google Photos through Settings > Preferences > Photo view > “Show shimmer.” It’s enabled by default, but can be turned off at any time.

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Avatar for Ben Schoon Ben Schoon

Ben is a Senior Editor for 9to5Google.

Find him on Twitter @NexusBen. Send tips to schoon@9to5g.com or encrypted to benschoon@protonmail.com.