Pets are part of the family, and you can finally add cats and dogs to the People & Pets album! We’ll teach you how to get your Photos app to identify the pets in your photos as accurately as possible. This lets you search for specific pets among all your photos and even create pet-specific Memories.

Why You'll Love This Tip

Learn how to add your dogs and cats to the People album in the Photos app.
Your identified pets can be named and marked as favorites.
You can help the Photos app get more accurate at identifying your cats and dogs.

How to Add Your Pets to the People & Pets Album in Photos

System Requirements

To use this tip, you will need an iPhone running iOS 17 or later. This tip was tested on an iPhone 17 Pro running iOS 27. Find out how to update to iOS 27.

Identifying cats and dogs in the Photos app makes it possible to search your photo collection by specific pet and create Memories that include or omit the animals in your life.

Open the Photos app.
Tap the Collections tab.
Open the People & Pets album.
Locate an image of your pet and tap it.
Tap Name This Pet to add a name or change it.
Enter your pet's name and tap the checkmark in the blue circle.
After this, you can add your pet to your favorites so they appear up top. Just touch and hold the photo of the pet, then tap Favorite.

Now, when you take a photo of your pet, it should be correctly identified by the Photos app. Be sure to check out our free Tip of the Day for more great Photos app tutorials.

Pro Tip

If you have pets that look alike, like my three black cats, your iPhone and iPad may struggle to identify them correctly. If you keep taking photos of them and reviewing each animal as you did in step six, it should get better with time. My hopes for a perfect distinction between my two almost identical cats are low, but I am so impressed with how easily it identifies my two dogs and my longer-haired cat.

The great thing about tagging your pets, family members, and friends is that you can search for all your photos of your loved one. Next, learn how to find recipes from photos on your iPhone. For more Photos app tips, be sure to sign up for our free Tip of the Day.