Microsoft quietly pushes OneDrive Photos app to Windows 11

Microsoft has quietly introduced a new OneDrive Photos app to Windows 11 users, integrating AI-powered photo organization directly into the operating system. The app, which arrives through a OneDrive update rather than a separate installation, provides a unified interface for viewing, editing, and managing photos stored in OneDrive—both locally and in the cloud. Users can access their images through categories like Moments, Gallery, People, Albums, Favorites, and This PC, with the latter linking directly to the local OneDrive photos folder.

The app’s most notable feature is its AI-driven facial recognition in the People category, which automatically groups photos by individuals. While Microsoft emphasizes that facial grouping is visible only to the account owner and can be opted out of at any time, the feature has raised privacy considerations. The company states that facial scans are not used to train AI models and are deleted after 30 days. Users can disable photo tagging and the People feature entirely through OneDrive’s web settings.