While photos appearing in Spotlight Search might be useful in certain cases, many users do not find this useful and want to stop their personal photos and videos from appearing in the Spotlight Search on iPhone.
Hence, iPhone provides the option to prevent photos from appearing in Spotlight search results. The other option is to prevent only certain selected photos from appearing in Spotlight Search.
In general, iPhone brings up photos in the Spotlight Search only when it decides that a photo or video is related to the query that you typed in the spotlight search bar.
Prevent Photos from Appearing in Spotlight Search
If you do not want your personal photos appearing in the search results on iPhone, you can find below the steps to Stop Photos from appearing in Spotlight Search results on your iPhone.
1. Stop Photos from Appearing in Spotlight Search on iPhone
All that is required to prevent photos and videos from appearing in Spotlight Search is to disable Show Photos in search option for the Photos App on your iPhone.
1. Go to Settings > Siri & Search > Photos.
2. On the Photos screen, move the toggle next to Show App in Search to OFF position.
After this, you should no longer find your personal and other photos appearing in the Spotlight search results.
2. Prevent iPhone from Suggesting Photos on Home Screen & Apps
Even if you prevent photos from appearing in Spotlight search, you may still find iPhone suggesting photos on the Home Screen and other Apps.
1. Go to Settings > Siri & Search > Photos.
2. On the next screen, move the toggle next to Show on Home Screen and Suggest App to OFF position.
Note: Disabling these options prevents iPhone from suggesting photos in Memory Albums.
3. Stop Certain Photos from Appearing in Spotlight Search
As mentioned above, it is also possible to stop only certain selected photos from appearing in Spotlight search, instead of preventing all photos and videos from appearing in the search results.
1. Open the Photos App on your iPhone.
2. Select the Photo that you want to hide and tap on the Share Icon located at bottom-left corner.
3. On the pop-up that appears, select the Hide option.
4. On the confirmation pop-up, tap on Hide Photo to confirm.
Once the seleced photo or photos are hidden, they will no longer appear in Spotlight search results on your iPhone.