How to tell between actual picture vs. default auto-generated image in Google OAuth?

Question

I'm retrieving user data from Google using the Passport Google Strategy (OAuth 2.0). This works fine except when the logged-in user does not have an explicitly set profile picture. In such cases, Google returns a default image with the user's first-name initial:

I want to be able to tell if the image returned by the API is a real image or something like this. How do I accomplish this? There's a similar question here but the answer is outdated since Google no longer seems to offer an isDefault flag. Nor does it have a consistent URI for the default silhouette because the auto-generated image is different for different users depending on their initials. Is there any alternative flag offered by Google OAuth 2.0 that tells me if the image is an auto-generated one?

Enchanting

try checking out this answer: https://mcmap.net/q/1130811/-how-to-check-whether-google-user-39-s-image-is-default-or-uploaded – Pourparler

I tried to execute the example given here: developers.google.com/people/api/rest/v1/people/… and it did not respond with any value of "DEFAULT" True/false (so I can not tell if this is a default image or an uploade done) – Lipfert

Answer 1

I have encountered the same problem and I have the solution.

Desired situation: To be able to differentiate if the users registered with Google have a profile image other than the default one, the letter.

To be able to differentiate if the account picture is the default one, you can check with:

https://developers.google.com/people/api/rest/v1/people/get

resourceName: people/me 
personFields: photos 

You can test it with the API explorer

If it is the default image, the letter, we will see the following answer. You can see that default: true

{
  "resourceName": "people/---",
  "etag": "%EgQBAy43GgQBAgUHIgx3dW4rZmJQZk5MZz0=",
  "photos": [
    {
      "metadata": {
        "primary": true,
        "source": {
          "type": "PROFILE",
          "id": "---"
        }
      },
      "url": "https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocK4KoGPHVXoM4I8Q3OrgagLjudTui7fHEyprLuUIMBuzfwhVQ=s100",
      "default": true
    }
  ]
}

In case it is not the default image, we will not have the default field. Attached is the response that is obtained in this case:

{
  "resourceName": "people/---",
  "etag": "%EgQBAy43GgQBAgUHIgxsRC8yTmZDaENKOD0=",
  "photos": [
    {
      "metadata": {
        "primary": true,
        "source": {
          "type": "PROFILE",
          "id": "---"
        }
      },
      "url": "https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocL_xxtSIuAeTBJp4N80rocGcPOEtK5J5sSPdwt1kAbndo=s100"
    }
  ]
}

Chura

Answer 2

Unfortunately, as far as I've concluded, since Google+ will be discontinued and people.googleapis has been changed, as of 2023. I haven't found a way to know if the image you receive from Google is default or not.

Long