Google has improved its AI-powered Ask Photos feature and is re-launching it to eligible users in the United States. The company suspended the launch of Ask Photos in early June due to latency and interface issues.
To make Ask Photos faster, especially for simple searches for dogs or people, Google says it has essentially merged the old Google Photos search with Ask Photos. While Google’s Gemini models run in the background, the app can now quickly return basic search results based on image recognition. Once more sophisticated Gemini answers are ready, they will automatically appear.
Announced at Google I/O 2024, Ask Photos uses artificial intelligence to let you search your Google Photos library with natural language queries. In addition to structuring the results in a chat-like format, Google believes that this feature can be useful for finding information that you don’t even realize is stored in your photo library. For example, you can search for your car’s license plate number or the restaurant you went to for a particular birthday.
Google started rolling out Ask Photos in September 2024, although the early version of the feature was quite annoying. In addition to being slow to return answers, it also replaced the faster, more traditional search in the app’s menu bar. If you want to access regular search results, you have to go through several layers of the Google Photos interface. The new approach eliminates this distinction by combining the results.
Ask Photos is now available again to eligible Google Photos users. To get the new feature, you need to be at least 18 years old, reside in the United States, have a Google account with English language settings, and have the Groups feature enabled in Google Photos.
