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Google Photos had been experimenting with AI search for the better part of a year before the beta was rolled back earlier this month. Now, Google is ready for more people to get access.
The feature, Ask Photos, was originally revealed at Google I/O 2024, and it allows for more intuitive searches. Google’s own examples include "suggest photos that'd make great phone backgrounds" or "what did I eat on my trip to Barcelona?"
The app will then use Google Gemini models to help it figure out what you're looking for. For that second query, it will find the location of your photos, find images of food logged in Barcelona, and then present them all at once. Normally, you’d have to search for the word Barcelona, or the dates of your travel, and then you'd get everything from the trip rather than just photos of food.
Ask Photos has been in beta since September, but earlier this month, the company rolled back testing due to negative feedback. One of Google's product managers said the feature wasn’t “where it needs to be,” and the company wanted to work on “latency, quality, and UX.”
Google’s latest announcement suggests the biggest problem was that it slowed down simpler searches. It appears even traditional searches were running through the Gemini models, which made the app sluggish.
"We've also heard your feedback that it should return more photos faster for simple searches, like 'beach' or 'dogs.' To address this, we're bringing the best of Photos' classic search feature into Ask Photos and improving latency, so you can get fast help with simple and complex queries in one place," Google says.
When you access the Ask Photos features, you'll get a combination of the original search alongside the AI-powered results when you ask more complex queries. The feature is now rolling out in the US, but the company has yet to share when it will arrive for everyone.