Google’s AI-powered Photos upgrades are slowly rolling out: Ask Photos, a Gemini-powered chatbot that lets you make photo searches very specific and conversational, is releasing in early access to some users in the U.S. Additionally, an improved search feature that supports more detailed Google Photos queries is rolling out to all English-speaking users starting today.
We’ve upgraded search in Google Photos to let you use more specific queries. For example, instead of searching for “lake,” you can now type “kayak on a lake surrounded by mountains.” Or, rather than simply searching for your friend Alice, you can type “Alice and me laughing.” Our goal is to make it easier for you to narrow down your search as your cloud-based photo library grows.
Ask Photos, the Google Photos chatbot that the company announced at I/O in May, takes that a step further: Powered by Gemini, the chatbot adds a new tab to the bottom of the Photos app and lets you ask questions about anything in your library using natural language.
Google gives examples like “Show me the best photos of every national park you’ve ever been to,” which uses location data to comb through park photos and the robot’s subjective judgment to determine its favorites. Other examples the company gives include “What did you eat at Stanley’s Hotel?” and “Where did you camp the last time you went to Yosemite?”
Like other chatbot features, Ask Photos can respond to follow-up prompts, so if it doesn’t work on the first try, you can tweak the parameters and ask it to try again.
Google says that your photo data is never used for advertising. Humans do review queries, but they’re separate from your Google account, so reviewers don’t know who entered them. Real humans don’t review Ask Google answers (including photos and videos) unless you provide feedback or (only in rare cases, the company says) to address abuse.
If you live in the US, you can join the waitlist to try out early access to Ask Photos starting today, while Google Photos’ more detailed search features are starting to roll out to English-speaking users on Android and iOS.
