Google Photos Revolutionizes Search with AI-Powered 'Ask Photos' Feature

You can now try one of the best new Google Photos features in years | Digital Trends

If you have a lot of photos, you know that searching through them can be a bit of a daunting task. Thankfully, if you use Google Photos, searching your photo library is now easier than ever thanks to some search improvements and Ask Photos with Gemini. Both of these features are rolling out today, though the Ask Photos feature is only available to select users through Google Labs. What exactly is Ask Photos? It goes a step beyond the standard search experience in Google Photos by using the most recent Gemini models to understand your photo gallery. This means the most important people in your life, your hobbies, favorite foods, and more. With this data, Ask Photos can pull out relevant details in your photos to help you find those specific memories that you're looking for, as well as help uncover information about your life as a whole. Recommended Videos Google provided some specific use cases for the Ask Photos feature. For example, you're planning your next camping trip, but want to return to your favorite site. Just ask "Where did we camp last time we went to Yosemite?" and you'll get the answer you're seeking. Or maybe you want to go back to a restaurant and order the same dish, but you can't remember what it was called. Simply ask "what did we eat at the hotel in Stanley?" and you'll get those results. With Ask Photos, it will understand the finer details, such as where you took a photo of your camping gear, or what dish was sitting on the restaurant table. Ask Photos is also meant to be conversational, so if you don't get the answer you're looking for right away, you can provide more clues or direction to nudge Gemini to get it right. The Ask Photos tool can also help you with other tasks like suggesting the best photos to use for a shared album for a birthday party. It can also summarize something like the best things you did on a recent trip with a friend or family member. Google is taking a responsible approach to the Ask Photos feature, as it's guided by the company's AI Principles. This means that while it strives to improve products based on actual usage, Google also takes responsibility for protecting your data and privacy. Google Photos is never used for ads and continues to be protected with Google's own security measures. In order to improve Ask Photos results, queries are reviewed by humans, but only after being disconnected from your Google Account. The answers that you get with the Ask Photos feature, including the photos and videos, are not reviewed by humans unless feedback is needed. Again, Ask Photos is only available through Google Labs right now. This is so Google can ensure it gets it right before rolling it out to everyone. You can join the waitlist for early access to Ask Photos. The other change for Google Photos that is readily available for everyone is the improved classic search. Now, searching through your photos is easier than ever as you can use everyday language, which is a more natural and descriptive way. Examples include "Alice and me laughing," "Kayaking on a lake surrounded by mountains," or "Emma painting in the backyard." You'll get better results with these natural language searches, and you can now sort search results by date or relevance. Improved Google Photos search is rolling out for all users on both Android and iOS. Google is planning to expand it to more languages in the coming weeks.

Searching Through Your Google Photos Library Just Got a Lot Better

Google is bringing improved search to Google Photos so that navigating the piles of photos is a lot more like using the company's "classic search" which supports the use of everyday language. The company says that searching through photos will feel more natural as the platform supports natural, descriptive queries. Basically, the goal is to make searching through Photos feel like using Google Images. Google points to several examples of what this might look like, including "Alice and me laughing," "Kayaking on a lake surrounded by mountains," and "Emma painting in the backyard." The update not only promises better results but also allows users to sort search results by date and relevance, adding another layer to help find a specific image even faster. Google is rolling out the improved search in Photos in English to all users on Android and iOS starting today and intends to expand to more languages "over the coming weeks." In addition to adding "classic search" to Google Photos, today the company also announced that it would be adding early access to "Ask Photos" to select U.S. users as part of Google Labs. Ask Photos is described as an experimental experience that is meant to go beyond standard search thanks to Google's Gemini AI models. Google claims that Ask Photos doesn't just see the content of an image, it understands the context and can see relevant details that make it easier to find images of specific moments. "For example, if you are trying to plan your next camping trip and want to return to a favorite site, you could ask,'Where did we camp last time we went to Yosemite?' Or if you want to go back to a restaurant you enjoyed and order the same thing, just ask, 'What did we eat at the hotel in Stanley?'" Jamie Aspinall, Group Product Manager at Google Photos, says. "Ask Photos understands details, like where you took photos with your camping gear or what dish is sitting on the table in your picture at the restaurant, to give you the answer. And because Ask Photos is conversational, if it doesn't find the right answer immediately, you can provide extra clues or details to nudge it in the right direction." The Gemini AI-powered Ask Photos can also support some queries, such as its ability to provide suggestions for what it thinks is the best photo from a series or can provide a summary of events over a photo set. As this is an AI-driven update, Google says that it is approaching it with concern for data privacy and is launching Ask Photos through the lens of its AI Principles. "While we strive to always improve our products based on actual usage, we take our responsibility to protect your data and privacy very seriously. As always, your data in Google Photos is never used for ads and protected with our industry-leading security measures. To help us improve Ask Photos, queries may be reviewed by humans, but only after being disconnected from your Google Account to protect your privacy. The answers provided by Ask Photos, including your photos and videos, are not reviewed by humans, unless you provide feedback or in rare cases to address abuse or harm," Aspinall says. Ask Photos is rolling out to select users today in early access so that it can be properly tested before it is expanded to more users. Google has set up a waitlist to join the early access test for those who want to try it.

Searching through your Google Photos is about to get a lot easier, thanks to AI

Google Photos users who have trouble finding specific photos just through simple keywords will appreciate a couple of new innovations hitting the service. On Thursday, Google announced an improvement to the classic search that lets you use descriptive queries to hunt down specific photos and videos and get better results. Also: Your Roku TV is about to get a new premium feature - for free "As photo libraries get larger and larger, finding what you're looking for sometimes requires more descriptive queries," Jamie Aspinall, Group Product Manager for Google Photos, said in a Thursday blog post. "Starting today, you can find what you're looking for using everyday language." Aspinall cited a few examples: You could ask Google Photos to find photos of "Alice and me laughing," "Kayaking on a lake surrounded by mountains," or "Emma painting in the backyard." In response, Google will scan for and analyze photos to find the ones that match your query. The new search feature will also sort your results by date or relevance, helping you find the right ones more quickly and easily. The feature is currently rolling out in English to Android and iPhone users but will expand to more languages over the next few weeks. And there's another enhancement coming to Google Photos. A new feature called Ask Photos will attempt to move beyond traditional search with the help of AI. Using Google's Gemini AI, Ask Photos will be able to understand the context of the photos in your gallery, including details like the people in your life, your hobbies, and your favorite foods. Also: Google's Gems are a gentle introduction to AI prompt engineering As the name implies, Ask Photos will answer actual questions about your photos. Aspinall offered this example: maybe you're planning a camping trip and want to return to a favorite site that you captured in your photos. You could ask Google Photos: "Where did we camp the last time we went to Yosemite?" In another example, maybe you'd like to return to a restaurant you've enjoyed in the past and want to order the same food. Assuming you snapped photos of your meal, you could ask Google Photos: "What did we eat at the hotel in Stanley?" In these two examples, Ask Photos delivers the right results based on its understanding of the key details in your photos. In these cases, the AI-powered feature "knows" where you took the photos with your camping gear and what dish was on the table when you snapped a picture at the restaurant. With its AI skills, Ask Photos can also engage in a back-and-forth conversation. So if it doesn't find the correct results right away, you can chat with it to provide more clues and details to help it along. Google initially unveiled Ask Photos in May at its I/O 2024 event. At the time, the company said the feature would roll out to Google Photos users later in the summer, with more capabilities to come. For now, Ask Photos is strictly experimental, rolling out Friday only to select US users as part of its Google Labs testing environment. Aspinall said that Google wants to make sure it gets the feature right before launching it broadly to all users. Also: How to sign up for Google Labs - and 5 reasons why you should Of course, privacy is always a concern, both with AI and with Google. To address privacy concerns, Aspinall said that Google is "taking a responsible approach to launching Ask Photos, guided by our AI Principles." In part, this means the company promises that your photos will be protected by security measures and will never be used for ads. To improve Ask Photos, humans may review some queries but only after you are disconnected from your Google Account. The actual answers offered by Ask Photos, including your photos and videos, are not reviewed by humans unless you provide feedback or want to address issues of abuse or harm. Those of you who'd like to take Ask Photos for a spin can now join the waitlist. Browse to the Google Photos page and head to the Ask Photos section. Enter your Gmail address and click the Join the waitlist button.

Google Photos Gets Sweet New Way to Search, Early Access to "Ask...

We may earn a commission when you click links to retailers and purchase goods. More info. There are few apps and services that bring the excitement when they get updates like Google Photos does. It's like this coming-together event, because no matter your mobile or desktop platform of choice, we all collectively love what Google Photos does for the memories we collect along the way. So today, there is indeed a couple of noteworthy Google Photos-related announcements. First, Google Photos is getting a "new" and "improved" way to search for both images and videos. And then second, the "Ask Photos" feature that was previewed at Google I/O in May will begin rolling out as early as tomorrow, but it might take a while for you to see it. GOOGLE PHOTOS NEW SEARCH, SORTING: Google acknowledged today that searching with the correct terms to find just the right photo you are looking for can be difficult. While Google Photos has always had a pretty powerful search, having to focus on searching with proper search terms is not exactly the most user-friendly idea. Instead, Google wants you to be able to search using more natural or descriptive language. In an update to the way you search on Google Photos, Google says you can now do just that. Searching for something like "Alice and me laughing" or "Kayaking on a lake surrounded by mountains," are a couple of examples they provided to us. For me, that query might be, "Beer in an outdoor beer garden setting." Additionally, when you get search results back, you'll be able to properly sort them by date or relevance going forward. This seems, well, huge. This new search will start rolling out right away in English to both Android and iOS users before expanding to more languages "over the coming weeks." "ASK PHOTOS" DEBUTS: Does everyone remember "Ask Photos" from Google I/O? This was the Google Photos demo that allowed you to ask very specific questions about past experiences you may have had, with Gemini AI then returning results. Google used examples of, "What's my car's license plate number?" because we have all taken a picture of our license plate for use later on. In a more advanced question, Google said you could even do something like ask about your child's swimming progress, with Google Photos then creating a memory about swimming-related pictures and videos from several stages of the kid's swimming journey. In today's announcement about an initial rollout, Google offers up other examples, like "What did we eat at the hotel in Stanley?" to use AI to look through your photos to find pictures of food you may have taken during a hotel stay. You get the idea. Those initial queries can be conversational too, so you could follow-up by pushing Gemini in another direction, assuming they weren't correct out of the gate. You could even ask Gemini to suggest best photos from an event that could then be easily shared in an album. Basically, Gemini is coming to Google Photos as a powerful tool to help you organize, create new things, or just remember the past that you may have forgotten details about. Google is rolling out early access to "select" users in the US as early as today. They say they want to "get this experience right" before they give it to everyone, so the chances of you seeing it are somewhat slim. You can ask to be a part of it, though!

Google Photos Is Getting a Gemini Infusion to Power Its Search

Google Photos has a decent search experience right now. I was recently trying to find some photos of my sister's engagement from a few years ago, and a simple "yellow dress" with her name added in front brought all the images to my fingertips within moments. But Google thinks it can do even better and is now supercharging the search function with improvements to natural language processing and, you guessed it, artificial intelligence. Improving the search experience is crucial because our online photo libraries are getting bigger and bigger every year. That means it's harder to find those photos from Dad's 60th birthday without sifting through so much other stuff. Google says more than 6 billion images are uploaded daily to Google Photos, and nearly half a billion people use the app's search function every month. This update works in two separate parts. First, Google is upgrading the existing search with better natural language processing to understand more descriptive queries. You won't have to use specific keywords anymore. Some examples Google provided include "Alice and me laughing" and "Kayaking on a lake surrounded by mountains." Some of this will require you to take advantage of certain Google Photos features, like identifying yourself and people in your photos so the system understands who "Alice" is. These results can be sorted by date or relevance. Google says this new update is rolling out in English to Android and iOS starting today and will expand to other languages in the coming weeks. The next part of the search upgrade comes in the form of Ask Photos, the feature Google announced at its I/O developer conference in May. Ask Photos is powered by Gemini, Google's large language model chatbot, and it's replacing the traditional search experience in Google Photos. It uses multimodal large language models to understand text in a picture along with the images and subjects in it. This process is a little odd, because you're getting a conversational experience when searching for a photo, somewhat like AI Overviews in Google Search, though the results can be more powerful and provide greater context.