That’s no surprise for anyone who watched the Google I/O conference in mid-May this year; during the presentation, the term ‘AI’ was mentioned over 120 times. If you were watching it live, these 120 times felt more like 1,200, but that’s another story.
One of the announcements – the Ask Photos feature – is now going live for some, but only for a testing phase. Things are not final and are about to be polished up, ironed out and enhanced before Ask Photos goes live for everybody.
Ask Photos is all about Gemini (Google’s AI model) getting more integrated into the popular Photos app, which will soon handle tasks based on your commands.
As previewed by Google, Ask Photos will help users find specific images or details within them with a smart, AI-powered search. The new Ask Photos feature leverages Gemini to understand image content, allowing for more advanced searches. For instance, it can identify a car license plate and let users ask about a specific plate number on a particular car model for precise identification.
Or, one could use Ask Photos to get the very best ten photos from that trip last year – in theory, this could be highly useful, if you’re the kind of person who takes 2,000-3,000 photos per day. On the other hand, you’re relying completely on Ask Photos and its understanding of what a ‘good photo’ is. Choices will have to be made!
Now, a 9to5Google report shines a light on Ask Photos on a Pixel 8 Pro – a user got a notification that their Google Photos app was part of a “pre-release” study. The disclaimer suggests Google is seeking feedback from some users, but the scope of this “study” remains unclear.
So, Ask Photos logically appears on the Search tab in the Google Photos app. A prominent Ask button with the Gemini logo appears next to the search bar. This is a new design, as Google previously showed the feature as a dedicated tab within the app. Of course, that was more than two months ago, so of course things like button positions and overall design are subject to change.
Here’s how it looks:
When you hit that Ask button, a page pops up. “What would you like to see?”, the new page reads. It offers example prompts (like: “Photos of me over time”) or the option to write your own question. Unfortunately, the sample prompt “Photos of me over time” wasn’t functional, and the feature disappeared for the user who got an early glimpse of it.
The exact release date for “Ask Photos” is still unknown, but its brief availability as part of this “study” suggests it could be relatively close. Google previously mentioned the feature would arrive in the summer.