Google has announced two new AI-powered feature to help you find a certain photos, and one of them is rolling out now.
The feature hitting phones now is called Ask Photos. As the name implies, it lets you use descriptive queries to hunt down specific photos and videos and get better results.
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Using Google’s Gemini AI, Ask Photos can understand the context of the photos in your gallery, including details like the people in your life, your hobbies, and your favorite foods. For example, suppose you’re planning a camping trip and want to return to a favorite site you captured in your photos. You could ask Google Photos: “Where did we camp the last time we went to Yosemite?”
In another example, suppose 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 results based on its understanding of the key details in your photos. 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. 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.
A waitlist for the feature was introduced in September, but it appears to be rolling out to other users now. The feature will work on Android and iOS and will arrive in an update to the app. You’ll know you have the new feature when the traditional Search button at the bottom of the Photos app gets replaced with Ask Photos.
When you first open the app, you’ll be asked to identify your relationship with people or pets that appear often.
Also new is the option to use descriptive queries while searching for photos. This feature began rolling out in September.
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“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 blog post. “Starting today (Sept. 5), 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.
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.
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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 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.