Google’s AI ‘Ask Photos’ Feature May Actually Be Usable Now

Google’s AI-powered Ask Photos feature was announced last year, but failed to make a splash when it started rolling out to the public. It replaced the regular photo search feature with a Gemini AI search that, often, took too much time when you just wanted to find photos of your pets, or your car. This was such an issue that my colleagues starting using a workaround that let them skip Ask Photos entirely, shifting back to the classic search option instead.

Google seems to have noticed, because early this month, the company paused the rollout of the feature altogether. According to a Google Product Manager, the feature wasn't "where it needs to be, in terms of latency, quality and ux." Now, Google is resuming that rollout again, fixing what was perhaps the biggest issue with Ask Photos.

Ask Photos now works with simple search terms, too

Ask Photos is Google’s upgraded search feature for Google Photos that combines Gemini AI and regular photo search. So, you can ask it detailed and complex questions like, "find all the photos from 2012 when I had short hair," or "find all the photos of my old van parked at the beach." In theory, it would understand what you’re saying (thanks to Gemini AI), and then go about your photo library finding what you’re looking for.

The problem with Ask Photos was its latency, especially when it came to single word searches, like “cats,” “nature,” “boat,” and so on. Google says that it's fixed this issue, and when you use a short search phrase in Ask Photos, you’ll see search results instantly, like you do in classic search.

Google says that it's made more complex searches faster, too. So when you ask for photos from a particular vacation, or photos with both your kids on the beach, Google will show you the results more quickly. Supposedly, you won’t have to wait forever for Gemini AI to think before you start seeing your photos.

How to try the new Ask Photos update

Google says that the Ask Photos update will start to roll out to a wider set of users now. But it’s still limited to the US. According to Google, you will need to be 18 or older, be based in the United States, and have your Google Account language set to English (United States) for this feature to work. Plus, you’ll also need to have the Face Groups feature enabled.

Once you meet all these requirements, it’s going to be a waiting game fro you to get the update, as Google is slowly expanding the availability of the Ask Photos feature. Until then, you can continue to use the classic search method.