Google beats Apple in race to roll out major AI upgrade that lets users find photos in seconds with their voice alone
GOOGLE has begun rolling out a new AI-powered feature to its Photos app that lets users search for images with just their voice.
Users can ask their device: ‘Where did I go camping last year?’ And Google’s AI will scan their photo library and pluck out the right snaps.
The Ask Photos feature, which has been made available to both Android and iPhone owners through Google Photos, is the exact same as a top iOS 18 tool touted by Apple.
Apple is just days away from unveiling iOS 18, which will come jam-packed with the company’s new AI features.
So it appears Apple has been pipped to the post with its grand reveal.
The feature uses Google’s Gemini AI to understand natural language search, which allows users to ask their questions conversationally – and not in a stiff, scripted way for a voice assistant to understand.
The AI can then look through an entire photo library in one breath, seeing what objects, decorations and other hints are in the background of each image.
For example, you could ask: ‘What are the best photos from the birthday party?’
And Gemini AI will pass over the blurry, overexposed shots to give you a curation of perfect birthday snaps – which can certainly save on editing time.
More than that, it can be a helpful storage-saving tool, as you can use AI to save the best of your pictures while you cull the rest.
What is Google Gemini?
You may have heard of Google's Gemini AI tool - so what exactly is it?
Google’s Gemini AI launched in December 2023 and is available online, billed as a way to “supercharge your creativity and productivity”.
Gemini is a multimodal model that learns from a variety of data types including images, text, and audio.
When a user enters a prompt into Gemini, it generates a response using information it already knows or pulls from other sources (often Google services).
While training on datasets, it identifies patterns that help it mimic a human response. As it is continuously learning, Gemini also learns from your prompts, responses, and feedback.
Google has admitted that “Gemini will make mistakes and might even say something offensive”.
The program occasionally cites its sources. If it quotes at length from a webpage, for instance, it makes reference to that page. Sometimes, it generates a URL that users can click.
Gemini has usage limits to reduce traffic, meaning it may cap the number of prompts and conversations a user can have within a specific timeframe.
This number depends on factors like how long and complex a user’s prompts are and the length of the conversation with Gemini. Google will alert you when you are close to hitting the limit for a given period.
Google is currently providing early access to select iOS and Android Google Photos users.
Those who want to try the feature can sign up for the waitlist on Google’s website.
Ask Photos was unveiled at the Google I/O event in May, while Apple revealed it was working on a very similar Apple Intelligence feature in June.
Apple’s feature, however, goes one step further.
It can be used for both photos and videos inside the native iOS Photos app.
iPhone and iPad users, with iOS 18, will even be able to find a particular moment in a video clip that fits their search description.
For example, they could search: ‘Show me when Katie blows out the candles on her birthday cake.’