Google Photos rolling out limited early access to Ask Photos AI assistant

Google is experimenting with a new "Ask Photos" AI assistant to make the search for pictures more convenient. The feature was announced at Google I/O 2024 in May and is rolling out to Google Labs users in the US. 

Ask Photos will let users simply ask questions from Google Photos and utilising Google’s Gemini AI models, the app will show results on the basis of the content in the photos accompanied by the photo that is most suited to the answer. 

According to Google, users can even Ask Photos to complete tasks such as offering a summary of activities from the last vacation or selecting the best photo from a collection.

“For example, you can ask for suggestions for the best photos from your birthday party for a shared album or for help summarising the top things you did on your recent trip to share with a friend,” said Google in its blog.

Google Photos’ last tab transitions into ‘Ask’, accompanied by a bottom search bar where users can enter questions in natural language. Ask Photos shows the stages of the process as “Thinking,” “Searching,” and “Reviewing,” and the Gemini logo is displayed throughout the process. Even if Ask Photos is unable to find the photos, it will offer clues and details to help the user.

Users can sign up for the waitlist to access Ask Photos on Google’s website. Google will let users switch to the old way of searching images anytime while asking Google Photos but Google is now also upgrading the “classic search” to let users ask for pictures in a conversational way. Users can also sort the search results by date or relevance. This feature is rolling out widely on Android and iOS in English with support for more languages rolling out in upcoming weeks.

Google has said that Google Photos is not used for ads and is protected with the industry-leading security measures. In order to incorporate the new change, Google Photos introduced the new collection page to replace the Library tab to make it easier to search for photos and videos.