Google is rolling out AI-powered contextual search in Google Photos, its cloud-based photo backup solution. The feature aims to supercharge the search experience in Google Photos using AI.
Google’s Gemini AI models power the new ‘Ask Photos’ search in Google Photos.
‘Ask Photos’ uses Gemini models for contextual image searching
You can already search through your Google Photos library using tagged faces and natural keywords like dogs, cats, cars, etc. However, Google wants to improve this experience even further by using AI.
Google says in its The Keyword blog post that Ask Photos “can understand the context of your photo gallery. ” You can use Ask Photos to search your photo library using questions like “What were the top things I saw during my last vacation?” The feature is conversational, allowing you to provide additional details to refine or improve the results.
Even better, you can use Ask Photos for suggestions, like highlighting the best photos from your birthday album. Similarly, you can ask it to surface pictures of a particular food item in your library.
Ask Photos in Google Photos is rolling out in the U.S. through Google Labs. To gain access to the feature, you must join the waitlist.
In addition to Ask Photos, Google is improving the regular search feature in Google Photos. You can now use natural and descriptive keywords to search for images in your library, like “me in the mountains,” “me with a dog,” etc.
This change is rolling out to all Google Photos users on iOS and Android in English. A wider expansion to more languages will happen in the coming weeks.
iOS 18 will improve the search experience in Apple Photos
Apple Photos already lets you search your photo library by faces, pets, text, content, or date. Like Google, Apple will also supercharge the search experience in iOS 18’s Photos app by adding support for natural language search.
For example, this will allow you to use terms like “Me in Singapore” to quickly find photos from your Singapore vacation. However, Google’s Ask Photos implementation appears more sophisticated.