You can now try one of the best new Google Photos features in years

By Christine Romero-Chan Published September 5, 2024

If you have a lot of photos, you know that searching through them can be a bit of a daunting task. Thankfully, if you use Google Photos, searching your photo library is now easier than ever thanks to some search improvements and Ask Photos with Gemini. Both of these features are rolling out today, though the Ask Photos feature is only available to select users through Google Labs.

What exactly is Ask Photos? It goes a step beyond the standard search experience in Google Photos by using the most recent Gemini models to understand your photo gallery. This means the most important people in your life, your hobbies, favorite foods, and more. With this data, Ask Photos can pull out relevant details in your photos to help you find those specific memories that you’re looking for, as well as help uncover information about your life as a whole.

Google provided some specific use cases for the Ask Photos feature. For example, you’re planning your next camping trip, but want to return to your favorite site. Just ask “Where did we camp last time we went to Yosemite?” and you’ll get the answer you’re seeking. Or maybe you want to go back to a restaurant and order the same dish, but you can’t remember what it was called. Simply ask “what did we eat at the hotel in Stanley?” and you’ll get those results.

With Ask Photos, it will understand the finer details, such as where you took a photo of your camping gear, or what dish was sitting on the restaurant table. Ask Photos is also meant to be conversational, so if you don’t get the answer you’re looking for right away, you can provide more clues or direction to nudge Gemini to get it right.

The Ask Photos tool can also help you with other tasks like suggesting the best photos to use for a shared album for a birthday party. It can also summarize something like the best things you did on a recent trip with a friend or family member.

Google is taking a responsible approach to the Ask Photos feature, as it’s guided by the company’s AI Principles. This means that while it strives to improve products based on actual usage, Google also takes responsibility for protecting your data and privacy. Google Photos is never used for ads and continues to be protected with Google’s own security measures.

In order to improve Ask Photos results, queries are reviewed by humans, but only after being disconnected from your Google Account. The answers that you get with the Ask Photos feature, including the photos and videos, are not reviewed by humans unless feedback is needed.

Again, Ask Photos is only available through Google Labs right now. This is so Google can ensure it gets it right before rolling it out to everyone. You can join the waitlist for early access to Ask Photos.

The other change for Google Photos that is readily available for everyone is the improved classic search. Now, searching through your photos is easier than ever as you can use everyday language, which is a more natural and descriptive way. Examples include “Alice and me laughing,” “Kayaking on a lake surrounded by mountains,” or “Emma painting in the backyard.”

You’ll get better results with these natural language searches, and you can now sort search results by date or relevance. Improved Google Photos search is rolling out for all users on both Android and iOS. Google is planning to expand it to more languages in the coming weeks.