Google Photos gets improved search and Gemini-powered Ask Photos

Today Google Photos is receiving improvements to search, letting you use more descriptive queries using everyday language. An example Google gave is something like "Emma painting in the backyard", and you can see how it works in the video below.

You can sort the results by date or relevance, to help you get to the specific image you're after even faster. This experience is currently rolling out in English to all users on Android and iOS, and will expand to more languages "in the coming weeks".

Select US users are also getting early access to Ask Photos via Google Labs today, provided they're signed up for the waitlist. This supercharges search with the power of Gemini AI. Ask Photos understands the context of your photo gallery - the most important people in your life, your hobbies and favorite foods, that sort of thing.

Thus, it can pull out relevant details to help you find specific memories and uncover information about your life. The video below shows how this works by using "What did we eat at the hotel in Stanley?" as the question.

Because Ask Photos is basically a chatbot in Google Photos, it's conversational, so if it doesn't find what you were looking for upon the first try, you can give it extra clues or details.

You can also ask it for help summarizing the top things you did on a trip, and give you suggestions for the best photos from a specific event. All of this works through the magic of Gemini models.

Google says humans may review your Ask Photos queries in order to improve the service, but only after being disconnected from your Google Account in order to protect your privacy. The answers Ask Photos gives you are not reviewed by humans except if you provide feedback or in rare cases to address abuse or harm.

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