Google Re-Releases ‘Ask Photos’ AI Tool to Find Images With Just a Few Words

Google Photos has reintroduced its AI-powered “Ask Photos” feature that allows you to look for photos by just typing what is in them. For instance, you can search the photos of your vacation at a beach by just typing “beach” or those with your playful cat using “cat” as the search term. Ask Photos is now rolling out to “eligible” users in the US as part of expanded early access, but more users in more countries can expect the feature to arrive soon.

What is Ask Photos?

Google began rolling out Ask Photos last year in early access to select users in the US. The feature uses Gemini AI models to understand queries and find items or information in photos that match them, allowing you to ask questions such as “what did I eat on my trip to Barcelona?” or “suggest photos that’d make great phone backgrounds.”

However, Google paused the Ask Photos rollout earlier this month after the company spotted issues in the feature. According to Jamie Aspinall, product manager for Google Photos, acknowledged on X earlier this month that ‘Ask Photos isn’t where it needs to be,’ citing latency, quality, and UX as core issues.”

Citing those factors, Google said it is “improving Ask Photos” as part of the wider rollout. It has improved latency and added the classic search feature to Ask Photos for “fast help with simple and complex queries in one place.” Ask Photos now works even more closely with Gemini models to identify queries, understand the context, and find the most relevant photos or information.

Still ahead of Apple

Apple is building a similar feature for its Photos app using Apple Intelligence, but it has not said when it will be available for users. The current status of Apple Intelligence is far behind Google’s consumer-facing AI services, which are increasingly becoming a core part of the Android ecosystem.

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