Key Takeaways

• Google has introduced a Gemini-infused AI search feature for Photos at its I/O 2024 conference.
• Ask Photos with Gemini enables natural language searches to help you find specific photos within your gallery.
• The feature will be available for testing 'in the coming months.'

Google has just announced a brand-new Gemini AI-infused search feature for its popular Photos service, showcasing it on-stage at its annual I/O 2024 conference. Google's new search capabilities in Photos can expand your photo collection into something even closer to a searchable database.

This new feature is referred to by the company as Ask Photos with Gemini. The main premise here is leveraging Google's Gemini AI models, so that you can search for specific photos in your gallery using language that's more natural and intuitive.

Incorporating the ability to search across your backlog of images with improved natural language is exciting, and potentially a very powerful tool if implemented effectively.

A new way to search and locate all your photos

"Ask Photos uncovers that information for you when you ask questions about your life, like where you camped last year or when your vouchers expire. Gemini’s multimodal capabilities can understand the context and subject of photos to pull out details," says Google.

Google goes on to highlight other examples of natural language search queries, including "What themes have we had for Lena's birthday parties?" and "Show me the best photo from each national park I've visited."

Under the hood, Ask Photos follows a multistep process that includes identifying relevant keywords, places, people and dates, reading text within the image if applicable, and determining natural language across contexts.

Building atop the already solid foundations of Google Photos

Google is quick to point out that its Photos service was one of the first products in its portfolio to infuse AI into its core. Indeed, the company arrived early to the gallery indexing game, with Photos long being capable of recognizing faces, pets, and locations.

Incorporating the ability to search across your backlog of images with improved natural language is exciting, and potentially a very powerful tool if implemented effectively.

As for when Ask Photos will actually arrive, we unfortunately don't have much in the way of a time frame to go off of. Google says the feature will be available to test out 'in the coming months,' and it's reasonable to assume that the company will want to roll it out slowly to test for bugs and for overall search accuracy.