Joe Maring / Android Authority
At Google I/O 2024, Google introduced the world to “Ask Photos.” It was a new Gemini-powered search experience for Google Photos that would enable you to use natural language to easily find pictures in your library. The pitch sounded great and like a legitimately good use of AI.
Unfortunately, Ask Photos’ implementation fell short. I’ve been using Ask Photos for the last several months, and in almost every scenario, it’s been significantly worse than the old search experience. Between slow loading times and a really unintuitive UI, Ask Photos has made searching for things in Google Photos horribly frustrating.
Given that, you can imagine my excitement when Google started rolling out a new and improved Ask Photos this past week. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, but having now used it, I think it’s brilliant.
The new Ask Photos search vs. the old version
Joe Maring / Android Authority Old Ask Photos (left) and the new Ask Photos
Previously, the Google Photos search experience was essentially split into two versions. If you used Ask Photos, you’d get a reply to your search or question with a handful of photo results in a bizarre, horizontally scrolling list. You could tap the “View more” button below to see more results in a vertical list, or tap “Use classic search” at the top of the page to perform the same search using Google Photos’ standard search tool.
The initial results in that horizontal list were often far too limited, while the “View more” option displayed a lengthy list of additional pictures in a seemingly random order with no organization. The classic search still worked well, but there was no way to switch it as the default option over Ask Photos, making it far more complicated to access than it should have been.
Old Ask Photos Old Ask Photos Old Ask Photos
With this new version of Ask Photos, Google has essentially taken the old version of the feature and combined it with the classic Google Photos search to create one, much more intuitive search experience.
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