Adamya Sharma / Android Authority
Google introduced Ask Photos in 2024 to let users type search queries in natural-language questions instead of just keywords. The Ask button quickly replaced the traditional search experience in Google Photos, promising a smarter, Gemini-powered tool that would let users dig through their library using context-aware AI, saving precious time spent scrolling through search results.
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As it turns out, many Google Photos users prefer the old in-app search experience over Ask Photos. Over on Reddit, a growing number of users say that the classic search bar in Google Photos works much better than the Gemini-powered Ask button.
One frustrated user said, “I take a lot of photos. I have over 50k photos and videos on my phone. I like taking photos of birds. I used to be able to search ‘kookaburra,’ and a kookaburra would show up… Now nothing comes up at all. So instead, I ‘ask’ for birds… It shows me 6 photos. I have over 400 photos of birds…”
Others share the sentiment, saying Google’s implementation of the new Ask feature didn’t quite live up to their expectations. Instead of surfacing everything that matches a term, Ask Photos seems to return a small, curated set of results, which doesn’t always serve the purpose of the search. The good news is that it’s very, very easy to bring up the old search bar in Google Photos. Here’s how.
How to get rid of Ask and bring back the classic Google Photos search experience? Yes, you can turn off Ask Photos by accessing a hidden toggle in Google Photos settings. Open Google Photos
Tap your profile picture
Go to Photos settings
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