Google has temporarily halted the rollout of its Ask Photos feature in Google Photos due to user feedback regarding slow response times and inadequate search results. The company has announced that a refined version of Ask Photos will be introduced in roughly two weeks. The Ask Photos functionality was part of a significant search upgrade announced by Google, enabling users to search for specific text within their photos.
This innovative feature, powered by Gemini, allows natural language queries such as “pictures of my dog eating on the sofa” or “me in a swimming pool.” Though Google began implementing this enhanced search experience in September of last year, users have reported issues that prompted this pause. Jamie Aspinall, the product manager for Google Photos, explained that the rollout of Ask Photos was limited due to challenges related to latency, quality, and the overall user experience.
The team is currently working to address these concerns and aims to deliver an improved version that offers the same efficiency as the original search feature. For those who currently have access to Ask Photos, it remains usable, although some may encounter high latency. If this is an issue, users have the option to disable the feature through the Google Photos settings until the problems are resolved.
Ask Photos leverages Gemini’s multimodal capabilities, enhancing the search experience by allowing users to retrieve specific images based on context. For instance, you can ask Google Photos to show all the food pictures captured during your last trip. In addition to these updates, Google celebrated the tenth anniversary of Google Photos with new features, including an upgraded image editor with AI tools.
Some exclusive features for Pixel 9 users, like Reimagine and Auto Frame, are now accessible to all users, and the update also introduced the ability to share albums via QR codes.
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