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Google Photos' Gemini-powered search feature makes a brief appearance
- We’ve got an early look at Google Photos’ upcoming Ask Photos feature.
- Google appears to be testing the feature with a small number of users, and it appears to have received some UI changes.
- The feature shows up as an Ask button next to the search bar, and gives users a few sample prompts to try it out.
Google demoed a new Gemini-powered Google Photos feature at I/O this year called “Ask Photos.” At the time, the company gave us a glimpse of the feature, revealing that it would let users ask Gemini to look up information from their photo library. Although the feature has yet to reach users, we now have a better idea of how it will work.
Google has reportedly started testing Ask Photos with a few users to gather feedback ahead of a wider rollout. 9to5Google notes that a user briefly got access to a pre-release version of the feature on their Pixel 8 Pro and its UI had some changes compared to the demo we saw earlier this year.
Instead of a dedicated tab in Google Photos, the feature appeared as an Ask button next to the search bar. This button brought up a new page with a few sample prompts, along with the option to write custom prompts.
Upon selecting the “Photos of me over time” prompt, the user received an error highlighting a technical issue and the option to “Use classic search.” Shortly after that, the feature disappeared from Google Photos.
Ask Photos doesn’t appear to be ready for primetime in its current state and it may be a while before Google rolls it out widely. We’ll let you know as soon as Google releases a functional version in a beta update.