Google has announced search improvements for the Google Photos service, including early access to its Ask Photos feature to select U.S. users.

Google Photos has long used artificial intelligence (AI) to recognize people, pets, objects, places, and more on images. And because search is such an important part of the experience, the company is adding more AI capabilities to enable more descriptive queries instead of just keywords. For example, you can use queries like “Alice and me laughing,” “Kayaking on a lake surrounded by mountains,” or “Emma painting in the backyard” to quickly sift through massive image libraries and find that needle in the haystack.

“In addition to getting better results, you can choose whether to sort your search results by date or relevance, helping you find the specific image you’re looking for even faster,” the company said. The more descriptive search queries are rolling out in English to all Android and iOS users, with support for additional languages due in the coming weeks.

Google also confirmed that select Photos users in the U.S. can sign up for early access to Ask Photos via Google Labs by joining the waitlist. Ask Photos will be more broadly available once Google has gathered enough feedback to implement improvements.

Announced at Google I/O in May, Ask Photos is a Gemini chatbot built into Photos. Instead of simple searches like “birthday parties” or “sunset,” Ask Photos lets you use more natural language in searches to surface all relevant images. A few examples include description queries such as “Remind me what themes we’ve had for Lena’s birthday parties,” “Where did we camp last time we went to Yosemite,” “What did we eat at the hotel in Stanley,” etc.

AI analyzes your library to discover useful connections and details, like your favorite foods and the most important people in your life. It can recognize many details in your photos to power descriptive searches. For example, it knows where you snapped those photos with camping gear or what dish you’re enjoying in your picture at the restaurant. You can always refine Ask Photos results by tweaking your query to provide extra details.

Google ensures your Photos data isn’t used for targeted advertising. Humans may review some Ask Photos queries as part of product improvement “but only after being disconnected from your account to protect your privacy.” For details, read the Google Photos Help.

Source: Google