Google's 'Ask Photos' AI search is back and should be better than ever — what we know

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The AI-powered search promises to be faster than before

Google Photos app on a smartphone screen
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Google's "Ask Photos" feature is back, after the rollout was put on hold thanks to various quality and performance issues. Now the company has confirmed things are getting back on track, and with some much needed improvements.

Google published a new blog post confirming this news, and declaring that it has "heard your feedback" about the state of Ask Photos. Now, with the rollout resuming, Google claims that it should start producing much faster search results — and better support for more complex searches.

This means search results should appear immediately, while Gemini works in the background to find "the most relevant photos or information for more complex queries.”

What happened with Ask Photos?

google ask photos feature gif

(Image credit: Google)

Ask Photos initially started rolling out last September as an experimental feature powered by the "most capable" Gemini AI models. The point was that it would be better able to understand what was actually going on in your pictures, and bring them to you when asked.

According to Google the AI was only used for Ask Photos, which meant it should have been quite good at its job. However the quality wasn't quite there, and earlier this month Google "paused" the rollout in response to criticism about latency, quality and the overall user experience.

So earlier this month the Google Photos product manager took to Twitter (yes, I know, it's called X now) to say they paused the rollout, promising a better version would be on the way in around two weeks. Now that better version is here, and hopefully it at least addresses some of the concerns people had.

Google seems confident at least, and has promised that the new and improved Ask Photos will be opening up "beyond early access" and will be available for more eligible users in the U.S.

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Tom Pritchard
Tom Pritchard
UK Phones Editor

Tom is the Tom's Guide's UK Phones Editor, tackling the latest smartphone news and vocally expressing his opinions about upcoming features or changes. It's long way from his days as editor of Gizmodo UK, when pretty much everything was on the table. He’s usually found trying to squeeze another giant Lego set onto the shelf, draining very large cups of coffee, or complaining about how terrible his Smart TV is.

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