Google Photos' new AI feature lets you search for images in a more chatty way

Ever had problems finding a photo? Well, let's face it, who hasn't? Which means you'd think that Google Photos would be a godsend. After all, Google is the king of search. So you'd expect this free, cloud-based service would be brilliant at helping you find that one specific image by text search alone... right?

Well, in practice it's not always that great. To give you an example, I went to Tokyo Disneyland last night, and took a few hundred shots from my phone camera. These were never meant for public consumption: taken from a distance and with lots of people's heads in the way, these were taken mainly so my wife and I could remember the moment later. 

In fact, I can imagine a conversation with her in years to come. "The Cheshire cat float was great, wasn't it?" "No, you're mistaken: there was no Cheshire cat." A quick search of my photos for something like "Cheshire cat Disneyland" would bring it up instantly, and the argument would be settled.

Well, that's the theory anyway. In practice, I just tried that exact search, and Google Photos couldn't find anything. 

I then tried just 'cat' but got no useful results either. Admittedly, I got some other pictures, the first weirdly being a shot of an empty stage at Reading Festival, with no cats in sight, but no Disneyland float. 

Then I tried searching 'Disneyland Night Parade' and things got weirder. Only three of the literally hundreds of shots I uploaded last night were returned. Specifically, the three that feature the illuminated text 'Disneyland Electric Parade' in the actual picture. Yet when I shortened the search to 'Night Parade', I got seven. 

Given that these shots were all taken seconds from each other, you'd think that Google's almighty algorithm would have worked out they were from the same parade. But then again, this is the same technology that sees you have bought a caravan and decides that what you really want to see is a million ads to buy another caravan. You can never have enough caravans, right?

So are we doomed to never finding that all-so-important holiday snap in years to come? Well, according to recent announcements by Google, there may be light on the horizon. Because an upcoming Ask Photos feature, which it's recently been testing on random users, promises to harness Gemini AI technology and let you search in a more natural and effective way.

What is Google Gemini?

In case you don't know, Google Gemini is the company's AI platform; their answer to ChatGPT and other services that let you type in questions and requests in normal, plain English and get intelligent-sounding (if not always reliable) answers. 

I've find it most useful for booking cheap hotels. For example, if you ask it "Find me the 5 cheapest hotels in London on Thursday (no hostels) that are within 30 minutes travelling time of the O2 Greenwich", it usually does a pretty good job. I still have to check the info is correct, but this still saves me an awful lot of time trawling through sites like Booking.com, which don't always offer the most useful filters. 

With this in mind, I'm excited to see how Gemini's tech can make Google Photos search better by allowing natural language queries and providing intelligent, context-aware responses. Or at least, finding a cat when I want to find a cat.

What can Ask Photos do?

In a blog announcing the new feature, Google software engineer Jeremy Selier explains that Ask Photos will even go beyond just finding specific photos. You'll also be able to write requests like "Show me the best photo from each national park I've visited." 

Another example he offers is: "What themes have we had for Lena's birthday parties?", which should return you detailed answers based on visual elements such as decorations or cake designs.

Ask Photos will also, apparently, help you create trip highlights by suggesting top pictures and generating personalised captions for social media sharing. Another example shared on stage at the Google I/O event was being able to ask: "What's my license plate number again?"

Perhaps most usefully, Google's blog says: "If you correct an answer or provide extra information, Ask Photos can remember details for the future." That means, in theory, that the feature will become more useful over time as it learns more about you and what's in your photos. (Assuming you're not freaked out about the biggest company on Earth knowing even more of your secrets than it does already.)

When is Ask Photos available?

While an exact release date hasn't been announced, Google plans to roll out Ask Photos as an experimental feature over the coming months, so you might just see an extra 'Ask' function pop up on your homepage soon. Or perhaps not.

If it does, the company is seeking user feedback to refine and improve the feature as they build "the next chapter of Google Photos". So if it doesn't work well, or it doesn't work at all, please do let them know... for all our sakes.