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topicnews · August 27, 2024

Google leak reveals radical upgrade of AI search on Google Photos

Google leak reveals radical upgrade of AI search on Google Photos

According to a new report, Google is one step closer to delivering the most significant Google Photos upgrade in years.

As revealed by Android Authority and prolific app investigator Assemble Debug, Google has begun testing a new extension to its Gemini AI model that will enable the promised “Ask Photos” feature announced earlier this year. Ask Photos lets users interact with their Google Photos libraries using natural language commands, like “Show me the best photo from every national park I’ve visited” or “What was my license plate number again?” This allows your photos and videos to serve as a sort of visual database of your life from which Gemini can intelligently extract information and context.

Ask Photos hasn’t been officially released yet, but according to the report, text referring to the feature is already appearing in the code of the latest version of the Google app for Android. The Google app lets you perform searches on your device using images and text, and provides the familiar “Discover” news feed that you find when you swipe left on your home screen.

The new text contains (emphasis mine):

Google Photos image

Google Photos extension results

Google Photos

Google Photos icon

Here, “Robin” is believed to be an internal codename for Google Gemini. The code suggests that a Gemini extension for Ask Photos is currently being tested. The report suggests that this extension will have a lot in common with the Ask Photos feature that is expected to appear in the Google Photos app. This exciting development means that some Ask Photos features could become accessible outside of Google Photos.

There is no further information on how this might work, but it is possible that Ask Photos content could soon appear alongside regular search results, or Google could enhance Ask Photos results with additional information from online searches using Google Lens – for example, by looking up the prices of items shown in your images or gathering background information on landmarks.

By combining Ask Photos and Google Lens, you can get an incredibly powerful tool for searching your Google Photos library based on current context from around the web.

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