Google Photos Updated With Descriptive Queries Feature for Improved Search Experience

Google Photos has introduced a new feature that will make searching for specific photos and videos easier. On Thursday, the Mountain View-based tech giant announced the rollout of Descriptive Queries, an improved version of the native search functionality of the app. With this, users can type a query in simple language and find more specific results. This feature is being rolled out to all users on iOS and Android. Notably, the company is also giving US users early access to an unreleased AI-powered Ask Photos feature which uses Gemini to find images.

Google Photos Updated With Support for Descriptive Queries

In a blog post, the tech giant announced the Descriptive Queries feature. The feature is an improvement to the native search functionality of Google Photos, which is present at the bottom of the app. Earlier, users could search specific images by adding relevant keywords. However, further refining search results was not possible.

Google Photos Descriptive Queries feature
Photo Credit: Google

But with the improvement, users can type search queries in natural language which can be as long as a sentence to find specific images and videos. For instance, searching for “Alice and me laughing,” or “Kayaking on a lake surrounded by mountains” will show relevant results. Google said that users can also use vague language in their search queries.

Notably, this is not a Gemini-powered feature and is being rolled out to all users across iOS and Android. However, Descriptive Queries will only work when the user's smartphone language is set to English. Google says the search experience will be expanded to more languages in the coming weeks.

Additionally, Google Photos will also allow users to sort results by date or relevance, which can make finding the right image even easier.

Google is also rolling out early access to a recently introduced AI-powered feature to look up images and videos on the app, dubbed Ask Photos. Powered by Gemini, it allows users to use the AI by typing conversational prompts. Gemini uses computer vision to process users' Google Photos library and find relevant images.

It is an experimental feature which is part of Google Labs. Currently, it is available in early access to select users in the US. The company said it will be expanded to more users later this year.