Google announced today that it heard feedback from users of the Google Photos app who have been asking for a way they can have more control over their search results on the app. As a result, Google is now allowing Google Photos users to choose between the classic fast search and the intelligent Ask Photos results. A toggle is being added to the Google Photos app allowing users to switch between these two options:
The new Google Photos Search toggle allows you to quickly switch between fast search, and intelligent search
Fast Search, the “Classic Search,” is the keyword-based tool and users get a response instantly. Google says that this method for searching in the Google Photos app is the best for searches like “beach 2022” or “cat photos.”
The other search option you have for Google Photos is the “Intelligent mode” or Ask Photos. This option employs the Gemini 3 AI models, which makes it more powerful than Classic Search. However, it also makes it slower than Classic Search because the models have to reason through your photo library. This would be the Google Photos search option to use if you have a more complex search request such as, “Show me the day we brought our puppy home” or, “What was the name of that street in Manhattan we walked across after the blizzard in New York?”
Why this is a smart move by Google
If you look at the photo showing the two different views that we’ve embedded into this article, you can see the toggle on the left side of the display just under the “Back” arrow. Classic Search is on when the toggle is off leaving the AI Mode icon (the magnifying glass with a Gemini spark) in white on a gray button. When Ask Photos is enabled, the toggle is white with the AI Mode icon in blue and the button is inside a blue pill.
This is a smart move by Google because it gives users of the Google Photos app the opportunity to get AI-based search without totally giving up the speed of keyword-based search. Considering that the Google Photos app has 1.5 billion monthly active users, the addition of the toggle is going to be a big deal that helps many users of the app on both iOS and Android.
