Android to have Google's Ask Photos AI feature

Ask Photos for Android is a new AI function that Google is working on. The Gemini AI assistant will be used by this Google Photos extension to respond to user enquiries regarding their photo collections. The functionality is not currently ready for public testing, but it was noticed in the most recent Google app beta.

The feature has been spotted in development on the latest Google app beta version 15.33.36.29.arm64. It has been discovered references to the Ask Photos functionality while conducting an APK teardown. Those enrolled in the Google Play beta programme will not be able to use it until Google begins rolling it out to testers.

One of the strings of code includes the phrase “assistant_robin_action_ask_photos_single_image_content_description” which highlights that the feature will use the Gemini AI assistant, according to the publication. Notably, robin is the internal name for Gemini. Another string highlights the possible action of the feature as accessing the “Google Photos extension”.

These two strings suggest that the feature, once released, will be available via the Gemini AI assistant and that an extension will integrate Google Photos into it. In terms of functionality, the tech giant explained during its event that the feature is aimed at answering queries about the images.

The database for the feature will be the user's Google Photos backup. With Ask Photos, the user can ask a question such as “What did I wear when I visited Jaipur” and Gemini will be able to search through the relevant images to find the answer. The tech giant had said that users can ask complicated and vague queries, and Gemini will still be able to find the right answer.