Google Photos is undoing part of its Gemini upgrade

Google has integrated Gemini into almost all its products and services. Even Google Photos now features a Gemini-powered Ask Photos search tool that lets you ask natural-language questions to find pictures more easily. However, the experience is not something that every Google Photos user wants. So, based on user feedback, Google is now giving users the option to switch back to the classic search experience.

Shimrit Ben-Yair, Google Photos, Google One, and AI subscriptions lead at Google, posted on X that, based on user feedback, the company will provide users with more control over the search experience. That means you can switch to the Classic Search experience or stick to using the Gemini-powered Ask Photos option if that’s what you prefer.

Compared to the regular search option, Ask Photos is more suited for more complex, natural language-oriented queries. It’s great for finding specific photos, but that’s not something you always want. Plus, with my photo library being almost 1.5TB, Ask Photos take sa while to return the results.

These issues have been one of my biggest pain points with the Google Photos search experience since Ask Photos expanded beyond the U.S. So, it’s good to see Google finally acknowledging the issue and giving users more control.

You should soon see a toggle to switch between Ask Photos and the Classic Search option in Google Photos.

Google tweaks Ask Photos for better search results

Shimrit also announced improvements to Ask Photos that should deliver better results for some popular and commonly used queries. Google says the changes come from refining the feature based on user feedback.

If Ask Photos still isn’t delivering the results you expect, you can share your feedback with Google to help improve the experience further.