Ask Photos is designed to be a more conversational way to approach search. Instead of typing in search terms like “koala” or “Australia,” you should be able to ask, “What animals did I see on my trip last year?” to surface all of the animals you photographed on a vacation.
Though the feature has been around for two years, the support page for Ask Photos says, “This feature is still experimental, so it may give unexpected or inaccurate results.”
That statement is accurate, according to discontent users.
Users weigh in
The post in the Google Pixel subreddit is both commentary and a cry for help, “I used to be able to search a word or phrase in my photos and then click to find photos with that text in it. Now I have to ask gemini to find photos with that text in it and it doesn’t work. Is there any way around this?”
Almost immediately under it is the response: “Someone please give him award for THE Understatement of 2026 !!!”
Some do not want to have a conversation with AI to find a photo, while others can’t get results for simple search requests like finding a photo they took of a monkey at a zoo.
This latest outpouring of opinions is far from the first time Gemini’s addition to Google Photos has been criticized by users. The disappointment might be best expressed in a post in the Google Photos subreddit from three months ago that says, “I’m pretty disappointed, I know these are growing pains as everything matures but Google Photos was the undisputed king of image storage and organization imo.”
That is the crux of the issue. Google Photos is over 10 years old and in that time has grown to over 1.5 billion monthly active users. That’s a tremendous amount of people trusting a service with their most treasured, irreplaceable memories. Emotions are bound to run high when they have trouble surfacing what they’re looking for in the trillions of photos stored on the platform.
Hiccups from the start
When Google Photos introduced Gemini-powered Ask Photos search, it rolled it out slowly. Very slowly. That’s because there were issues at the very start.
The few who had Ask Photos complained about the quality and speed of search results. In a post on X, Google Photos Project Manager Jamie Aspinall said, “Ask Photos isn’t where it needs to be, in terms of latency, quality and ux.”
Last June, Google said it had addressed those early issues, but that has not assuaged everyone. This past March, Google Photos lead Shimrit Ben-Yair posted on X that in response to complaints, a toggle was added to return to classic search.
How to get the old search back
If you’re among those experiencing frustration with Ask Photos, you can turn it off.
Open the Google Photos app on your Android device and tap on your account at the top. Then select Photos settings > Preferences > Gemini features in Photos and turn off Search with Ask Photos.