Google is significantly enhancing its Google Photos platform with a suite of new AI-powered features designed to simplify photo editing and search. The update introduces advanced object and people editing, generative AI templates, a new “Ask” button for contextual queries, and a major expansion of its natural language search capabilities into new markets, including Saudi Arabia.
Advanced AI Editing Arrives on Mobile
Building on features initially released for its Pixel devices, Google is now bringing prompt-based editing to iOS users in the U.S. This allows users to describe desired changes using text or voice commands to modify their images.
A notable upgrade is the “Help me edit” function, which leverages Google Photos’ face grouping technology. Users can now issue complex commands that apply specific edits to different people within a single photo. For example, a user could instruct the AI to “Remove Riley’s sunglasses, open my eyes, make Engel smile, and open her eyes,” and the platform will apply each edit to the correct individual.
Generative AI Templates and a New ‘Ask’ Button
Google is integrating its AI image model, Nano Banana, into the Photos app, enabling users to transform their pictures into new artistic styles, such as a Renaissance portrait or a cartoon strip. To streamline this process, the company is also introducing AI templates that allow users to easily convert a photo into a specific format, like a retro portrait or an action figure.
A new “Ask” button is also being added to the interface, serving as a central hub for various AI requests. Users can use this feature to ask for information about a photo, discover related moments from their library, or initiate prompt-based edits.
MENA Impact: AI-Powered Search Reaches Saudi Arabia with Arabic Support
For the MENA tech community, the most significant part of this announcement is the expansion of Google’s advanced AI-powered search. First launched in the U.S. last year, this feature allows users to search their photo library using natural language queries.
This powerful search functionality is now rolling out to over 100 countries, with Saudi Arabia being a key new market. Critically, the expansion includes support for 17 new languages, including Arabic. This localization will enable founders, professionals, and consumers across the Arabic-speaking world to more intuitively find specific moments and memories within their photo collections, a major step in making advanced AI tools more accessible in the region.
About Google
Google is a global technology company specializing in Internet-related services and products, which include online advertising technologies, a search engine, cloud computing, software, and hardware. The company is known for its mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
Source: TechCrunch
