Google pauses rollout of Ask Photos, the most promising AI feature coming to Google Photos

Google has quietly paused the rollout of one of the most promising AI features coming to Google Photos. The experimental feature has been rolling out slowly since last year, but now Google wants to give it more time.

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A short pause will hopefully yield better results.

Ask Photos was one of the most interesting AI features Google announced for its Photos app last year. In a special blog post announcing the feature, Google said it would use a very specific version of Gemini designed entirely for manipulating photos.

The goal here was to make it easier for people using Google Photos to find the photos they needed, but since the feature first rolled out to Android devices last fall, its effectiveness and usefulness have waned significantly.

The swirl apparently prompted Google to quietly pause the rollout, with the news breaking in an X post by Jamie Aspinall, product manager for Google Photos. In the post, Aspinall responded to some of the comments criticizing the system. He said that 'Ask Photos is not where we want to be right now,' and that the team was pausing the rollout to improve speed, quality, and UX design. He estimated that it would be back up and running in a few weeks.

This is not the first Gemini disappointment!

Of course, this isn't the first time Gemini has needed a little more time to perfect itself. Last year, shortly after launching AI Overviews in Google Search , the tech giant had to delay the rollout a bit just to try to clean up some of the nonsense that AI Overviews had been churning out. Even now, months later, the AI ​​continues to give poor answers depending on the query.

The most telling thing about this particular pause, however, is that Google hasn't really made it public yet. The company is certainly keeping its details under wraps, which makes sense since it's been criticized for Gemini's performance in the past.

Add to that the fact that Ask Photos hasn't really rolled out to that large of a user base yet — the product manager says the current numbers are small — and it's the perfect opportunity for some quiet innovation.

Of course, those who have already received the update in Google Photos will likely notice when things are back up and running, as Ask Photos will hopefully be much more responsive and better at doing its job.

Until then, however, anyone looking to get access to this new Google Photos feature will need to keep waiting.

Isabella Humphrey

Update 05 June 2025