After a backlash, Google adds a toggle to let Google Photos users return to the “classic” search experience instead of the newer AI-powered “Ask Photos” option
In a slight capitulation to those who don't want AI infused into their everyday apps …
TechCrunch Sarah Perez
Related Coverage
- Google Photos adding toggle to quickly swap between Ask Photos and classic search 9to5Google · Ben Schoon
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- Google Photos is undoing part of its Gemini upgrade Android Police · Rajesh Pandey
- Google Photos Now Lets Users Toggle Between AI Search and Fast Search iPhone in Canada · Steve Vegvari
- Google Photos Now Lets Users Disable ‘Ask Photos’ Search Experience Thurrott · Laurent Giret
- Google Photos will finally make it easier to turn off the controversial “Ask Photos” feature How-To Geek · Joe Fedewa
- Google Photos Gets New Attempt at Fixing Its Frustrating Search Droid Life · Kellen
- Daily Search Forum Recap: March 10, 2026 Search Engine Roundtable · Barry Schwartz
- Google backtracks on AI search in Photos, adds toggle for “fast classic search” Ars Technica · Ryan Whitwam
- How to see your Google Search history (and delete it) Malwarebytes · David Ruiz
- Google Photos adds a toggle between classic search and Ask Photos results Deal N Tech · Bhabesh Talukdar
- A Pixel bug has changed the search bar for some and users actually prefer it Android Authority · Ryan McNeal
- Google caves, lets people search Google Photos without AI — here's how to use it Tom's Guide · Scott Younker
Discussion
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@caseynewton
Casey Newton
on bluesky
The AI search in Google Photos is, by a comfortable margin, the worst search product Google has ever released techcrunch.com/2026/03/10/g...
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@glinden
Greg Linden
on bluesky
Remarkable to see AI-powered search experiences so badly implemented, such a bad user experience, that companies have to add band-aids like toggles to disable them to reduce people abandoning the product entirely. Trillion dollar company, maybe test the UX and verify customers a…
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@shimritby
Shimrit Ben-Yair
on x
We've heard your feedback that you want more control over the type of results you see when searching in Google Photos. To address this, we're starting to roll out a new experience that puts you in the driver's seat, letting you choose between fast classic search and intelligent […
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@pauselius
Joshua Pauselius
on bluesky
Thank God. Their AI feature was so broken that many times I could not find the photo I searching when it previously was no issue. [embedded post]
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@rands@mastodon.social
Rands
on mastodon
This means you have a bad design and are now making it worse: https://techcrunch.com/...
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@rakeshsfnyc
Rakesh Agrawal
on x
Good. A lot of the forced AI switches have generated slower, less accurate results. Things don't need to be “summarized” when I know what I'm looking for. Evernote defaulted its search to AI and I had to turn it off because it was so slow. Nice summary from Gemini: Software