Google Photos now has a feature that will save you hours of scrolling
A promised upgrade is starting to roll out, and it could make your photo searches far more precise.
Google Photos is getting a useful update that helps make searching through your photo library much easier. The app can already recognize text in images using AI, but now you can search for exact words by placing them in quotation marks.
This means that if you’re looking for a photo of a document, a sign, or even a handwritten note with a specific word on it, you can type that word in quotes and Google Photos will try to find only the images where that word appears. For example, searching for "passport" will return only the photos that clearly show that exact word somewhere in the image.
According to a Google support post, the feature is rolling out gradually and may not be available to everyone right away. But once it arrives on your account, it should make hunting down specific photos much faster and more accurate.
While it may sound like a small improvement, this is one of the features Google promised last month as part of Google Photos’ 10th birthday. Alongside other memory and AI tools, this update reflects Google’s goal to help users find and organize their memories more easily. We covered those announcements here at PhoneArena when they were first shared.
The change will likely be most helpful for people who use Google Photos to store screenshots, scanned documents, receipts, or any other image with text. Previously, the app could pick up on general keywords, but the search results often included unrelated photos. With quotation marks, the results are now more specific and focused.
Despite those limitations, this is a helpful step forward. As AI continues to improve in apps like Google Photos, users can expect more tools that make managing large libraries less frustrating.
If the update hasn’t appeared in your account yet, don’t worry. Google says it’s rolling out gradually, so it should show up soon. Once it does, try typing a specific word in quotes and see how well it works with your own photos.
This means that if you’re looking for a photo of a document, a sign, or even a handwritten note with a specific word on it, you can type that word in quotes and Google Photos will try to find only the images where that word appears. For example, searching for "passport" will return only the photos that clearly show that exact word somewhere in the image.
While it may sound like a small improvement, this is one of the features Google promised last month as part of Google Photos’ 10th birthday. Alongside other memory and AI tools, this update reflects Google’s goal to help users find and organize their memories more easily. We covered those announcements here at PhoneArena when they were first shared.
A search for the word "Google" returns all images with the word Google on them. | Image credit — PhoneArena
Still, it’s not perfect. Google says the feature works best when it can confidently identify the text in an image. That means if the word is hard to read, written in a stylized font, or partly obscured, the search might miss it. It also won’t recognize text in every language with equal accuracy just yet.
Despite those limitations, this is a helpful step forward. As AI continues to improve in apps like Google Photos, users can expect more tools that make managing large libraries less frustrating.
If the update hasn’t appeared in your account yet, don’t worry. Google says it’s rolling out gradually, so it should show up soon. Once it does, try typing a specific word in quotes and see how well it works with your own photos.
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