According to TechCrunch, Google Photos just rolled out a massive AI update that includes prompt-based editing now available for iOS users in the U.S., a new Ask button for AI-powered photo queries, AI templates for creating new images, and the expansion of natural language search to over 100 countries including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, India, Japan, and Mexico. The search expansion supports more than 17 new languages like Arabic, Bengali, French, German, Hindi, and Spanish. The personalized edits feature can recognize people from face groups and apply specific instructions like “remove Riley’s sunglasses” or “make Engel smile.” Google is also adding its Nano Banana AI model to Photos for style transformations, with AI templates rolling out next week on Android in the U.S. and India.
The AI editing arms race heats up
Here’s the thing – Google‘s playing catch-up in some ways here. Apple’s been pushing computational photography for years, and other apps have offered AI editing tools. But Google’s approach is different. They’re betting big on natural language as the interface. Instead of learning complex editing software, you just tell Photos what you want. “Remove that photobomber” or “make it look like a cartoon.” It’s actually pretty brilliant when you think about it. Most people don’t want to become photo editors – they just want better photos without the hassle.
Why Nano Banana matters
The Nano Banana integration is particularly interesting. This isn’t just some generic AI model – it’s become wildly popular for specific style transformations. Renaissance portraits, action figures, retro looks. Google’s basically taking what worked as a standalone experiment and baking it directly into Photos. Smart move. They’re launching the templates feature first in the U.S. and India where Nano Banana usage is highest. That’s data-driven product development in action.
The global search expansion
Now, the search expansion to 100+ countries is huge. Last year’s U.S.-only launch felt like a limited test. This global rollout suggests Google’s confident in the technology’s accuracy across languages and cultures. Think about it – searching “my daughter’s first birthday” in Hindi or “beach sunset” in Spanish. That’s complex natural language processing working across 17+ languages. This isn’t just a nice-to-have feature anymore – it’s becoming core to how people interact with their photo libraries.
What this means for Google
So where’s the money in all this? Google Photos has over 1 billion active users. Better AI features mean more engagement, more data for training models, and potentially more reasons for people to stay in Google’s ecosystem. They’re not directly charging for these features (yet), but they’re building moats around their services. When your photo editing becomes this intuitive and personalized, why would you switch to another service? It’s classic platform strategy – make the experience so seamless that leaving becomes unthinkable.
