Google Photos

Google Photos made search annoying, but this handy shortcut makes it better

Ben Schoon | Apr 25 2025 - 4:15 pm PT

One of the best things about Google Photos has always been its useful ability to search through your library, but the company’s focus on AI introduced an admittedly impressive, but annoying new experience to search. But there’s a little known shortcut in Google Photos that allows users to quickly jump back into classic search.

Google Photos introduced “Ask Photos” last year as a Gemini-enhanced search option that can go much more in-depth than a typical search using natural language such as “Where did we camp last time we went to Yosemite?” and “What did we eat at the hotel in Stanley?” You can also use natural language in “classic search,” but “Ask Photos” does certainly have a use case. That said, it’s also pretty slow, and not as useful for most of the searches performed on a daily basis.

A test earlier this year toyed around with deprioritizing “Ask Photos” on the Search tab, but the majority of users are still seeing the UI that defaults to “Ask Photos” and has a small button to “Switch to classic search.”

But what many don’t know is that there’s a handy little shortcut to jump straight into classic search in Google Photos.

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Double-tapping the search icon throws you directly into classic search, even though it shows “Ask” on the tab itself. This shortcut exists through a lot of Android apps and usually opens up the keyboard for a search box on a dedicated search tab, but it’s all the more useful in Google Photos since it switches to the mode that most of us want to use anyway.

The same gesture doesn’t work in the Google Photos app for iPhone, though. You can double-tap, but the search box only pops up when you are already on that tab. Even when it does kick in, it just triggers the “Ask Photos” search anyway, making it just a bit less useful.

Do you actually use “Ask Photos” on your device? Did you know about this shortcut?