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Google Photos can ‘search for words’ and text matches in images 

Google Photos is highlighting today how you can use quotation marks to search for text in images. Meanwhile, Ask Photos now has voice search.

Today’s short announcement is about “you can now use quotes to find words in images.” 

On Android, iOS, and web, (classic) search lets you put a query in quotation marks to “find exact text matches in filenames, camera models, captions, or text within photos.” On mobile, the Photos app will prompt you about “Text matches.” Without quotes, results will also show visual matches. 

(In marking the app’s 10th birthday last week, CEO Sundar Pichai highlighted how Google Photos “was an early example of AI research becoming reality, using deep neural networks to search in an entirely new way.”) 

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It feels like this capability has existed for some time, but Google is framing it like a new announcement that builds off September’s search update that made possible “more descriptive queries” and filters for Best match and Most recent.

In related news, Ask Photos recently introduced voice input for its text field. It makes use of a spinning Material 3 shape and allows for a more conversational experience. 

More on Google Photos:

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Avatar for Abner Li Abner Li

Editor-in-chief. Interested in the minutiae of Google and Alphabet. Tips/talk: abner@9to5g.com