Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google Photos has a nifty “Memory” feature that creates recap slideshows around certain themes, such as a particular date in the past or your kids and pets.
- Strings within the Google Photos app suggest that Google could be using Gemini AI to supercharge your recap memories.
Google Photos is the photo management app of choice for many users, thanks to its inclusion across Android flagships. Most of us also use it to back up our photos and videos to the cloud and even for photo editing. Since Google has access to all of our images, it has a nifty “Memory” feature that gives us a recap of what we were doing some years ago, or how our kids have grown up over the years. It seems that Google wants to supercharge memories with AI, and it could take Gemini’s help to do that.
An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
Google Photos v7.1 includes new strings that indicate Google is working on using Gemini to create recap memories.
Code
<string name="photos_genaiconsent_features_snapped_subtitle">Get recap memories narrated by Gemini</string> <string name="photos_genaiconsent_features_snapped_title">Gemini-powered memories</string> <string name="photos_memories_snapped_opt_in_promo_opted_in_title">Hang tight! Your %1$s recap will be ready in December</string> <string name="photos_memories_settings_gemini_powered_memories_type_description">Get recap memories narrated by Gemini</string> <string name="photos_memories_settings_gemini_powered_memories_type_title">Gemini-powered memories</string>As we can learn from the strings, one of the highlights of the AI-powered memory generator will be narration by Gemini.
Currently, memories in Google Photos are slideshows of photos and videos with a music background but no narration. The memory usually has an overarching theme, like a particular calendar date some years ago, or your kids and pets, or even a holiday. But there’s no narrative element here, making the memory extremely personal as others around you may not have the same experience and context. A narration could add some missing context, though we’d just be guessing what context Gemini AI will have within your personal photos and videos.
There’s a possibility that Google could be planning to supercharge the “Year in Review” recap memories instead of all memories. In such a case, generative AI should have more narrative elements available to review your year. It’s unclear if Gemini will also pull data from other Google services. The Gemini chatbot has Gemini Extensions for doing so, but Gemini within Google Photos may not have the same privileges.
If you don’t like the idea of Gemini-powered memories, Google appears to be keeping the feature opt-in. The recap memory feature also seems to target a December release timeline, as that’s when the strings suggest the memory will be ready within Google Photos.
Gemini-powered memories are not currently live in Google Photos. We don’t know if/when Google plans to release the feature. We’ll keep you updated when we learn more.
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