A recent APK teardown revealed that Google aims to improve Google Photos' Memories feature with help from Google Gemini.
If you never used Google Photos, you may not have heard of the Memories feature. Memories is simple enough, it gathers several images from your library and presents them to you in a slideshow. Usually, these memories take on a certain theme, for example all of your Christmas photos from one year. However, they can feel a bit impersonal, but that could soon change, with a recent APK teardown by Android Authority has revealed a fascinating addition.
The code lines found in Google Photos indicate that Gemini will be used to create the recaps, but more importantly, it seems that the AI will be able to narrate them as well. Thankfully, it appears that the feature can be turned on and off, so users have a choice on if it will be included. It will be interesting to see if this same feature will be included for any images generated by Google Gemini or if it is only for camera shots.
The main question we have is what these recaps will actually sound like and which voice will be used. AI voice generation has improved massively in recent years, with Microsoft releasing one so convincing that it has become a concern. So it will be interesting to see how much choice we have in the voice.
However, the bigger question is where Gemini will get the information for the narration. It is possible that the data could be gathered from the images themselves, or be pulled from other Google Services but this is conjecture at this point.
This isn't the only change we've seen for Google Photos, as it was recently announced that Google was giving users more control over what memories they will actually see. Google had previously introduced the option to block certain things from appearing in memories, but it was limited. The more recent change has made it so that you can limit the amount you see certain people or places, rather than removing them completely.
According to the code, it looks like Gemini's recap narration is aiming for a December release. Of course, if you find this new feature to be a deal breaker, we have a breakdown of the best Google Photos alternatives to help you pick a different service.
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