Gemini has long been able to connect with other Google apps, but earlier this year those integrations were made tighter and more seamless with a feature called Personal Intelligence. Now, personal intelligence is expanding into Google Photos and adopting AI image creation capabilities, courtesy of the Nano Banana 2 model.
The idea is that you don’t have to manually select a photo in Google Photos and ask the AI ​​to do something with it. Instead you simply type in a prompt like “Draw a cartoon featuring my family enjoying our favorite activities,” and Gemini will do the rest – mining your Google Photos library for relevant information and people.
Another example given by Google is “Create a watercolor image of my dream home located in my favorite setting.” You can see how the new integrations save you time—you don’t need to explain what your dream home or your favorite setting looks like, as long as Gemini can figure it out from your photos.
“Since it’s built into how you normally use the Gemini app, there’s no additional setup.” Google says. “If you’ve already linked your Google apps, that personalized reference is ready and waiting for you the moment you start drawing… the results will automatically reflect your specific tastes and lifestyle, drawn from the Google apps you’ve connected.”
The advanced personal intelligence experience is now rolling out inside the Gemini app for users in the US, but you’ll need to be a paying customer to access it on the AI ​​Plus, AI Pro, or AI Ultra plans. Google says access for more users and support for Gemini inside Chrome is coming soon.
How it works—and how to turn it off
Take a photo of your family made in claymation style.
Credit: Google
It’s now being rolled out to Google AI customers in the US, so if that includes you, you won’t have to do anything special to get the new feature in Gemini on web or mobile. You may see a pop-up message inside the app announcing that you’ve received an upgrade, which Google does often.
with draw a picture With the option selected, you can simply type in what you want to see, and Gemini takes care of the rest. If there’s enough information to go into Google Photos, something like “Make a sketch of my family on vacation at the beach” or “Make a photo collage of my desert island essentials” should work.
What do you think so far?
Google says Gemini will look at the labels you put in Google Photos, such as the names of people and pets, to work out what you’re asking. There’s clearly a lot of educated guesswork going on here with the AI, and according to Google, “Gemini can’t always pick out the exact photo or description you have in mind on the first try.”
You can always click on sources say Press the button below the generated AI image to view the photos Gemini has chosen as reference points, and ask Gemini to edit what it has created using the prompts that follow. You can also click + (Plus) button on the prompt box if you want to point Gemini to a different reference photo.
It’s a little scary prompting Gemini to access these intimate details about your life, but really it’s just the integration between the apps that’s new: If you use Google Photos, it’s constantly using AI to identify what’s in your pictures so you can better sort and organize them, including family members and pets.
Google says Gemini doesn’t train its AI models “directly” on your photos, but instead uses “limited” information from them to improve the user experience. Connecting Google Photos to Gemini remains an opt-in option, and you can reverse it at any time: Inside the Gemini app, click the cog icon (on the web) or tap your profile picture (on mobile), then select connected apps to alter.
