Google confirms Ask Photos snub for Texas and Illinois users

Google's powerful conversational photo editing feature, Ask Photos, made its way to all US-based Pixel users back in September, roughly a month after being a Pixel 10 exclusive feature.

Since the floodgates opened, users across the nation have enjoyed conversational editing, letting go of sliders and manual adjustments, and instead, opting for prompts like "make the sunset more dramatic," or "remove that photobomber from the background."

The wider availability of the feature, however, has been marred by a slight blackout. Users have found out that the conversational photo editing feature is missing in two states.

The issue was first brought to light by the Houston Chronicle (via Android Authority), indicating that the feature is outright missing in Texas and Illinois.

The likely culprit

It's worth noting Ask Photos isn't enabled by default. It requires five different conditions to be met to become available. These are:

• You must be 18+.
• In the United States.
• Phone's language must be English.
• Location estimates must be enabled.
• Face Grouping must be toggled on.

Despite meeting all of these conditions, though, users report that the feature is still missing from their Google Photos app. The absence, however, is not a glitch — it is intentional.

According to a statement given to the Houston Chronicle by a Google PR representative, "The ability to ask Photos to edit your images is not available to users in Texas and Illinois at this time." The representative did not share why, but did add that Google is "working to determine how to make Ask Photos available to more users."

The elephant in the room and the most probable culprits are likely those two states' respective biometric fatality laws.

The tech giant has previously been burned for collecting "biometric identifiers, including voiceprint and records of face geometry." Considering that Ask Photos requires 'Face Grouping' to be enabled, it is highly likely that Google is intentionally sidestepping and proactively avoiding conflict with biometric data laws in states like Texas and Illinois.

It's worth noting that Google hasn't explicitly confirmed the regulatory tension to be the reason behind the feature's absence. For those in Texas and Illinois that were excited about trying out the feature, you'll just have to put your expectations on hold for the next little bit — until either something concrete comes out, or Google rolls the feature out.