Here’s Why The Google Ask Photos Feature Is Missing For Some US Users

Google has been on a spree to improve its Photos app. It recently added several new features and optimizations to the media manager. Ask Photos and Conversational Edits are some of the recent additions. However, it looks like not every Google Photos user in the U.S. will be able to use the full range of these AI capabilities, including Ask Photos.

Google Photos’ Ask Photos feature is missing in Illinois and Texas

Reports indicate that users in Illinois and Texas are experiencing issues accessing the Ask Photos feature in the Google Photos app. The primary issue behind the unavailability of the feature also extends to conversational editing. Both of these features rely heavily on the “group facing” feature. As reported by the Houston Chronicle, the two states appear to be excluded due to local privacy restrictions surrounding biometric data collection.

For reference, the face grouping works by analyzing the facial geometry data to identify and organize users (by face) across a library. While this tool surely makes it easier to locate people, it has sparked legal disputes in both states. Texas had settled the lawsuit against Google in 2022 regarding this. However, Illinois law authorities claim that the company’s practices violated the Biometric Information Privacy Act. It doesn’t explicitly inform users how their facial data was stored.

Google says it is working to rollout the feature in these two states

Google has acknowledged the missing feature in two US states. In an official statement, the tech giant says that “The ability to ask Photos to edit your images is not available to users in Texas and Illinois. We are working to determine how to make Ask Photos available to more users.”

The company is facing two hurdles while enabling the feature for the residents. One is the group facing, and the second one seems to be the location tracking. Google Photos also requires “location estimates” to be enabled, which can automatically disable the AI features in restricted states. Well, this is not the first time Google’s AI features have been limited by laws and regulations. It would be interesting to see how the company deals with these restrictions.