Microsoft’s Photos app in Windows 11 will receive a “Visual Search with Bing” feature, which will allow you to search for images similar to the ones you’re viewing.
The updated version of the Photos app also offers improved navigation for your photo gallery, quick access to image editing features, and a few tweaks to make Photos a better user experience overall.
Photos is the default app for viewing and organizing images on Windows, and this update brings some long-awaited features to it. While you're looking at an image and are a little curious about something in it, you can use Bing Visual Search to perform an instant reverse image search, which will have Bing search the Internet for similar images and any information that might be relevant to the image you're looking for (similar to Google's reverse image search).
There is already a similar feature in the Snipping Tool app, which allows you to do this after taking a screenshot.
What else is in the works for the Photos app?
In addition to new reverse image search capabilities, smoother gallery navigation will make flipping through images easier, and you'll be able to access image editing tools directly from your desktop or File Explorer.
The improved Photos app is currently available through the Windows Insider Program, a special group of Windows users who get early access to Windows features. Hopefully, regular users won't have to wait long, as most features that reach this preview state are typically rolled out widely later in future Windows 11 cumulative updates.
Windows 10 Photos app users can now also sync their photos from iCloud, Apple’s cloud storage for images, a feature that’s been present in Windows 11 for some time now. This means that if you have a Windows PC and an iPhone or iPad, you can easily access your iCloud photos after syncing them in the Photos app on your Windows 10 device.
I don’t know how many people will find this useful, as Google search still dominates the search market and offers its own image search capabilities, but it’s nice to give users more tools and possibilities to interact with their own media. Bing’s reverse image search has more to offer, as most people who have heard of reverse image search would usually think of Google or TinEye, if at all.
