Android's Photo Picker is about to get the search feature you've always wanted

[ad_1] <img class="e_Xg" decoding="async" loading="eager" sizes="(min-width: 64rem) 51.25rem, 80vw" title="Android Photo Picker hero image" srcset="https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Android_Photo_Picker_hero_image-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Android_Photo_Picker_hero_image-64w-36h.jpg 64w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Android_Photo_Picker_hero_image-1000w-563h.jpg 1000w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Android_Photo_Picker_hero_image-1920w-1080h.jpg 1920w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Android_Photo_Picker_hero_image-1536w-864h.jpg 1536w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Android_Photo_Picker_hero_image-675w-380h.jpg 675w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Android_Photo_Picker_hero_image-300w-170h.jpg 300w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Android_Photo_Picker_hero_image-1280w-720h.jpg 1280w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Android_Photo_Picker_hero_image-840w-472h.jpg 840w" alt="Android Photo Picker hero image" src="https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Android_Photo_Picker_hero_image-scaled.jpg"/> Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority

TL;DR

Android’s native Photograph Picker will quickly allow you to search by way of your Google Photographs library. Though introduced final yr for a 2024 launch, the search characteristic is lastly being examined, hinting at an upcoming launch. This long-awaited search bar will seem inside the Photograph Picker and may arrive by way of Google Play System Updates, not tied to Android 16.

If you happen to’re like me, you most likely have tens of 1000's of images backed up in Google Photographs or the same service. Discovering particular recollections could be robust, however the Google Photographs app excels right here because of its sturdy search characteristic — an indicator of many Google merchandise. Nonetheless, this highly effective search functionality hasn’t been obtainable when Browse your Google Photographs library by way of Android’s native Photograph Picker, although that’s lastly set to alter quickly.

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The Photograph Picker is a characteristic that Google launched in Android 13 that lets customers select particular photographs or movies to share with an app, versus giving an app broad entry to your telephone’s gallery. Whereas the Photograph Picker is extra non-public by design, it lacks plenty of the bells and whistles that inbuilt picture pickers are inclined to have, equivalent to kind choices and a search bar.

Final Could, Google introduced it might lastly add native and cloud search assist to Android’s Photograph Picker. The corporate said the characteristic would roll out someday in 2024, however we’re now effectively into 2025 with no indicators of an impending launch. Google hasn’t adopted up with any updates on the characteristic’s standing, and it hasn’t shared any screenshots or recordings of what it appears to be like like both.

We'd not have to attend for much longer for the characteristic to roll out, although, as Android Authority contributor Kamila Wojciechowska tells me it’s enabled on her machine. As you possibly can see within the picture embedded beneath, the search characteristic in Android’s Photograph Picker works precisely as you’d anticipate. You merely faucet the search bar on the high of the picker, enter a question, hit enter, and select your required picture or video from the outcomes.

<img class="e_Xg" decoding="async" loading="lazy" sizes="(min-width: 64rem) 51.25rem, 80vw" title="Search bar in Photo Picker demo" srcset="https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Search_bar_in_Photo_Picker_demo.jpg 1920w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Search_bar_in_Photo_Picker_demo-64w-29h.jpg 64w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Search_bar_in_Photo_Picker_demo-1000w-450h.jpg 1000w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Search_bar_in_Photo_Picker_demo-1536w-691h.jpg 1536w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Search_bar_in_Photo_Picker_demo-675w-304h.jpg 675w" alt="Search bar in Photo Picker demo" src="https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Search_bar_in_Photo_Picker_demo.jpg"/> Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority

So far as I can inform, search assist is already enabled in current Google Play System Updates, so this characteristic can theoretically go stay at any time. Nonetheless, Google Photographs has but to start out rolling out search assist within the Photograph Picker, which is why it doesn’t seem for most individuals. There’s no indication the search characteristic is tied to Android 16, both, so it ought to arrive on all variations that assist the Photograph Picker. We don’t know when that’ll occur, however hopefully it’s quickly — the search bar is among the Photograph Picker’s most extremely requested options.

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