Google Maps Now Uses Gemini AI to Write Photo Captions and Suggest Uploads
What happened
Google has rolled out Gemini-powered photo features in Google Maps that change how customer photos and reviews work. Two key changes:
AI-generated photo captions. When a customer uploads a photo with a review, Gemini now analyses the image and suggests a caption describing what it sees. The customer can edit or remove the caption before posting, but most won't bother — meaning AI-written descriptions of your work will appear on your profile.
Photo upload suggestions from the camera roll. If a customer grants Google Maps access to their photo library, the app now surfaces recent photos in the Contribute tab and suggests they upload them to businesses they've visited. This is live globally on Android and rolling out to iOS.
Google has also updated its Local Guides programme with gold-coloured profiles for high-level contributors and more prominent point tracking, encouraging more people to upload photos and leave reviews.
What this means for tradespeople
These changes mean more customer photos are going to appear on your Google Business Profile — and they'll come with AI-written descriptions you don't control.
If you're a bathroom fitter, a customer's photo of their new bathroom might get an AI caption like "Modern bathroom renovation with white tiles and chrome fixtures." That's great if the work looks good. But if their photo catches the mess before you've finished cleaning up, or a half-installed fitting, that AI caption will describe exactly what it sees.
This makes it even more important to control the visual narrative of your profile. Google recently gave business owners the ability to reorder their profile photos — use it. Make sure your best work is shown first. And keep uploading your own professional photos regularly so customer snaps don't dominate.
What to do about it
Upload fresh photos of completed work at least monthly — before and after shots work brilliantly. If you've got a Google Business Profile, check your photo gallery regularly for customer uploads that don't represent your work well. You can't remove customer photos, but you can push them down by adding more of your own.
Source: 9to5Google — Google Maps wants to suggest review contributions using your photo library and Gemini