Peakto Search: A Lightroom Plugin Which Instantly Finds Any Photo or Video You Have

Here's something that should excite Adobe Lightroom users. It's a plug-in that will index your online or offline photo or video assets and bring them up in Lightroom instantly. It's a Mac app from CYME, the company that has a similar app called Peakto that's currently offered for Mac users. The difference is that Peakto searches those assets and they can be opened in any editor, including Lightroom, Capture One, DxO, Luminar, and others. Peakto Search is aimed at Lightroom users and appears as a menu bar item on your Mac.

How It Works

The underlying technology, which Lightroom does not offer on its own, lets you describe, using a brief text statement, what you are looking for. Additionally, you can drag a photo into the Peakto Search GUI and let their software find similar photos.

The entirety of Lightroom's content, whether housed within open or disconnected catalogs, is now effortlessly accessible through a single search.

What it means is you can find photos that may have been lost or you didn't realize you had them in your catalogs.

Here are some details of the feature set as described by CYME:

• Centralized search across all Lightroom catalogs, even offline. Once indexed in Peakto Search, users can search all their catalogs, ensuring access to every photo and video. Lightroom catalogs can be added in bulk by allowing Peakto Search to scan folders recursively.
• Real-time results: image and video previews appear in real-time within the plugin, including those from offline catalogs. No need to create a selection in Lightroom; the search result appears immediately in the plugin.
• A Search that is “Always On”: Searching through Lightroom content can be done directly from the Finder, even when Lightroom is not running. It's possible to define a global keyboard shortcut to initiate the search at any time.
• Prompt-based search: a simple description is enough to find an image or a passage from a video. No need for annotation, Peakto Search's AI automatically analyzes the content of all photos and videos. The prompt-based search can be matched with filters to narrow down the results.
• Search by similar image: simply drag and drop an image into the plugin interface to find images or videos that resemble it. Results are displayed immediately.
• Seamless integration with Lightroom: Peakto Search allows opening search results in Lightroom and creating Collections from one or more retrieved images or videos.
• Privacy protection: photos and videos are analyzed locally by the AI and therefore not duplicated in a cloud.

Using Peakto Search

Here are a couple of examples, in my test of the Peakto Search beta, against a small catalog of several hundred images.

I typed the word "cave" and it brought up some solid matches from Antelope Canyon in the Southwest.

Then, I gave it something harder, with the term "nebula," and it properly found correct images. As an astrophotographer, I have many hundreds of similar images. I could further clarify the search with a term like "red nebula" and I got correct hits as well. Clicking on any image that is found takes you to those items in Lightroom.

Here's a search for similar: I dragged an image of a lake and got hits on other photos of lakes.

Peakto Search is impressive technology. I would think Lightroom users will find it extremely liberating and easy to use. I'd love to see the AI search refined a bit further. For example, if I drag in a drone photo of a lake, I'd only like to see drone photos appear. As a workaround, I can type in "drone photo of a lake." It's all a matter of refining the AI.

Who Can Run Peakto Search?

The app is Mac only, and optimized for macOS Ventura, Peakto Search requires macOS 12 (Monterey) or later and can fully leverage Apple Silicon M1/M2/M3 chips. Peakto Search is compatible with Lightroom Classic from version 5.

Price

Peakto Search is available for pre-sale with a special promotion:

• 2-year subscription for $65 instead of the regular $87 (equivalent to $5.41 per month)
• Annual subscription for $59 on sale, regularly $65
• Monthly subscription for $9.00 per month
• Unlimited license for $99 during the sale, regularly $129.

Peakto, the existing product, can search photos anywhere, not only in Lightroom catalogs. Potential buyers will have to consider which version to purchase. Peakto Search is universal, but Lightroom-only users will want the Lightroom-focused Peakto Search. It's a little cheaper but not as flexible if you are searching outside of Lightroom. I do like the menu bar search GUI in this latest Peakto product and hope it migrates to the original Peakto.

The original Peakto software for macOS is available by subscription or one-time purchase on CYME.io and on the Mac App Store. Peakto can be tested for free for 15 days (no credit card required on CYME.io). Peakto is available on a monthly plan at $9.99/month; a yearly plan at $59.99/year; or for a one-time purchase of $189.

Both versions are available directly from the developer at this link.

My Thoughts

The Peakto software is unique in its application of AI to managing your photo libraries. In my tests on a late beta, the software worked flawlessly. It can save photographers tremendous amounts of time as most of us have libraries with many thousands of photos. To be able to type in "bridges under construction" or "lightning over the mountains" can be liberating.

I'm not really sure why there is this separate Lightroom-only version, as the original Peakto product works with Lightroom catalogs and much more. It does have an advantage of searching for videos and offline catalogs, but I think it would make more sense to sync up the two product features and offer one software solution.

Regardless, this is a very advanced, yet easy-to-use product, that solves a lot of problems most photographers have.