Skip to main content

​
Working with photo descriptions

When photos land in an XBuild project, AI scans them and writes a short title plus a description of what’s in the frame. Descriptions do real work: they give the AI context when it builds your scope, and they save you from typing a description on every photo before a homeowner sees it. You won’t always want them, though. Sometimes the wording isn’t yours. Sometimes a homeowner should see clean photos with no commentary. Sometimes you want the descriptions internally but not on the link you’re about to text someone. XBuild gives you two separate ways to handle that, and the difference matters:
  • Hide descriptions — the text stays, you just control where it shows. Reversible, and set per share link or per PDF export.
  • Clear descriptions — the text is deleted. On the album that’s permanent, and AI won’t write it again. On a proposal it removes the text from the version you’re editing, and the album keeps its copy.
Reach for hiding first. Clearing is for when you don’t want the text to exist at all.

​
1. How AI descriptions get written

Photos are scanned automatically as they arrive — from the mobile app, an upload, or a connector like CompanyCam. Each scanned photo gets an AI title and an AI description, and a ✨ marker shows the scan is done. Each photo has one description, not a separate “AI description” and “your description.” If you open a scanned photo and edit its description, your words replace the AI’s and XBuild records that the description is now yours. That matters when you clear descriptions later — see step 4. Videos never get AI descriptions. Neither do photos whose descriptions you’ve already cleared. The descriptions choice is made when you create the link, and it can’t be changed afterward. A share link is a fixed snapshot — to change your mind, revoke it and share again. To share a whole album with descriptions hidden:
  1. Open the project’s Album.
  2. Click Share.
  3. Choose Share entire album.
  4. Turn the Descriptions toggle off. The line underneath confirms the choice — “Descriptions are hidden from people with the link.”
  5. Click to create the link, then copy it.
To share only certain photos:
  1. From the Share dialog, choose Share specific items.
  2. Tap the photos you want to include.
  3. Turn the Descriptions toggle off in the bar at the bottom.
  4. Click Share.
Descriptions are on by default every time, so hiding is always a deliberate choice — you won’t accidentally strip descriptions off a link you meant to send complete. With descriptions off, people opening the link see no AI title, no AI description, and none of your team’s notes. Photo tags stay visible — tags aren’t descriptions, so a photo tagged “Roof — North Slope” still shows that label. Tip: Links you created before this setting existed keep working exactly as they did, with descriptions visible. If you need an old link to hide descriptions, create a fresh one.

​
3. Leave descriptions off a photo report PDF

The photo report PDF has its own toggle, decided at download time rather than stored:
  1. Open the project’s Album.
  2. Click Share, then Save selected photos as PDF.
  3. Select the photos for the report.
  4. Turn Include descriptions off in the bar at the bottom.
  5. Download the report.
With descriptions off, no text prints under any photo and the AI title is dropped too — each page is headed Photo 1, Photo 2, and so on. Turn it on and the PDF matches what you see on screen: your team’s note where one exists, the AI description otherwise.

​
4. Clear descriptions from the album

Clearing deletes description text, and on the album it’s permanent in a specific way worth understanding: AI won’t write the description again. Add ten more photos to the project later and the cleared ones stay clear — only the new photos get descriptions.
  1. Open the project’s Album.
  2. Click Clear descriptions, under the album title. It only appears when there are descriptions to clear.
  3. Choose what to delete:
    • AI descriptions only — keeps notes and descriptions your team wrote or edited. This is the safe default, and it’s re-selected every time the dialog opens.
    • All descriptions — also deletes notes and descriptions your team wrote or edited, including notes on videos. That text isn’t recoverable.
    XBuild offers AI descriptions only when it can prove at least one description was written by AI and untouched since. If it can’t prove that for any of them — the case for photos scanned before this feature shipped — the dialog skips the choice and asks you to confirm a full clear instead, with a warning that it deletes every description, including those your team wrote or edited.
  4. Click Clear descriptions to confirm.
If the option you picked has nothing it can delete, the dialog says so instead of pretending — “Nothing to clear in this option” means everything left was either written or edited by your team, or is text XBuild can’t prove the AI wrote, and only All descriptions removes that. Two things an album clear never touches:
  • Photo titles. Neither option deletes AI titles — a cleared photo keeps its title.
  • Proposals. Descriptions already saved into a proposal keep showing there. To remove those, clear them on the proposal itself — see step 5.
Tip: If you’re clearing because the AI wording is off rather than because you want no text at all, edit the description on the photo instead. Your version is kept, and it survives an AI descriptions only clear later.

​
5. Clear descriptions on a proposal

A proposal’s Site Photography section carries its own copy of each photo’s description, so you can clear text from a proposal without touching the album.
  1. Open the proposal in the editor.
  2. Edit the Site Photography section.
  3. Click Clear descriptions in the section header. It appears while you’re editing the section, whenever there’s something to clear.
  4. Choose AI descriptions only or All descriptions — the same choice as the album, with the same safe default. And the same shortcut: if XBuild can’t prove any of the section’s descriptions are AI-written, the dialog skips the choice and confirms a full clear directly.
  5. Click Clear descriptions to confirm, then save the version.
This clear is gentler than the album’s:
  • It affects only this proposal — the photos in your album keep their descriptions, and so does every other proposal.
  • Nothing is final until you save. Discard your changes and the descriptions come back.
  • Versions you saved or published earlier keep the text they were saved with.
  • Photo titles stay, same as on the album.

​
6. Troubleshooting common issues

  • I cleared descriptions and they came back. They shouldn’t — AI never writes a new description on a cleared photo, including when the project is re-scanned or more photos are added. If you’re seeing text return, check whether someone on your team typed a description on that photo, which is new text rather than the old text returning. Contact XBuild Support if the original AI text reappeared on its own.
  • I turned descriptions off on a share link but the person still sees text. Confirm you’re looking at the link created with the toggle off — the setting is fixed when the link is created, so a link made earlier still shows descriptions. Create a new link with Descriptions off and send that one. Also check whether what they’re seeing is a photo tag rather than a description; tags stay visible by design.
  • Descriptions still show on my proposal after I cleared them there. The clear takes effect when the version is saved, and it only touches that version — clear, save, and re-download or re-share. A PDF or a published version generated from an earlier save keeps that version’s text.
  • The Clear descriptions button isn’t there. On the album it only shows when there are descriptions to clear — if photos are still being scanned, wait for the ✨ marker and it’ll appear. On a proposal it shows while you’re editing the Site Photography section, and disappears once nothing is left to clear.
  • The dialog doesn’t offer “AI descriptions only,” or says “Nothing to clear in this option.” XBuild only counts a description as AI-written when it recorded the AI writing it, and that record-keeping began when this feature shipped. Descriptions from before then — on the album and on proposals alike — don’t qualify, so the AI option can be missing or come up empty even though descriptions are plainly visible. Photos scanned after the feature shipped qualify as usual, and All descriptions works everywhere.
  • My own photo description got deleted by a clear. All descriptions deletes team-written text as well as AI text — AI descriptions only is the option that protects it. AI descriptions only never deletes a description XBuild can’t prove the AI wrote — including everything from before this feature shipped — so when there’s any doubt it keeps text rather than removing it. A description deleted by an album clear can’t be restored — retype it on the photo. A proposal clear is softer: discard your changes before saving and the text comes back, and versions saved earlier keep the text they were saved with.
  • A photo never got a description at all. Videos never get AI descriptions. Otherwise the scan may have failed or the photo may be one whose descriptions were cleared previously. Check the photo for the ✨ marker to see whether it was scanned.
  • Can the homeowner see my team’s notes? Only where descriptions are shown. On a share link created with Descriptions off, team notes are hidden along with AI text. Team comments are a separate feature and are never visible outside your company — see Team collaboration.
For further assistance, contact XBuild Support at support@x.build.