Does anybody actually LIKE the new iOS 18 Photos app? [MERGED]

[NeoSe7en]

I like the customization aspect but that's about it. I hate how everything is now reverse sorted with no option to change. Re-sorting the albums view is an absolute nightmare, it's worse than trying to re-order Home Screen icons in the early iOS days. It's also annoying how the Media Types and Utilities sections are un-sortable.

I think they tried to do WAY too much here. It would've been much better if they had added in the customization and sorting and left the rest alone.

 

[NauticalDan]

Where is the "Recents" folder? The one that has all the photos just taken with the phone, and whatever you've stored locally. All I can find now is a huge hodge-podge of that stuff mixed in with stuff I've imported into folders from my mac/lightroom. I need to be able to separate out the local stuff from my imported stuff.

I can’t believe this update went out with this problem. And I know lots are complaining, but in surprised it isn’t a lot more.

So frustrating.

 

[zorinlynx]

I bit the bullet and upgraded.

Still very meh about the Photos app changes, but surviving.

One minor issue I found is that if you have Previews off for albums, when you open an album the scrolling position is just slightly too high, so that the top photos are under the title of the album. If you then try to scroll it down to fix that, it closes the album. You have to scroll up, then scroll down.

Also, now and then the app seems to stop responding to touch. It's only happened twice since the update so it might just be working on stuff in the background, but this is annoying.

Not sure why Apple felt the need to change the Photos app so much. It was fine before, and the new design doesn't conform to Apple's own app design guidelines.

 

[PhillyGuy72]

Don't like the layout...however since I don't save photos and videos to the phone for days, months, years (always downloading them to Mac when I'm finished), I hit "Customize & Reorder" and removed a slew of options I simply won't use. Makes this mess a bit easier I guess.

https://imgur.com/a/013tIhP

 

[Tagbert]

I’m really liking this new design.

It has my grid of recent photos at the top with the most recent ones very visible. Below that are groups of photos from recent so I can just jump to them rather than having to scroll through the grid.

Having people below that with the “pinned” favorites, recent, maps, screenshots, etc is useful for those common types of photos.

Below that are the autocurated stuff like the memories, trips, and featured photos. I like that it surfaces photos and experiences that I hadn’t seem sometimes in years.

Overall the organization and navigation seem much more cohesive and I feel like I can more easily get to where I want to go. The old system had too many different ways to navigate and scroll. This is a big improvement.

 

[x34]

excellent re-design, i like the customization options to deactivate all nonsense apple gimmicky stuff. just one clean app now!

 

[twintin]

If Apple would include a 'remote assist' and tie it to the Family Sharing to ensure security, that would go a long way in being able to remotely assist an elderly

I believe you can do that with screen sharing.

 

[avro707]

Please provide feedback to Apple directly. I just did. With enough negative feedback they just might blink.

Apple always knows best, even when it gets things wrong.

And it always has a lot of people who will go down with the ship defending these strange UX choices.

I have had the new version for a long time and still hate it.

 

[memo90061]

I like the customization aspect but that's about it. I hate how everything is now reverse sorted with no option to change. Re-sorting the albums view is an absolute nightmare, it's worse than trying to re-order Home Screen icons in the early iOS days. It's also annoying how the Media Types and Utilities sections are un-sortable.

I think they tried to do WAY too much here. It would've been much better if they had added in the customization and sorting and left the rest alone.

This is what I hate!! I don't like the reversed order of the pictures.

 

[delsoul]

This is what I hate!! I don't like the reversed order of the pictures.

I think there’s a small filter menu that you can click on in the photos area and it’ll let you put your oldest photos first, etc so they’ll be in the order they were like in 17.7, etc

 

[TonyC28]

I went with “it’s okay.” This feels like one of those things they changed because they needed to change things for iOS 18.

 

[Kahnforever]

The new Photos app is trash. Cluttered and silly. Design patterns that make no sense. Just show photos, and then have a tab for albums. Then hide the filter options and let people filter the photos. All this complexity for nothing.

 

[althaur]

I just want to be able to see my camera roll. I guess they didn't learn their lesson from iOS 13 (if I rememebr the version correctly).

 

[phillytim]

OMG people - the only way to please some of you would be for Apple to have kept iOS at version 6!

Change can be challenging for some folks, but I *love* all of the features Apple gives us; and I started in the "iPhoneOS 3" days. lol

There are probably a couple rough edges in Photos that Apple will address; but try and adapt (and use the configuration options) with Photos.

Recents (aka "Recently Saved" in Collections, also aka camera roll) really do take up the top 2/3rds of the screen when you open Photos.

You can also move "Pinned Collections", which contain your Recently Saved and Map and Videos etc, right up under the 2/3rds on the main Photos screen - that should help you get back to the pre-iOS18 days. lol

AS ALWAYS, TELL APPLE WHAT YOU WANT: https://www.apple.com/feedback/

 

[MrRom92]

Photos is better in the final iOS 18 than it was in some earlier betas but it is still very frustrating and a clear step down in some key ways that impede basic use.

 

[koochey]

How about the Video Playback GUI in the new Photos.app ? looks awful to me but i still did not upgrade... any input on this topic ?

 

[MrRom92]

How about the Video Playback GUI in the new Photos.app ? looks awful to me but i still did not upgrade... any input on this topic ?

It looks awful because it is awful! That’s one of the worst things about it

 

[mectojic]

Couldn't stand the new Photos app.
(iPhone 15)

 

[Apple_Robert]

There is already an active thread on the front page of the forum on the subject.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/does-anybody-actually-like-the-new-ios-18-photos-app-merged.2430437/

 

[whitestar27]

I am apparently in the minority because I really like the new design.

 

[Wizec]

The final design is pretty decent for me.

 

[mectojic]

Photos is better in the final iOS 18 than it was in some earlier betas but it is still very frustrating and a clear step down in some key ways that impede basic use.

Apple starts to forget that simplicity should be king.
You can see them leaning so hard into pro-camera users, even adding a whole button just for camera with the iPhone 16...

Point and shoot is 99% of what everyone does! Then they view the photo in a single recents folder.

 

[whitestar27]

Apple starts to forget that simplicity should be king.
You can see them leaning so hard into pro-camera users, even adding a whole button just for camera with the iPhone 16...

Point and shoot is 99% of what everyone does! Then they view the photo in a single recents folder.

I gotta disagree with pretty much everything you just said..

Having a button dedicated to camera makes it easier for point and shooters IMO, quicker to get to camera and pop off shots.

I also absolutely disagree they're 'leaning so hard into pro camera users' - Photos app doesn't even let you rate by stars which on any other DAM is a given. And as I discovered the other day, if you import RAW+JPG from a DSLR into Photos on iOS, then try to export originals, all you get is the stupid JPG. Hardly going all in on pro photography.

Edit: Also I don't think most people use the 'recents' folder. They just go into photos and there the photos they took are. Just like with the new version

 

[apostolosdt]

Please, enlighten me, for I can’t see why it’s so horrible. I don’t say I like it, it’s just a plain iOS app and definitely not PS.

But… a smartphone is not a pro digital camera, either.

 

[memo90061]

I ended up downgrading mostly because of the photos app...