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How do you feel about the Photos app redesign on iOS 18?

  • I like it!

    Votes: 133 21.5%
  • It's okay

    Votes: 175 28.2%
  • I hate it

    Votes: 325 52.4%

  • Total voters
    620
I mostly like the new design, especially the way you can customize it.
What I really don't like is that video preview or scrubbing feature has been removed and that videos is not covering the screen.
I get that videos previously wasn't full screen before since buttons and such was shown, but now it looks weird and you have to press it to cover more screen.
 
Why is in the "library" view to newest picture on the bottom while older ones go up but in things like favorites the newest one is on top and you need to scroll down. Every time I open these things I scroll in the wrong direction and immediately close the collection.
 
Why is in the "library" view to newest picture on the bottom while older ones go up but in things like favorites the newest one is on top and you need to scroll down. Every time I open these things I scroll in the wrong direction and immediately close the collection.
THANK YOU! This completely describes my feelings towards the redesign. If something as simple and basic and often used as this just “looks wrong” or in some way makes the UI not seem right, it’s not right!

Again, I get all the clamoring for the customization and added features, but they could have left the tabs at the bottom and accomplished all of their changes in tab at the bottom.
 
I've used the Photos app during the iOS 18.0 developer beta days and did not like it... I downgraded to iOS 17.6 because of the iOS 18.0 Photos app and no more classic widgets in iOS 18.x

Now that iOS 18.0 RC is released and is no longer in beta, despite losing access to classic widgets and the better looking Photos app, I decided to upgrade my iPhone 13 Pro to iOS 18.0 and keep up or put up with the new look but worse version of Photos app...

I know that like the Safari "redesign" Apple will keep the iOS 18.0 look of Photos app and maintain it in future versions no matter how much some users or majority of users hate it...
 
My biggest complaint is that if you okay a video it never stops! Videos just keep playing until you exit and the progress bar is hard to see so it’s almost impossible sometimes to know when a video is done if you are showing it to someone. Horrible.
 
I got used to the new photos app, but now here is what bugs me now that I can sync on my Mac with the final releases of macOS and iOS. So sometimes I don't delete pics off my camera roll after importing to my Photos app. I don't know why, I just do. Well when I synced things back, now I have two pics of the same thing. How do I know which is the synced pic and which is the camera roll pic? I have to open each pic and see which has the trash can icon. That's the only drawback now that I'm used to it.
 
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.
Are you so sure about that?

Even if the recents is important, that is exactly what is top and center for the new design. The stuff below is a way to surface some of those photos later rather than just letting them collect digital dust. I think the new design blends both of those needs in a way that makes it easy to chose one or the other depending you your current wants.
 
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Actually what I’d like to know, before I update, is does iOS18 preserve your photo albums? I would die if they unceremoniously deleted years of organisation. Thanks.
 
I've purposely held-off going to iOS 18...To me apps should naturally evolve (not get completely revamped or that means you've been designing wrong since inception). This seems like a change for change sake.
 
Actually what I’d like to know, before I update, is does iOS18 preserve your photo albums? I would die if they unceremoniously deleted years of organisation. Thanks.
I'm not sure, but I have never trusted or relied on Apple's proprietary Photos app.

Any photos I take on my iPhone I later either Airdrop out onto my Mac, or use 3rd Party cloud providers (like Dropbox) to do a camera upload, and then later access on my Mac to cull or keep. The original I delete from the iPhone.
That done, I have always maintained a Photos folder within my User folder on the Mac, and within that, named sub-folders for years / events / collections, as makes sense to me. Once manipulated to my satisfaction (the only time I may use Photos on the Mac, and then, once done, exported out), it's in this folder where my photos live.
Then using the sync capabilities for iPhone / Mac, I've set it to direct the process to look for this Folder (and choose which sub-folders of that I want on my iPhone), which later shows up as 'On My Mac' in the iPhone Photos app, the pics in their correct folders.

It sounds convoluted, but it's really not. And so simplifies a further manual backup of my collection and / or the upgrade move to a new Mac. Just save > copy the folder over as one might do for any other user folder - no need to dig about in Apple's proprietary app folders.


As for the new layout, as ever IIABDFI (If It Ain't Broke...) applies. It seems no technology company is beyond screwing with stuff that already works - I recall saying the same about some tweaks done by Palm when I had their TX. And we all know how well that went...
 
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I'm not sure, but I have never trusted or relied on Apple's proprietary Photos app....

It sounds convoluted, but it's really not.
Actually, that's very convoluted compared to just using Photos. If it works for you, great, but Photos sync has been very reliable for years. You do lose some control of storage, since it's either Download Originals or don't, but for most people, there's no reason to jump through all those hoops.
 
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I'm not sure, but I have never trusted or relied on Apple's proprietary Photos app.

Any photos I take on my iPhone I later either Airdrop out onto my Mac, or use 3rd Party cloud providers (like Dropbox) to do a camera upload, and then later access on my Mac to cull or keep. The original I delete from the iPhone.
That done, I have always maintained a Photos folder within my User folder on the Mac, and within that, named sub-folders for years / events / collections, as makes sense to me. Once manipulated to my satisfaction (the only time I may use Photos on the Mac, and then, once done, exported out), it's in this folder where my photos live.
Then using the sync capabilities for iPhone / Mac, I've set it to direct the process to look for this Folder (and choose which sub-folders of that I want on my iPhone), which later shows up as 'On My Mac' in the iPhone Photos app, the pics in their correct folders.

It sounds convoluted, but it's really not. And so simplifies a further manual backup of my collection and / or the upgrade move to a new Mac. Just save > copy the folder over as one might do for any other user folder - no need to dig about in Apple's proprietary app folders.


As for the new layout, as ever IIABDFI (If It Ain't Broke...) applies. It seems no technology company is beyond screwing with stuff that already works - I recall saying the same about some tweaks done by Palm when I had their TX. And we all know how well that went...
That´s exactly I do it too.
Today I realized that I can´t no longer see the number of photos from this year. I compared it often with my Mac folder to be sure that I haven´t forgotten to airdrop the one or the other pic. That is really bad.
 
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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
my only disagreement is that 'recents' is the default for photos app prior to iOS 18. It was recent pictures, screenshots, images from the internet. You could jump over to photos and see any picture you just captured from any source, and use it right away.

Now you have to finagle a lot of the sorting. And then you have to customize and push down or remove 'recent days', because it only captures recent photos taken by the camera. Recent screen caps or saved images aren't there.

It's a hot mess!
 
I mostly like the new design, especially the way you can customize it.
What I really don't like is that video preview or scrubbing feature has been removed and that videos is not covering the screen.
I get that videos previously wasn't full screen before since buttons and such was shown, but now it looks weird and you have to press it to cover more screen.
You also have to go into an extra and separate menu to trim the clip as well.
 
Actually what I’d like to know, before I update, is does iOS18 preserve your photo albums? I would die if they unceremoniously deleted years of organisation. Thanks.
it doesn’t destroy your albums, photos, or anything. it is just a different layout of the initial photos screen. It puts the recent photos in a scrolling grid at the top and a series photo sets like favorites, people, places, memories, trips, you albums and others below. You can scroll up to view the grid and down to see the collections. It’s pretty straightforward .
 
my only disagreement is that 'recents' is the default for photos app prior to iOS 18. It was recent pictures, screenshots, images from the internet. You could jump over to photos and see any picture you just captured from any source, and use it right away.

Now you have to finagle a lot of the sorting. And then you have to customize and push down or remove 'recent days', because it only captures recent photos taken by the camera. Recent screen caps or saved images aren't there.

It's a hot mess!
I see photos and screen caps and saved images in the recent photos grid at the top. If you want a filtered list of screen caps, you just scroll down a little to Collections and choose Screenshots, Recently Saved, etc. Seems pretty orderly.
 
I see photos and screen caps and saved images in the recent photos grid at the top. If you want a filtered list of screen caps, you just scroll down a little to Collections and choose Screenshots, Recently Saved, etc. Seems pretty orderly.
I can always get one, two, or the other. It can’t seem to manage all recent activity without some finagling. You have to sort and scroll down to the end of the library. But that’s not ideal. Neither is scrolling to the bottom in the library but starting at the top in a collection (which I don’t use) or an album (some that magically seemed to make themselves along the way) and I don’t use all of those either.

Lots of the items had to be removed (thank god they made more customization options). It still needs a lot of work. It’s not useless for me. But it’s pretty close.
 
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