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

[Hobbes42]

It seems like such a clear downgrade in every conceivable aspect. I HATE it. I surely can’t bet the only one, I imagine there is going to be some backlash once the wider public sees how it changed, when iOS 18 officially drops.
Way for Apple to ruin something that was simple and functional. Sometimes they don’t know when to stop rethinking the wheel.

Agreed. I didn’t realize how much I appreciated the photos app over the last 17 years until I started using the iOS 18 beta over the last month.

It’s a downgrade in every single way. They’re doing to Photos what they did to System Preferences on macOS.

Apple, please stop killing important apps! Please use your own software! Please, for the love of god, stop downgrading crucial apps!

 

[MacGurl111]

It's messy for sure. I had to go in and delete everything/album/media types. Way too busy for me.

 

[JamesMay82]

This is disappointing to read. It looked okay in the demo.

I think I prefer the layout of lightroom these days even though I use Apple photos daily.

My only complaints for photos is would be nice if there was a bigger preset community or at least a bigger selection from the app itself.

And an option for saving photos library outside of the app within finder like lightroom does

 

[gank41]

For all the bugs I usually deal with when updating to the latest beta, the Photos app is the reason I'm NOT upgrading this year. I have well over 60,000 Photos, and trying to navigate that with this new setup has been a disaster. When this gets into actual photographers hands, there's going to be a LOT of push back. This very well could be WORSE than when Apple stuck the URL bar at the bottom.

 

[cigz]

For all the bugs I usually deal with when updating to the latest beta, the Photos app is the reason I'm NOT upgrading this year. IO have well over 60,000 Photos and trying to navigate that with this new setup has been a disaster. When this gets into actual photographers hands, there's going to be a LOT of push back. This very well could be WORSE than when Apple stuck the URL bar at the bottom.

Yeah, there's already lots of negative comments on twitter regarding the new photos app and there'll be more if they don't change it when iOS 18 is already out.
But at the same time I do think there'll be even more hate coming from GenZ/teenagers on twitter and TikTok when they update to iOS 18 just to find out they are not able to create custom emojis (or even from anyone that wanted to use AI at all) because they don't own iPhone 15 Pro.

 

[gank41]

I can understand the changes they're making in the "Library" section of the Photos app, but not providing a direct way to get to the "Albums" section, other than just scrolling.. Makes it clunky and disorganized. I've spent a few years curating and editing all of my folders and people and places. Making it "easier" for some AI to find my stuff for me sounds great on paper, but people really just want to get to their recents and their favorites right away, and then some needed folders after that. Scroll down for Types and then a little further to hidden & deleted. Boom. Why is that so hard?

 

[Hobbes42]

I can understand the changes they're making in the "Library" section of the Photos app, but not providing a direct way to get to the "Albums" section, other than just scrolling.. Makes it clunky and disorganized. I've spent a few years curating and editing all of my folders and people and places. Making it "easier" for some AI to find my stuff for me sounds great on paper, but people really just want to get to their recents and their favorites right away, and then some needed folders after that. Scroll down for Types and then a little further to hidden & deleted. Boom. Why is that so hard?

It straight up is a worse experience.

Why does it feel to me that every time Apple changes something nowadays they make it worse?

Hey Tim! Get off your spreadsheet and use your products!

Unfortunately there isn’t a legit alternative. Apple still has the best in class devices across the board. But they’re getting slightly, incrementally worse year after year. The fumes are running out.

I can accept the same hardware design year after year after year. It’s a good design, don’t fix what ain’t broke.

I can accept the only new product category from Apple in a decade is a torture device that costs as much as a used car and seems dead in the water.

I can’t accept changes to functional apps that make them less functional. Get it together.

Time for new blood at the top of the executive branch. Yes, I’m so appalled by the new Photos app that I think it’s time for Cook to step down.

 

[gank41]

Has anyone on iOS 18 tried the RAW Power app? I have that apps settings set to mirror my Photos app. Just wondering if it continues to show the Albums prominently like before. Could be a good alternative.

 

[Paddle1]

So I haven’t tried it because I don’t have the beta. I’ve read several articles that went into details about the new layout. What excites me about it is the customization options. There are some sections like Featured Photos and Wallpaper Suggestions that for me I’d like to hide. The new design sounds like you can customize it just to show the collections you want and in the order you want. That sounds great. I have a ton of my own Albums and being able to pin a few to that carousel sounds pretty nice.

What is it that makes it so bad? Quite a few posts talk about how bad it is but not a lot of specifics. 🤔

Here's one thing. It deemphasizes your content, photos and videos are shrunken down with a border around them, and when scrubbing through videos it replaces the more detailed timeline that showed frames with a generic bar.

 

[gank41]

There’s also no way to select multiple recent photos if you can’t view your recent photos. Recent Days is not the same as Recent Photos. FWIW I submitted FB14227353

 

[fatTribble]

I can understand the changes they're making in the "Library" section of the Photos app, but not providing a direct way to get to the "Albums" section, other than just scrolling.. Makes it clunky and disorganized. I've spent a few years curating and editing all of my folders and people and places. Making it "easier" for some AI to find my stuff for me sounds great on paper, but people really just want to get to their recents and their favorites right away, and then some needed folders after that. Scroll down for Types and then a little further to hidden & deleted. Boom. Why is that so hard?

Just asking, I thought the order of all of those things was configurable so you can make what’s important to you easier to get to? I’m just asking because I haven’t used it.

 

[gank41]

Just asking, I thought the order of all of those things was configurable so you can make what’s important to you easier to get to? I’m just asking because I haven’t used it.

Yeah, but I wouldn’t say it’s “easier”, no matter how much you configure it.

 

[JamesMay82]

I just joined the beta on my ipad and know what you mean! That side bar goes on for days! Tooooo much info

 

[splifingate]

It's been a while since I have suffered TMI!

If I were to present the New Photos to my Mom (which I am currently unable to do, bless her mortal Soul), She'd probably stop using such a thing.

As it stands, I will probably have trouble not doing such 🤷‍♂️

Why are we always forced to change for the machines?

 

[splifingate]

[iPad OS 18b2]

What an odd choice to have controls that are not only visually smaller than juvenile peppercorns, but non-descriptive?

I don't really know just where to go from there....

 

[splifingate]

I just joined the beta on my ipad and know what you mean! That side bar goes on for days! Tooooo much info

My trip down Sidebar Lane took about three hours; but, yeah

 

[JamesMay82]

My trip down Sidebar Lane took about three hours; but, yeah

I’ve spent 20 mins with it to see the new and shiny and gone back to 17… very cluttered.. I’m sure we will get use to it in time.. all the other changes aren’t obvious as it just felt like iOS 17..

All underwhelming

 

[splifingate]

I’ve spent 20 mins with it to see the new and shiny and gone back to 17… very cluttered.. I’m sure we will get use to it in time.. all the other changes aren’t obvious as it just felt like iOS 17..

All underwhelming

Yah.

I'm in the (maybe) enviable position of having two iPads, and I'll keep the 2nd on the Betas to compare, test and report.

Believe that I need to stay in the Loop to provide decent Feedback....

 

[bigjnyc]

How the F do I see the hidden album like I have unhidden it but I can’t see it anywhere, nor can I see the whole list of different categories (Selfies, Screenshots, Panoramas) on iOS for that matter. Am I blind? It used to be at the bottom of the Photos app „homescreen“ before iOS 18. On iPadOS I have this whole side navigation but not on iOS

Comes up in the utilities section for me. You unhide it by going in to the little menu in the top right of the app after clicking on your avatar

 

[iFone88]

I dont have iOS 18 but I have a question.

My wife and I have albums and shared albums for our kids - loads of them depending on their ages.

Am I right in saying that I wont be able to easily access these albums/folder if I go to iOS 18?

 

[honglong1976]

No, it sucks. The workout app though, pretty awesome!

 

[iFone88]

Will the albums still be there? Does it just require more scrolling/button presses?

I'm gonna watch some youtube videos later to try and see

 

[Paddle1]

Will the albums still be there? Does it just require more scrolling/button presses?

I'm gonna watch some youtube videos later to try and see

They should still be there but they're going to get moved around a little.

 

[pappkristof]

Will the albums still be there? Does it just require more scrolling/button presses?

I'm gonna watch some youtube videos later to try and see

Yes, but first you have to scroll down to the bottom, there is a small preview of 1-2 albums, then you have to click again to get to the album list.

It’s not convenient at all.

 

[zach-coleman]

Things I like:
—the screen for viewing an individual photo, I like the rounded design and the glassy reflection in dark mode
—no longer considering the “recently saved” as its own album, instead making it a sort mode in the gallery
—featured photos having like 20-30 per day instead of 2-8
—trips (besides my iPad being stuck thinking a photo I saved was me going on a trip, but my phone and Mac correctly agree that it wasn’t a trip.)
—light mode support when editing photos
—useful settings pulled inside of the app instead of being in settings.app
—the new categories like receipts, however that is just surfacing something the old app could do
—aspect ratio lock option when cropping

Things I dislike:
—removed days view (”recent days” is not a good replacement because it doesn’t sort the photos into nice patterns, nor group similar photos taken at different times of the same day. this was probably my favorite feature of the old app, and I liked being able to easily swap between it and seeing every one of my photos in order.)
—The new album view is ridiculously cluttered and also truncates album titles after like 8 characters on portrait mode on iPad
—Hiding the map view behind customization
—the carrousel element with the top of the screen where you can flick away the photo gallery and go to other topics, all of which are clunkier than just placing them elsewhere in the app
—the entire layout of the customize elements on iPad, especially in portrait
—no video length (borderline seems like a bug?)
—the formalization of groups of faces is annoying and makes clutter imo. I preferred just scrolling down to see them on the other app.

——
They should probably just pull the plug besides keeping the individual photo view. Most of the stuff I like could have just been put into the old app anyways. I really, really miss the days view.



Edit: Interesting detail, the VisionOS 2.0 page erroneously shows the days view in the tab bar, but that doesn't show up on the actual software.