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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: 174 28.1%
  • I hate it

    Votes: 325 52.5%

  • Total voters
    619
I have a hunch that the lack of domestic competition in the US is leading to a lack of innovation. Just taking the last few unique elements from Android and deploying the in an Apple way. Lots of confusing changes and a slower, uglier, less easy to use platform.
It's improved, but I still can't believe how cluttered iMessage and so many of the other apps have gotten over the last few years.
 
I like it, it's not perfect by any means, but it's not too bad either. Certainly not for me for the level of complaining about it but to each their own. I'm sure it'll be adjusted here and there though, given the feedback.
 
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I detest it. If you had the option to delete all the stupid photo categories, since I already have like 1800 photos set up in my own albums, and be able to arrange the left side menus the way you wanted, then it might not be as bad. And I hate that when you’re in the main photo section that swiping up and down sometimes sticks. I have an iphone 14 pro max with the same sticking issue. The sticking issue didn’t exist in ipad or ios 17. My ipad is a 12’9” Pro 6th gen.
 
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Even with all categories unchecked, why doesn't it take you to your grid automatically? It's so stupid, now it takes a swipe up to get to it. And now the "syncing to icloud" progress bar and "resume/pause" button is on a different page.
I like the layout - I am either looking at the last couple of photos or diving into my albums and it makes that easy. I also don't care about the iCloud sync info unless I'm trying to troubleshoot something not syncing so I don't care it's not on the front page
 
I like the layout - I am either looking at the last couple of photos or diving into my albums and it makes that easy. I also don't care about the iCloud sync info unless I'm trying to troubleshoot something not syncing so I don't care it's not on the front page
You already had that with a press of one button at the bottom, and now you have to scroll down, so it's the same number of actions. The layout before that I liked had those things on the page by default right as you enter the app.
 
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You already had that with a press of one button at the bottom, and now you have to scroll down, so it's the same number of actions. The layout before that I liked had those things on the page by default right as you enter the app.
This is exactly what I’m wanting, too.
 
You already had that with a press of one button at the bottom, and now you have to scroll down, so it's the same number of actions. The layout before that I liked had those things on the page by default right as you enter the app.

More importantly, I believe the previous version remembered which main view you were in last. If you exited while in an album, it'll open to the album list next time you go in. If you're in the all photos grid, it'll open there next time.

This new one opens to the overview every time, which not everyone wants. I certainly don't - too much useless clutter like screenshots, saved memes, work photos that I don't need to see all the time.
 
Even with all categories unchecked, why doesn't it take you to your grid automatically? It's so stupid, now it takes a swipe up to get to it. And now the "syncing to icloud" progress bar and "resume/pause" button is on a different page.
Exactly. It’s like they never anticipated that if you give people the option of disabling all the categories, some people might actually take it.
 
Have you not used it? Just use it. It’s a nightmare
This ^

But also I’m curious about why it’s bad that something which isn’t broken also hasn’t changed since, “long time ago version”. Someone else said it. I’m just curious why we are always in a rush to make a useful and functional thing, into something new because who knows? Boredom, maybe?
 
I guess I don't have anything against it. I still view all my photos, and scrolling down brings up all my albums and collections, and I really haven't had to change anything.
 
I've posted before that (due to the way I use the Photos app) I quite like the new design.

However, the old design was also ok and I wish the team working on Photos had spent their time doing other stuff, such as allowing better IPTC access (like Photos on MacOS does) and showing photo Titles not just Captions/Description.

If they allowed EXIF/IPTC access one could also search for photos taken with a specific device, which I think would remove the main issue with the new design, which is people can't just see photos taken with their phone. Smart albums (with exif/iptc access) would have ben fantastic.

I'll probably end up paying for HashPhotos at some point.
 
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I took some photos of the aurora a couple of nights ago. Battery was a little low so I figured it’d pause sync. Went into photos on ipad and they weren’t there, so back to the iphone and looked for ‘sync is paused’ message - couldn’t see it anywhere. Eventually I noticed a small yellow dot on my user icon in the top corner - pressed that and it had a ‘notification’ that the sync was paused and it let me force it.

They make adjustments like this all the damn time and never seem to explain them anywhere so its left to everyone to find them randomly for themselves.


As a side note I wish there was a setting to be able to always force sync unless literally on low battery - it seems to pause at random times when I have plenty of battery so I find I need to babysit and manually force a sync a lot more often than I’d expect. Having an ipad I much prefer to tweak on that than on my phone and I’d expect the sync to be faster - especially on wifi.
 
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If they allowed EXIF/IPTC access one could also search for photos taken with a specific device, which I think would remove the main issue with the new design, which is people can't just see photos taken with their phone. Smart albums (with exif/iptc access) would have ben fantastic.

I had a shortcut that would use EXIF data to scan all photos (in the Recents album) for photos taken on an Apple Camera, then grab those and put them in a "Camera" album so I have all the photos I've taken in a single place, devoid of screenshots, memes, and other nonsense that's accumulated over the years. This shortcut no longer works because "Recents" no longer exists. Just another way this redesign doesn't work for me.
 
It's so bad it convinced me to shut down apple one, and stop TV, Cloud, Arcade, Music.
I always had another Music, and after this horrendous photos app, I decided to venture off to some other cloud, what ever it may be? I back up on Crucial SSD's so it's not a thing I must have. Simple fact is the Apple Designers must be super old goats, they need some new blood, people that actually use this stuff.
 
It's so bad it convinced me to shut down apple one, and stop TV, Cloud, Arcade, Music.
I always had another Music, and after this horrendous photos app, I decided to venture off to some other cloud, what ever it may be? I back up on Crucial SSD's so it's not a thing I must have. Simple fact is the Apple Designers must be super old goats, they need some new blood, people that actually use this stuff.
I do something similar as I backup to two SSD drives in an album structure and by years. They are an exact duplicate of each other and have now started using google photos.
 
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Why doesn’t the photo selection window in Messages amd Mail obey the preferences set in Photos? For example, I turned off Travel and Faces but see them in the mail and messages selection window
 
Not that we don't know how to work it - more like we don't like how it is worked. It's sort of like comparing MS Word, Apple Pages, and Google Docs. I know how to work all 3 - and I infinitely prefer MS Word over the alternatives.

I'm also bitter that I still haven't been able to get my shortcuts to work with the new app.
Once upon a time pages was way ahead of word. Apple messed up that software too!
 
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.

I do not like the new Photos app at all. It’s too busy. Too convoluted. There was nothing wrong with how it was previously, in my opinion.
 
I rarely have more than five or six photos at a time. Opening the Photos app I see this huge chunk of dark space with my photos at the bottom - making me think there is something taking up space that is not visible. They should have made the photos fill from the top down rather than from the bottom up.
 
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