After a year of waiting, Apple finally released the latest version of its iPhone software, iOS 18, to the public in September. This update introduces eye-catching features such as a customizable home screen. As is often the case, there are some eye-opening changes. For me, that includes the new Photos app.
Apple announced its new Photos app at June’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), touting it as its “biggest redesign ever.” When you first open the app on iOS 18, the changes are very obvious.
Also: 5 reasons to update your iPhone to iOS 18.0.1 now
Most notably, Apple has added new collections to categorize your photos, including “Recent Days,” “People & Pets,” and “Travel.” The company has also changed its Photos app to work seamlessly with Apple Intelligence. It will be available on all iPhone 16 models and iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max starting with the release of iOS 18.1.
But what Apple calls a “simplified layout” will seem unnecessarily complicated to many people who use the Photos app. The previous tab design has been replaced with collections automatically categorized by theme. It’s becoming harder to find popular photos you’ve recently saved, and[すべての写真]All the photos on your device will no longer be visible like tabs.
Am I too used to the old Photos app, or is this change a mistake on Apple’s part? The biggest problem with the new Photos app may be that it takes some time to get used to.
The old Photos app already had several categories and themes, but the iOS 18 version has all your photos on one page, condensing what used to be tabs into one scrollable library. However, it provides a less intuitive experience.
Also: Why I’m recommending the standard iPhone 16 over the Pro this year (and I’m not alone)
I loved having all my photos in one place. I often download photos from OneDrive or WhatsApp.[すべての写真]Make it accessible from the tab. Now, these downloaded images are only in your recently saved collection, so you’ll have to dig through the folders to find them.
Images from messages from your Android device are also saved to your recently saved collection/album. If it’s from iMessage, it will be saved in “Recently Saved.” and The photo section is very confusing when exchanging files between different users.
I’m not alone in my frustrations, as iPhone users on Reddit have expressed their displeasure with the Photos app in iOS 18. ZDNET’s Jason Hiner has similar sentiments.
Apple also gave me a compelling reason to buy the smaller iPhone 16 Pro over the Max this year.
“Remember when you were scrolling through your library and a photo caught your eye and you remembered that there was something similar in your album,” one Reddit user commented. “Previously,[アルバム]With just a flick of a tab, I could find what I needed and quickly return to its original location in the library. Simple, right? Now, when you make that switch, you lose your place in the library.” , and you have to scroll up the library again to find where you were before. ”
Aside from the poor navigation in the Photos app, selecting a video within the Photos app no longer shows it full screen. Instead, when you tap a video, it appears smaller, and you have to tap it again to open it full screen and tap it again to unmute autoplay. The video preview also doesn’t show timestamps, so if you want to crop at a specific time or second, you won’t be able to do that. If you scrub the video, at least you’ll see the timecode.
Also: I just downloaded iOS 18 on my iPhone 14 and content creation has become so much easier
“The UX is a major downgrade. It’s so bad that I had to send feedback to Apple via the Beta Feedback app. It wasn’t a technical bug, it was purely a user experience complaint. I’ve never done that before,” said another Redditor. Said.
How to operate the Photos app in iOS 18
If you’re an iPhone user, you may have missed the Camera Roll section, which has been around for as long as the iPhone. Instead of seeing tabs for All Photos, Camera Roll, Albums, etc., the Photos app in iOS 18 shows all the photos you take at the top of the screen. Next, you need to scroll down and find the “Recent” category, which has photos taken in the past few days arranged by day.
Continue scrolling to find “People and Pets.” There you can view and modify photos sorted by what your phone thinks are the same person (the recognition part is mostly done right, so I have to praise Apple for that) yeah). Memories will still be available within the Photos app, followed by Travel and Featured Photos. Scroll down and you’ll see “Media Types and Utilities” and then “Albums.”
Also, iOS 18.1 with Apple Intelligence is here. Try these 5 AI features to get started
It’s clear that Apple is trying to offer a more personalized experience with its new Photos app, but it probably didn’t need it. Photos are stacked at the top of the screen, making it look cluttered when you open the Photos app. Finding photos and albums requires a lot of visual scanning, and the app is less intuitive than ever.
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” said one Reddit commenter. “The Photos app was fine and worked perfectly. We didn’t need to make any major changes like this.”
I hope a future version of iOS 18 brings back the Camera Roll, or at least tones down all the different categories, collections, memories, and albums I now have to remember. It was already bad enough that I couldn’t delete a photo from the recent photos pile in the Photos app, even if I moved it to an album. All I wanted was for Apple to offer better photo editing features without the curtain of Apple Intelligence, not a more complicated way to find last week’s photos.
