The (controversial) NEW Photos app in iOS 18 - Here's what you need to know!

Summary

The iOS 18 Photos app has undergone a radical redesign, sparking significant controversy among users. While the updated app introduces numerous features, including a remodeled layout with two distinct sections and advanced filtering options, feedback has been divided. Many users are uncertain about the extensive changes Apple has made. However, the app offers impressive tools like smart collections, enhanced search capabilities, and personalized memory creation. The video provides an in-depth exploration of these features, helping users adapt swiftly to the new interface and make the most of the app.

Highlights

• Radical redesign in iOS 18 Photos app sparks controversy. 🔄
• New, split layout segregates photo library and additional features. 📷
• Filter and sort photos by various criteria like date and favorites. 📅
• Advanced search and smart collections make photo organization easier. 🔎
• AI-driven memory creation offers personalized video compilations. 🤖

Key Takeaways

• The new iOS 18 Photos app has a controversial redesign, with mixed reviews from users. 🎭
• New layout splits the screen into your photo library and additional features. 📸
• Advanced filtering options allow for customized viewing and sorting of photos and videos. 🔍
• Smart collections and powerful search features enhance photo organization and retrieval. 🧠
• New memory creation tools let users create videos with personalized themes. 🎥

Overview

The iOS 18 Photos app is causing quite a stir, and not everyone is cheering. It seems Apple decided to roll the dice by completely revamping the app, a move that has met with a plethora of reactions ranging from excitement to apprehension. The app's makeover splits the screen into distinct sections: the cherished photo library and a new zone showcasing snazzy features. Users will encounter a new interface, making photo browsing either a breeze or a bit of a head-scratcher, depending on where you stand in the tech-savvy arena.

But it's not all bells and whistles. Apple has introduced some pretty nifty tools to navigate this new landscape. Filtering your snapshots is a game-changer, as it allows sorting by favorites, dates, and more, which is perfect for those of us who have a library teeming with everything from vacation shots to pet pics. The app's search prowess shouldn’t be underestimated either—it’s Siri with a camera roll obsession, hunting down people, places, or even specific sounds from your videos!

One of the most imaginative additions is the new memory creation feature. Just whisper a theme to your Photos app and watch it brew a video montage with music to match, no filmmaking chops required. Whether you're planning to make a 'Sunset Strolls' video or a 'Weekend Adventures' mashup, the AI does all the heavy lifting. It’s personalized fun at your fingertips, though it’ll take a minute to master the learning curve. Love it or hate it, this is the new Photos app, ready or not!

The (controversial) NEW Photos app in iOS 18 - Here's what you need to know! Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 by far the stock app that has seen the most radical change in iOS 18 is the photos app the feedback on this app so far has been overwhelmingly negative there are a lot of people out there who aren't happy with just how much Apple has changed but like it or not this is the photos app that we're getting in ios8 I wanted to take a few moments to show you everything that you can now do in the photos app so that you can get up and running with it as quickly as possible okay let's get into it editing Tom here with a quick addition I neglected to mention in the script that
• 00:30 - 01:00 this video is going live on the 4th of September which is about 10 days before Apple release iOS 18 officially to the public uh if you've got the beta of this the developer or the public beta you'll be able to follow along today um if not consider this a preview of what you'll be downloading in about 10 days time okay back to the video when you first open the photos app you'll notice that the layout has completely changed with the app now separated into two distinct sections the first section takes up the top 2/3 of the screen and is essentially
• 01:00 - 01:30 your photo library as you already know it the new section occupies the bottom third where you can find all the additional features of the photos app to access either of the two sections you simply swipe down from the top section or alternatively swipe up from the bottom from the main view you have some options at the top of your screen there's a magnifying glass in a blue icon which if you tap on it will take you to your photo search we'll cover search in more detail later you also have a select button and when you press
• 01:30 - 02:00 this the photo library expands to take up the entire view allowing you to select photos just like you've always been able to in previous versions of iOS when you do this you have the usual options you'd expect at the bottom of the screen such as the share option at the bottom left the bin icon at the bottom right to delete the photos that you've selected and the ellipses at the very bottom right which gives you access to all the usual features that you'd expect like the ability to copy favorite duplicate hide photos add particular
• 02:00 - 02:30 images to albums and more at the very top right of the screen you can see your Apple ID image if you tap on this you'll see information about the number of photos and videos in your account as well as details about how recently your photos and videos have synced with iCloud this is a really helpful feature especially if you're trying to troubleshoot why photos and images are only appearing on your phone and not on your other devices beneath that you have a number of options related to the content in your library couple of useful options to be aware of here include the
• 02:30 - 03:00 autoplay motion option when this is toggled on videos will automatically play as soon as you select them when it's toggled off they won't there's also the view full HDR option which if you've captured content in high dynamic range will display that content in hdr on your device provided it's compatible you can also choose to set up a shared photo library here if you wish at the bottom of the screen you can enable or disable featured content as well as options like holiday events
• 03:00 - 03:30 let's jump back to the initial view of your photos app and then swipe down from the photo library section to maximize the library view you'll notice that when you do this you have a few options at the bottom of your screen the X at the bottom right will take you back to the previous View to the left of that you have the option of viewing either everything in your photo library or breaking this down by months or by years again this is a feature that existed in the previous photos app it's just a much needed way of accessing it now the up- down arrow icon in the bottom left
• 03:30 - 04:00 corner of the screen allows you to change your sort options and to enable filters and view options you can choose to sort either by the date captured or by recently added if you choose to sort by date captured all your images will be sorted by the date that they were originally captured either by you or by whoever took the image if it's an image that has been shared with you or that you've imported from the web if you sort by recently added it will sort by when you added images to your library for instance you could have added a photo to your library that was origin Ally shot
• 04:00 - 04:30 in 2020 but if you sort by recently added that image would show as the most recent image the filter option is really useful you can use this to filter your library to only show certain things by default there's no filter and you're viewing everything you can filter to only show items that you've favorited or only show items that you've edited you can choose to view only photos or only videos if you choose this you'll notice that a new Option appears called screen recordings where you can choose to view only screen recording recordings if you
• 04:30 - 05:00 jump back out there's an option called screenshots which will show you only images that you've captured as screenshots you can choose multiple filters from this list if you wish if you have a lot of favorites you might choose favorited screenshots for example and that would be a way for you to quickly narrow down your library to view only the content that you want to see in the view options you can zoom in and zoom out but you can also do this by pinching and spreading on the screen with your two fingers just like your normally would you can also choose the aspect ratio so you can either have
• 05:00 - 05:30 images displayed in the aspect ratio that they were captured in or you can choose Square where everything is shown in square thumbnails just finishing up in the view options section there is a section called show in here you can choose to either enable or disable screenshots you might be someone who takes a lot of screenshots and finds that they clog up your photo library so you could disable them giving you a cleaner view of your photo library most of the time you would then simply enable them again when you want to search for something in particular it might sound
• 05:30 - 06:00 really obvious but remember to come back and enable this before you go looking for a screenshot because if you don't you won't be able to find anything you also have the shared with you option which you can enable or disable as well one thing the photos app is great at is making sense of all your photos data and on the topic of large amounts of data I've been learning all about data analysis thanks to brilliant who are sponsoring today's video brilliant simplifies complex topics like maths data analysis programming and AI helping you learn by doing so when I was
• 06:00 - 06:30 learning about data analysis for example the platform had me working with examples of real world data from sources like Starbucks X and Spotify looking for Trends and learning to make better informed decisions and this is great because learning by playing with Concepts like this is believed to be six times more effective than learning simply by watching a video and the great thing is brilliant has thousands of lessons just like this across a wide range of topics it helps build critical thinking skills through problem solving rather than mere memorizing allowing you
• 06:30 - 07:00 to gain deeper knowledge and become a better thinker overall and because of how convenient brilliant is you can learn at a pace and schedule that suits you I've created my own daily learning habit with a spare five or 10 minutes every day time that I probably would have spent Doom scrolling anyway so this feels like a much better use of my time if this sounds good to you you can enjoy everything that brilliant has to offer for free for 30 days by visiting brilliant.org sloper honest Tech or following the link in the description of this video which also gets you a
• 07:00 - 07:30 lifetime 20% off the premium account so there's really no better time to join the more than 10 million existing members and take your knowledge to the next level let's head back to the main view of the photos app now to look at the bottom section of the screen this includes all the additional filters options and smart collections that are now available in the photos app the very first thing that I want to show you is that if you scroll all the way to the bottom of this screen there is an option called customize and reorder if you tap into this you can see all the different
• 07:30 - 08:00 collections that are now available in the photos app you can use the drag bars on the right hand side of each of these to change the order in which they appear and use the blue checkbox on the left hand side to enable or disable any of these collections there is a reset button in the top left if you change your mind it's also important to be aware of this in case the order of the collections on my screen is different from the order of the collections on your screen scrolling back up to the top of this section on my phone the first collection that I have is recent days
• 08:00 - 08:30 and this is honestly my favorite new feature of the photos app this is where your phone will intelligently group photos and videos together by day allowing you to quickly scroll back through your photo app to see what you got up to on any particular day maybe you're at work on a Monday morning and you want to remind yourself of everything that you did at the weekend you would have a recent day for anything that you did on Sunday and a recent day for anything that you did on Saturday but it will do this as far back as your photo library goes you can really scroll
• 08:30 - 09:00 back a long way if you've got an extensive photo collection and see what you did on any particular day beneath that you have people and pets and this is a continuation of something that your phone has been able to do up to this point anyway which is identify specific people and pets and allow you to name them in the photos app your photos app will then pull together collections of those people or pets but what you can now do within the people and pet section is create a group so at the top of the screen where it says groups you you can tap on Create and then group together a
• 09:00 - 09:30 number of people or pets to add to a group for example on my personal phone I've created one of these with me and my wife then one with me and each of my kids individually and then one with all four of us together and one with my wife and have two kids you can have quite a lot of fun with this and your phone will automatically fill those collections with all the images that meet the criteria of those people being in the collection you would simply add the people that you want in the collection choose add and then give the collection
• 09:30 - 10:00 a name before pressing done this will of course also update automatically over time beneath that you have a section called pinned Collections and if you tap on the modify button you can choose which collections you'd like in this pinned section for quick access beneath that you have your shared albums which is exactly what it sounds like albums that you've been added to and are sharing with someone else or albums that you've created and are sharing with other people you can tap on the activity button to see a chronological list of all the most recent activity that's
• 10:00 - 10:30 happened in your shared albums making it much easier to see if people have added photos or videos to an album that you're in or whether people have commented or liked pictures for example beneath that you have memories which have been around for a really long time in the photos app but what's new this time around is that you can tap the create button and then use natural language to ask your phone to create a memory video for you so you could say something like walking with our dog on the beach with playful music in the background or or spending time
• 10:30 - 11:00 with my kids in the back garden with dreamy music in the background your phone will then use artificial intelligence to understand your request and pull together a memory based on whatever you asked for beneath that you have a new section called trips and this is a bit like recent days where your phone will intelligently group together photos and videos when it senses that you've taken a trip somewhere the nice thing about this is that it's really easy for you to gather all the pictures from a holiday for example or from a weekend that you spent away somewhere you don't have to manually go in and add
• 11:00 - 11:30 those photos to an album now your phone will do this for you if you tap into where it says trips you can search by year as well making it really easy to go back and find an old trip that you took when in a trip you can tap into it and choose movie down at the bottom to watch a curated movie that your phone will create or you can just tap on photos and scroll through and view the media as you like if you tap on the button in the bottom right corner you can choose all and view it as a regular photo grid if you come out of the trip and tap and
• 11:30 - 12:00 hold on the trip preview for a second you can share all the photos and videos with somebody directly from the photos app beneath that you have featured photos which again is nothing new your phone has been showing you featured photos in the photos app for a long time now they're just in a carousel down at the bottom of the screen here a really cool feature though is if you find a photo that you like and you'd like to go back to where this exists in your photo library to see photos and videos from around the same time you can tap the all photo button at the top of the screen
• 12:00 - 12:30 and your phone will take you to where that particular picture exists in your photo library beneath that you have a media type section and a utility section media types allows you to immediately filter your content by all the different types of media that you have on your device my assumption is that if you don't have a particular type of media like raw photos or spatial video for example these options wouldn't show here so your list might look slightly different from mine you just tap into a category to see all the media and you
• 12:30 - 13:00 can see account for how much media is contained within each type utilities is extremely useful because this includes things like receipts documents that contain handwriting QR codes plus other intelligently created groupings of media giving you a quick way to find something specific finally at the bottom of the page you have your albums which include personal albums that you've created shared albums and any activity on those shared albums at the very bottom you have a w paper suggestion section where
• 13:00 - 13:30 your phone will make recommendations based on your pictures for photos that it believes would make a good wallpaper you can simply tap on one to preview it edit it if you like and press the add button at the top right of the screen to turn that photo into a wallpaper by the way if you prefer to have content like this in a written format there's a pdf version of this video complete with screenshots and you can access it along with all other PDFs I've created plus future ones for just $5 a month or by itself as a onetime pay payment you can either scan the QR code that you can see
• 13:30 - 14:00 on screen or follow the link in the description of this video to learn more so the final thing to mention is search and this hasn't changed drastically since photos in iOS 17 it's just had a bit of a change to the look and feel of how it works you access search by pressing the blue magnifying glass icon at the top of the screen you'll notice that search is now a kind of Siri style box that sits just above your keyboard and your phone will try to make some recommendations based on what it thinks you might want to search for this is
• 14:00 - 14:30 partly to give you an idea of how search works but it's also to give you some prompts for things that you might want to look for you can search for people places times of year trips that you went on objects or text that might appear in a particular photo or video you can even search for sounds that might appear in videos the search capabilities of your phone are really quite impressive and I would definitely recommend taking some time just playing around with this and entering every possible term that you can think of to get a feel for how works
• 14:30 - 15:00 so there you go that's the photos app in iOS 18 as you can see it is a pretty significant change from the previous app I'm still not completely convinced about it myself although after having some time to get used to it I'm finding more that I like about it now than I did at first what about you what do you think are you pleased with the changes or are you disappointed drop me a comment and let me know and as ever if you found this video useful do please consider leaving me a like and subscribing to my channel for more content like this in the future future see you on the next
• 15:00 - 15:30 video