I was kinda thinking the same thing, but a little reluctant to say it....
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How to Make the iOS 18 Photos App Suck Less
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There was only one flavor of Kool Aid at Jonestown
The new Photos app works great for me. Useful viewing options and the editor is excellent for a phone. Of course it’s not as good as Lightroom where I do most of my processing/editing.
Am I the only one who isn’t bothered by the new photos app? If anything, I like how you can scroll through your albums on the same screen as your library without having to press a separate tab. It actually makes it easy to drag and drop recent photos into the album you want, which is a lot fastet than opening a photo, clicking the share sheet icon, pressing “add to album”, and selecting the album you want to add it to.
I for one think the new photos app is much better than the other junk which was all but unusable and no way to customize anything at all.
A better solution is to get an older phone that does not have iOS 18 on it 
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I much prefer it.
Apple finally allows people to customize stuff and make it work for us not just what they think we might want.
You don't have the code, you have access to compiled executable. Regardless of what your government tells you, you don't own the software.
In what way? Security releases are still issued for the previous version for those that had the common sense not to upgrade in the first place - the only thing is that Apple stop signing them so you cant download via iTunes / Finder and go backwards after checking out if the new OS is stable or for you.
Because that's not how iOS works and you knew that when you bought it.
No, but people want Apple to change the OS every year, but freakout when they change anything.
"controversial with some users" is a gross understatement. I have not seen a single review of the new Photos app that likes the new design.
As the owner of both Android and iOS devices (iPhones forever, iPads, Macbooks etc etc), it amazes me how much simpler Android/Google have become and how complex iOS now is.
If I look at Google Photos, I have 3 simple options in Photos: "Photos - Collections - Search" - that's it. When I open my photos app, I see my photo library, not a barf of random garbage that I have to navigate through just to see my latest photos.
A quick peak at the settings menu on my Pixel vs my iPhone also highlights the negative direction iOS is going in... The Pixel settings menu is incredibly simple (and recently made even more simplified in the latest update), meanwhile the iOS settings menu gives me anxiety.
5-6 years ago, this was completed reversed - Android was a confusing mess and iOS was fairly straight forward.
Wild times we live in.
If I look at Google Photos, I have 3 simple options in Photos: "Photos - Collections - Search" - that's it. When I open my photos app, I see my photo library, not a barf of random garbage that I have to navigate through just to see my latest photos.
A quick peak at the settings menu on my Pixel vs my iPhone also highlights the negative direction iOS is going in... The Pixel settings menu is incredibly simple (and recently made even more simplified in the latest update), meanwhile the iOS settings menu gives me anxiety.
5-6 years ago, this was completed reversed - Android was a confusing mess and iOS was fairly straight forward.
Wild times we live in.
I'm also a Silicon Valley engineer (systems and hardware) and have never experienced the above.
What's really interesting... is that despite your above claim about overpaid lame engineers who work slowly and dribble... Apple somehow has managed to have produced products that has lead to Apple snagging 2 Billion active and repeat customers who love their products. Year after year after year.
This! Removing it was THE worst change Apple did to Photos.
Is iOS just supposed to never change, then?
People want useful changes. Like customizing lock screen shortcuts - a very useful change.
They did the opposite with Photos. They didn't add utility to it - they just moved everything around without rhyme or reason.
And here we were day dreaming about the impossibly low opportunity for Apple to revive Aperture one day… heck no, if this photos update is any metric, stay away from reviving anything.
So annoying, been listening while traveling to a book, “Early Retirement Extreme”, and one main topic is how we “look busy” by going around in circles, we hire people to dig a hole and then hire others to patch it up, rinse and repeat. There’s “progress”, even measurable by GDP numbers (salaries and materials for the people involved in digging and patching), but absolutely nobody’s quality of life gets improved.
The photos app didn’t need anything major UX wise, it needs THE BASICS, at least they could have just started with a functional search, better folder handling, etc.
This is crazy, this gotta be on purpose. And don’t “Do not attribute to malice what can be attribute to stupidity”-me… that’s what someone looking to create this disaster would exactly say.
So annoying, been listening while traveling to a book, “Early Retirement Extreme”, and one main topic is how we “look busy” by going around in circles, we hire people to dig a hole and then hire others to patch it up, rinse and repeat. There’s “progress”, even measurable by GDP numbers (salaries and materials for the people involved in digging and patching), but absolutely nobody’s quality of life gets improved.
The photos app didn’t need anything major UX wise, it needs THE BASICS, at least they could have just started with a functional search, better folder handling, etc.
This is crazy, this gotta be on purpose. And don’t “Do not attribute to malice what can be attribute to stupidity”-me… that’s what someone looking to create this disaster would exactly say.