How to Use the New Photos App Features in iOS 12

[MacRumors]

In iOS 12, Apple has introduced some new features to the Photos app that aim to make it easier for you to search, share, and enjoy your photo collection. Here's how to make the most of them.

The most prominent addition in the Photos app is a new For You tab, which replaces the old Memories and Shared tabs and brings together their features - along with any iCloud Shared Albums you may have - in a single scrolling panel.

Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.​

For You Tab: Sharing Suggestions

Top of the For You tab is where your latest Sharing Suggestions appear. If the app recognizes someone in the photos it will ask if you want to share the collection with them, otherwise an option to "Share with friends?" is shown.

The great thing about sharing photos this way in iOS 12 is that if your friends have any pictures that are from the same event, time, or location, they will also be prompted to send those back to you, allowing you to fill any holes in your collection.

Tap the Sharing Suggestions card and you'll be taken to a screen where you can choose the pictures you want to share. Tap Select and then tap any photos you don't want to include, or choose Deselect All and then tap the ones you want to share.

Choose Next to select people in your contacts that you want to share the pictures with. Tap Share in Messages when you're done - just note that anyone with access to the shared photo link will be able to view the photos.

For You Tab: Memories

Immediately below Sharing Suggestions you'll find Memories, which curates various photos and videos you've taken in the past into specific memory collections. Without any steps required on your part, Memories gives you an automatic homemade movie from these past family gatherings or vacations.

Tap a memory and you'll see a list of all the photos and videos contained in the memory (tap Show More to see more than a summary), the geographic location the pictures were taken, nearby photos, and related memories you might be interested in.

If you press the play button to begin viewing a memory, you can also use a number of customization options to edit it. For more on editing memories in Photos, see our dedicated tutorial.

Note that tapping Select on this page and deleting a photo doesn't just remove it from the memory, but also deletes it from your iPhone and iCloud Library. The last two options at the very bottom of the screen let you favorite the memory or delete it permanently.

If your device supports 3D Touch, you can also hard press on any memory in the For You tab to get a preview of its contents, and then swipe up for options to add it to your favorite memories, delete the memory, or block it.

For You Tab: Shared Album Activity

At the bottom of the For You tab is any Shared Album Activity related to your iCloud account.

This lists iCloud albums shared by you as well as albums shared with you by other users. From here you can view photos and videos, "like" them with a thumbs up, and read comments or add your own.

How to Use Enhanced Search

In iOS 12, the Photos search function in the Search tab is more intelligent than before, so it's easier to find the most relevant photos to you from events, people, or places.

You can also combine multiple search terms to narrow down your results. Simply start typing a person's name, a date, a place, or a word like "cat", "beach", "waistcoat", or "selfie", and the Photos app will offer up similar or identical indexed search terms that you can tap to add to the search field.

Article Link: How to Use the New Photos App Features in iOS 12

 

[TechGod]

Its not just this photos stuff but iOS 12 is a significant improvement despite them claiming it was a performance focussed update.

 

[hortod1]

Imagine how “intelligent” it would be if you could actually TAG A PHOTO.

But nooooooo

 

[Brien]

What I would like is the ability to turn this kind of stuff off. All I need is a dumb folder to store photos.

 

[M.PaulCezanne]

I’ll end up with so many photos I’ll likely never look at again! Nevertheless, I’ll want to keep them because I’m too lazy to manage the flow, so I’ll definitlely have to pay for more iCloud storage.

Hmm...

 

[iDento]

Imagine how “intelligent” it would be if you could actually TAG A PHOTO.

But nooooooo

Manually? I used to do that when we were all using iPhoto and digital cameras. Now? I take like hundreds or maybe a thousand of photos each month, I don't have time for that.

 

[now i see it]

The dreaded "For You" tab. Why they keep clinging to this horrible confining photos app interface is beyond me. There comes a point when we can move beyond this Fisher Price interface... Like 7 years ago.

 

[axantas]

What I would like is the ability to turn this kind of stuff off. All I need is a dumb folder to store photos.

That would be very useful. But they will not give up, turning your library into a mess...

 

[riverfreak]

Is macrumors gonna repost all these “new features” articles when iOS 12 is, you know, actually released and in use by a majority of their user base?

 

[zorinlynx]

Imagine how “intelligent” it would be if you could actually TAG A PHOTO.

But nooooooo

Another ridiculous omission: You create an folder to put albums in, but you can't actually move albums into folders. Only Photos.app on a Mac can do that.

 

[hagar]

I wonder if this will fix the issue where you can’t easily import new photos others added to your shared albums. If You want to do this now you either have to reimport all of them, including your own, or you have to manually selec the new photos first. Very weird.
[doublepost=1531750691][/doublepost]

Is macrumors gonna repost all these “new features” articles when iOS 12 is, you know, actually released and in use by a majority of their user base?

I’m not installing any beta. I’m not a developer or beta tester. By October I will have forgotten all these features so I hope they get reposted.

 

[Pagemakers]

Do the pics display in full resolution when offline?

 

[BrettArchibald]

Maybe it's just me, but all I need the Photos "app" to be is a glorified folder...
My app is set to the "Albums > All Photos" view, and that's it. I never navigate to anywhere else from there.
The Photos app was a real mess before, and this just looks like it will make things even more of a confusing mess!

 

[harriska2]

I take all my photos and download them into dated folders. On my PC

 

[timborama]

What I would like is the ability to turn this kind of stuff off. All I need is a dumb folder to store photos.

You’re absolutely right!! Just like Music, all I need is something to play my downloaded tracks, period!

 

[QuarterSwede]

Maybe it’s just me but I’m really looking forward to the new sharing feature as that’s exactly how my family shares photos anyway. This just makes it a lot easier. I don’t want photos to just be an album. That feature already exists.

 

[cocky jeremy]

Imagine how “intelligent” it would be if you could actually TAG A PHOTO.

But nooooooo

Or make folders and actually move photos from the camera roll into the folder created.

 

[bostonsox]

Ever since I started using Google photos, I don't even open the iPhone Photos app. Google Photos have all these features since a couple of years ago.

 

[YumTea]

Manually? I used to do that when we were all using iPhoto and digital cameras. Now? I take like hundreds or maybe a thousand of photos each month, I don't have time for that.

Users do it all the time... #HashTag is so popular that sites like Insta and many other social and web sites use it now when people upload pics and links. Apple could have easily allowed tagging or single pic or groups, making them easier to search.
[doublepost=1531800292][/doublepost]

Ever since I started using Google photos, I don't even open the iPhone Photos app. Google Photos have all these features since a couple of years ago.

Another reason why people are finding it less compelling to move to iOS from Android... and in fact many of the youngsters are now starting to abandon iPhones in favor or new Android phones (OnePlus 6, Pixel 2, etc.)
[doublepost=1531800597][/doublepost]

Maybe it’s just me but I’m really looking forward to the new sharing feature as that’s exactly how my family shares photos anyway. This just makes it a lot easier. I don’t want photos to just be an album. That feature already exists.

The big problem with sharing today is often the same photo gets shared and re-shared by people in the group. It would be nice if the app had a way to determine which pic is duplicate (time stamp and size) or taken at same time (pair them), and sort them chronologically so that even if they are shared later it can be viewed in the order of occurrence.

 

[jdsingle]

What I would like is the ability to turn this kind of stuff off. All I need is a dumb folder to store photos.

Come on - taking ten selfies a day keeps the doctor away. You also know that if you don't share pictures of how amazing your life is, the top quality food you ingest, and all the hotties you surround yourself with the rest of us can't have a FOMO moment.

 

[skys15]

I can’t believe that you can’t add a folder within a folder. Strange.

 

[oneMadRssn]

Is macrumors gonna repost all these “new features” articles when iOS 12 is, you know, actually released and in use by a majority of their user base?

It turns out, yes they are.

 

[EdT]

What I would like is the ability to turn this kind of stuff off. All I need is a dumb folder to store photos.

I upload it straight to a Dropbox folder. The metadata is still there but it goes to the folder I send it to.

 

[Duncan-UK]

I find the memories feature really intrusive. I’ve got pictures from my first marriage in my library because it’s part of my life, but I don’t especially want pictures of it thrust in my face by apples algorithms. All of this social “you must share and show off” nonsense is embarrassing and immature. But no doubt it’s considered “cool” by apples man-child leaders.

 

[n-evo]

Nm