iOS 14 Lets You Add Captions to Photos

[CarlJ]

Two days ago i taught my daughter how to do this so she could create an album of her stuffies. For each video, she puts a text caption explaining the name, the origin, the origin of the name, her favorite thing about it, etc. It’s adorable.

That's unbelievably adorable. My 5yo niece likes taking FaceTime photos (and apparently my cat and I are backgrounds in Zoom calls now). She likes taking rapid sequences of such photos. I'm told her father had to sit down with her, and go through the Photos app, and delete about a thousand such images.

 

[adrianlondon]

I can’t believe they did this at last!!
It would be even better to rename the file... but let’s give them some more years!!!
One thing at a time

Yeah, I wanted to change the name/title instead of the caption/description so that the titles show when I open Photos on my laptop, and when I upload them to my photo album (which takes the IPTC ObjectName and uses that to make the title). Anyway, a quick applescript and it's done. Of course, this needs a Mac and for you to use Cloud Photos to sync the photos from the phone.

tell application "Photos"
    
    set imageSel to selection
    
    if imageSel is {} then
        error "Please select at least one image."
    else
        repeat with im in imageSel
            
            set the name of im to the description of im
            set the description of im to ""
            
        end repeat
    end if
    
end tell

 

[GermanSuplex]

Great feature. iOS 14 is shaping to be one that adds long-requested features. I like what I see thus far.

 

[gcbarre]

Can I sort the shared albums by date?

 

[jlwarlow]

Since my phone is always scanning my photos to find people, I wish it would find duplicates and blurred shots that I could delete. Suggesting rotating would be nice too!

 

[jimbobb24]

I wish that it was easier to share the metadata in shared albums. My mom recently died so I've been slowly combing through the family album and scanning things in. I've been working with my dad to try to figure out the year/location of each pic. Things are fine on my end, but when I add to the shared folder for the family it is all out of order again.

I am about to do this with some very old family pictures and create some high quality archival photobooks for our family.

 

[ateslik]

Oh wow. FINALLY. And what's even more exciting is that I didn't know about this until a few seconds ago.

I was using an app called Hashphotos to add some text to my photos when travelling (as at home I'd use my laptop) to caption photos. For me, this is a very welcome addition to Photos.

I've just captioned a photo, it synced the caption to my laptop and exiftool on the exported jpeg shows that the caption has filled the "Caption-Abstract" and "Description" fields. Good news.

Thank you for specifying that the information is stored in the metadata and not in some sidecar file. Noice!

Is this supported in both HEIC and JPEG?

 

[Populus]

This makes me SO happy... Yeah, I’ve been waiting for this feature for a long, long time. I’m sure you’ve read some of my messages where, on my wishlists for iOS 14, tags for Photos app was my number one.

It was odd that I could add a keyword to pictures in the MacOS Photos app, but not in iOS and iPad OS. I wrote Craig Federighi and even tho he hasn’t answered this time, I’m sure he has been reading this suggestion quite a few times.

I’m just happy, finally I will be able to classify my ginormous picture library with keywords and descriptions. The only caveat is I don’t use iCloud Photos, so I’ll do that on one device, and then export the library to the other devices.

EDIT: It’s funny, @PowerBook-G5 disagrees with my comment, and I wonder which part of it is the one they disagree. The fact this feature makes me happy? The fact that I wrote Craig asking specifically for a solution like this? Or the fact that I have a huge photo library locally stored and I need this tags?

 

[dampfnudel]

That’s something you would’ve expected them to add long ago, but better late than never I guess (applies to widgets as well).

 

[MrTemple]

What about keywords, titles, descriptions, and location information? Why add an entirely new information field in “captions” instead of just using what we already have labeled and use on our Macs? This is one of the few things keeping me from using iPadOS and iOS solely. I’ve been waiting for years and I guess I’ll be waiting longer.

Not all minds think in the categories created for that particular human interface metaphor. No matter how ‘functional’ it may be.

A caption as the only entry is both broad and flexible. A single field that lets you ‘say a little more about it’.

Which still works great for searching, and is invaluable for tomorrow’s ai.

 

[hagar]

Too bad Shared Albums are still useless. Why cant they be sorted by date taken? Why can’t they automatically import back to your library? Why can’t they reject duplicates?

 

[cocoua]

Too bad Shared Albums are still useless. Why cant they be sorted by date taken? Why can’t they automatically import back to your library? Why can’t they reject duplicates?

This is apple, they will, but ey!! One thing at a time! You want things working simple as 80% of users are want it simple.

They dont want you mess up with their beautiful planned design

 

[adrianlondon]

Thank you for specifying that the information is stored in the metadata and not in some sidecar file. Noice!

Is this supported in both HEIC and JPEG?

My photo was HEIC but when I export it, it got converted to JPEG as usual.
[automerge]1593249092[/automerge]

What about keywords, titles, descriptions, and location information? Why add an entirely new information field in “captions” instead of just using what we already have labeled and use on our Macs? This is one of the few things keeping me from using iPadOS and iOS solely. I’ve been waiting for years and I guess I’ll be waiting longer.

It populates the "Caption" field in MacOS Photos which gets written to Caption-Abstract and Description EXIF/IPTC fields.

I've already written an Applescript that goes through the Caption text and takes the first line of it and makes it the Title, and the rest gets left in Caption. I could amend it to deal with Keywords too but I don't use Keywords so haven't bothered. Also, location information already gets captured if the photo can get GPS coordinates at the time it's taken.

However, I recommend the iOS app Hashphotos (working fine on iOS 14) which allows editing of metadata, is great for moving photos in/out of albums and even has smart albums functionality. I have one set to "not in album" which lists all the photos I've yet to sort out.

 

[WordsmithMR]

Two days ago i taught my daughter how to do this so she could create an album of her stuffies. For each video, she puts a text caption explaining the name, the origin, the origin of the name, her favorite thing about it, etc. It’s adorable.

UPDATE: LOL. Some dude marked this as “disagree.” Probably hates puppies and the flag, too.

I mean, which flag? Probably loves the confederate one.

 

[Morgenland]

Two steps back, one step forward. Apple's been further along before. Remember "Places" in iPhoto? That was kinda genius back then.

 

[guyofyourdreams]

I just want the ability to make folders and move photos from the camera roll to those folders. I don't want multiple copies or links. I just want to move them!

Of course one possibility is to send a photo to a folder in iCloud Drive (at which time you can also rename it) and then delete it from camera roll.
In iCloud Drive folder it is also easy to organise files by name, date, size... You’ll find the options by pulling down anywhere on the page. 😉

 

[ApfelKuchen]

When I make a folder and put a photo in it, that photo is still in my camera roll. I want it out of the camera roll once I put it in a folder. I only want the camera roll to be used for new pictures I haven't assigned to a folder yet.

Since the Camera Roll has never worked the way you want it to work (even in the days before iCloud Photos), then figure out a different solution.

Camera Roll (now called Photos) is your master library. Every photo. It's not an email Inbox.

There are ways you can make what you want to happen - basically by transferring your photos to a computer, then syncing the photos you want to have in folders back onto the phone as Albums.

 

[Kleber20]

What about being able to edit metadata like gps tags and date/time in the photo app?!

 

[adrianlondon]

What about being able to edit metadata like gps tags and date/time in the photo app?!

One step at a time. Give Apple another few years ....

Otherwise ... Hashphotos. Personally, I do that kind of editing on my laptop but it would be good for Apple to simply allow us to edit all the metadata it captures. This is back to the "Thanks for entering the Wifi password for that network. We're going to store it for you and never let you see it again" philosophy that caused me to jailbreak back around iOS 6. Grr. I'm still bitter about that 🙂 Yes, I now have a Macbook with keychain but I didn't back then.

 

[henrikhelmers]

Captions in iOS 14 sync across all devices if iCloud Photo Library is enabled, and the Description field in macOS Big Sur has been renamed to Captions for continuity.

But titles are kept in Big Sur, and is the only text visible when looking at photos in the grid view. So now you have the quirky interaction of having to use the floating inspector to add a caption on macOS, whereas on iOS the new captions are front and center.

There is so much potential for all kinds of goodness with just a tiny bit more attention paid to photo metadata.

 

[subjonas]

Does anyone know if captions always travel with photos when they leave the iPhone? I thought I read certain metadata is stripped (for privacy reasons?) for certain types of export/sharing, but not sure which metadata and which types. I remember I once tried to use iPhoto for iPhone (back when it existed) to add tag/keywords to photos in my camera roll, but none of the tags traveled with the photos when they eventually ended up in my Mac. But I can’t remember which way I tested this, of the various ways I’ve brought pictures into my Mac (macOS image capture, Dropbox automatic upload and sync, another third party wireless sync app). Does anyone know if it would have worked had I chosen the right way to move the photos—presumably either macOS image capture or iCloud sync?

By the way, does anyone know a good third party iOS app to add/edit tags/keywords specifically (in its own field)? Preferably with a photos extension. And assuming that I can be sure the tags will travel with the photos.
Edit-oops just noticed the hashphotos recommendation. I’ll check that out.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

Does anyone know if captions always travel with photos when they leave the iPhone? I thought I read certain metadata is stripped (for privacy reasons?) for certain types of export/sharing, but not sure which metadata and which types. I remember I once tried to use iPhoto for iPhone (back when it existed) to add tag/keywords to photos in my camera roll, but none of the tags traveled with the photos when they eventually ended up in my Mac. But I can’t remember which way I tested this, of the various ways I’ve brought pictures into my Mac (macOS image capture, Dropbox automatic upload and sync, another third party wireless sync app). Does anyone know if it would have worked had I chosen the right way to move the photos—presumably either macOS image capture or iCloud sync?

By the way, does anyone know a good third party iOS app to add/edit tags/keywords specifically (in its own field)? Preferably with a photos extension. And assuming that I can be sure the tags will travel with the photos.
Edit-oops just noticed the hashphotos recommendation. I’ll check that out.

The metadata will travel to iCloud or if you transfer the images to a computer by syncing (iTunes/Finder or Image Capture), and I just tested it with Airdrop - metadata is preserved there, too. The metadata is stripped when you share/attach images to email, messages, iCloud Photo Sharing, etc., in order to keep location data from falling into the wrong hands.

 

[Undecided]

Any tips for what to include in titles versus captions?

 

[subjonas]

One step at a time. Give Apple another few years ....

Otherwise ... Hashphotos. Personally, I do that kind of editing on my laptop but it would be good for Apple to simply allow us to edit all the metadata it captures. This is back to the "Thanks for entering the Wifi password for that network. We're going to store it for you and never let you see it again" philosophy that caused me to jailbreak back around iOS 6. Grr. I'm still bitter about that 🙂 Yes, I now have a Macbook with keychain but I didn't back then.

I looked at Hashphotos, looks pretty great—but I have a couple questions I'd really appreciate if you could answer:
- can you batch add/edit tags? I know you can batch edit other things but I didn’t see anything about tags specifically. Just want to make sure.
- would captions from the stock Photos app show up in Hashphotos and vice versa?
- have you been able to confirm that captions, tags, etc. travel with the photos when you bring them to the computer? And which method did you use to transfer? I ask because I tried editing tags with iPhoto for iOS back in the day but the tags seems to only stay in that app. They were lost when I transferred the photos to my Mac (but I‘m not certain I remember how I transferred them- I think Dropbox).

The metadata will travel to iCloud or if you transfer the images to a computer by syncing (iTunes/Finder or Image Capture), and I just tested it with Airdrop - metadata is preserved there, too. The metadata is stripped when you share/attach images to email, messages, iCloud Photo Sharing, etc., in order to keep location data from falling into the wrong hands.

Good to know, thanks! Do you happen to know if Dropbox automatic camera upload keeps all metadata? I remember I used iPhoto for iOS to add tags and I believe I used Dropbox to transfer them to my Mac, but the tags never survived the trip. I wasn’t sure if it was because of Dropbox stripped the tags or iPhoto’s tags were never meant to leave the app.

 

[adrianlondon]

I only used the free features of Hashphotos. I used them on a trip where I added Title, Description and edited a couple of GPS tags that had messed up (as my phone had no signal at the time and geo-tagged the photos with the location it was last at). I use the default iCloud sync to get the photos onto my Mac in Photos, after which I export them (as jpeg). All the info I'd added in Hashphotos was in the exif/iptc. Also, the titles showed both in the Macbook photos app (under each photo) but also were searchable in the iOS Photos app (the only way to see titles!).

I don't use tags or keywords, so have no idea. You could download the app and try it. I believe all features work for a limited number of times for free, so it's a great way to try it out and see if it works for you.