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iOS 15 Photos Guide: Features, Text Recognition, Changes

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Apple made some major improvements to the Photos app in iOS 15, adding some long-awaited and requested features along with unique capabilities that enable you to do more with your images than ever.

iOs-15-Photos-Feature.jpg

There's a new Memories feature that lets you relive your favorite moments, metadata info can be viewed and edited, Visual Lookup lets you identify plants, landmarks, and more, and with Live Text, you can copy and paste the text from any image on your iPhone. This guide highlights all of the new features that are available in the Photos app.

Memories

The Memories section of the Photos app has been overhauled in iOS 15, making it easier than ever to resurface your favorite memories.

photos-memories-app.jpg

The Memories feature has a new look that includes animated cards with adaptive titles, new animation and transition styles, and multiple image collages for a more cinematic feel. There are new memory looks that are added to Memories based on each photo and video, with Apple using machine learning to apply the right contrast and color adjustment for a consistent look. Apple says that this feature is designed to mimic what colorists at film studios do.

When playing a Memory, there's an interactive interface that lets you tap to pause, replay the last photo, skip to the next photo, or jump ahead, with the music designed to keep playing. Changing a song, removing or adding photos, or adjusting a Memory look is done in realtime with no need to recompile. To make it easier to make adjustments to Memories, there's a new Browse view so you can see all of the photos and videos in a bird's eye view.


Apple Music Integration

When creating and viewing Memories, the Photos app has always supported integrated music, but now Apple Music subscribers can choose to add any Apple Music song to a Memory.

memories-apple-music.jpg

The Memories feature makes personalized Apple Music song suggestions based on your music tastes and the content of your photos and videos. Song suggestions can include songs that were popular at the time and location of the memory, songs that you listened to while you were traveling, or a song from an artist if the memory includes a concert.

You can customize a Memory by swiping through various Memory mixes, which lets you experiment with different songs, pacing, and Memory looks.


New Memory Types

There are new kinds of Memories that are built from your Photos library, with Apple adding new international holidays, child-focused memories, and trends over time. Pet Memories have been improved and iOS devices can recognize individual dogs and cats.

Watch Next

After you've finished a Memory, Memories will suggest related content so that you can keep going through your photo content.

photo-memory-suggestions.jpg

Suggest Less Often

If there's someone popping up in your Memories or in Featured Photos, you can use a new quick access "Feature Less" button to see less of that specific person.

feature-less-photos.jpg

This "Feature Less" option also works for dates, places, and holidays.


Live Text

Any text that's in a photograph or an image on your iPhone is now recognized by the iPhone through the new Live Text feature.

photos-live-text.jpg

Text that is in a photo is selectable, can be copied and pasted, can be used with the Lookup feature, and can even be translated. You can take a photo of an item that has text in a foreign language and have it translated right from the photo.

This works with all of the images in the Photos app, and is also compatible with screenshots, Safari, and the live camera viewer.


Visual Lookup

In certain photos, the iPhone can now recognize various objects, landmarks, animals, books, plants, works of art, and more. If you have a photo of a flower on your iPhone, for example, you can use Visual Lookup to determine what it might be based on a web search of images that Apple conducts automatically.

photos-visual-lookup.jpg

When viewing an image, if the "I" icon has a little star over it, it means there's a Visual Lookup you can examine. Tap on the Info icon and then tap on the little leaf icon to open up a search.


Metadata Viewing and Editing

In iOS 15, if you tap on the new "Info" icon below a photo, you can view the camera that was used to take it, the lens, shutter speed, megapixels, size, aperture, and more, which is all of the EXIF info you can get from the desktop Photos app.

photos-app-metadata.jpg

In this interface, you can add captions and adjust the date and time of a photo through an added "Adjust" button. Prior to iOS 15, none of this information was available on iOS devices.

Faster iCloud Photos Library Syncing

Apple says that when you upgrade to a new device, iCloud Photos syncs more quickly than before, making it faster than ever for you to get access to your photo library.

People Identification and Naming Improvements

The "People" album on the iPhone has improved recognition for the various individuals that are in your pictures, and the iOS 15 Photos app is able to detect people in extreme poses, people wearing accessories, and people with occluded faces.

ios-15-improved-people-recognition.jpg

Apple has also added a full workflow for correcting naming mistakes. When selecting a person, if you tap on the "..." icon and then choose "Manage Tagged Photos," you can untag any photos that might not be that person. This is also the interface used to tag additional photos if iOS finds untagged images.


Selection Order for Photos Picker

The Photos image picker that's available across iOS lets you select photos in a certain order for sharing purposes, so if you have a photo sequence, you can be sure they're shared in the order that you intend.

Shared With You

If someone shares a photo or video with you in the Messages app, it will show up in a new "Shared With You" section in the Photos app.

photos-shared-with-you.jpg

If it's a photo that was taken when you were present, it will appear in the All Photos view and in the Days, Months, and Years view, as well as in Featured Photos and Memories.

Photos in the Shared With You section can easily be saved to the Photos Library, and you can respond to a message with a tap right from the Photos app.


Spotlight Photos Search

In iOS 15, you can search through your entire Photos library using Spotlight. You can search by locations, people, scenes, or things in the photos like plants or pets thanks to Visual Lookup.

spotlight-search-photos-app.jpg


Guide Feedback

Have questions about Photos in iOS 15, know of a feature we left out, or want to offer feedback on this guide? Send us an email here.

Article Link: iOS 15 Photos Guide: Features, Text Recognition, Changes
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/guide/ios-15-photos-app/
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I think we're getting to the point on these updates where I go, nope, don't need that, nope, won't use that, nope, I'll never figure that one out, etc.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I still just use my phone to call, text (with no emojis other than thumbs up and laughing face), surf the web while waiting for my wife to get out of Sephora, and plug into my car for Google Maps and some tunes. Anything else I use my iPad or MacBook.
 
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jjudson said:
I think we're getting to the point on these updates where I go, nope, don't need that, nope, won't use that, nope, I'll never figure that one out, etc.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I still just use my phone to call, text (with no emojis other than thumbs up and laughing face), surf the web while waiting for my wife to get out of Sephora, and plug into my car for Google Maps and some tunes. Anything else I use my iPad or MacBook.
Click to expand...
These aren’t huge updates but they are refinements. That’s what we want from tech, the will to make improvements where they fit.
 
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Reactions: amartinez1660 and SBlue1
I like iOS 15 beta on my iPhone 12 Pro Max.

Live Text and Visual Lookup are great new features.

Spotlight on the lock screen is excellent. Recently used apps show-up and I can open it right there.

Maps looks really good with more detailed maps.

Widget clock looks nicer.

Weather app is better.

I like Safari's update.
 
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jjudson said:
I think we're getting to the point on these updates where I go, nope, don't need that, nope, won't use that, nope, I'll never figure that one out, etc.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I still just use my phone to call, text (with no emojis other than thumbs up and laughing face), surf the web while waiting for my wife to get out of Sephora, and plug into my car for Google Maps and some tunes. Anything else I use my iPad or MacBook.
Click to expand...
I do a little more than that with my phone, but honestly I don’t spend a ton of time looking at my photos unless I am looking for one to post or send to someone in a message. I never really dive into the memories and see 0 need to be able to add music to the photos.
 
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KittyKatta said:
Missing Feature: Family Sharing

Seriously, doesnt anyone at Apple have a family? If they offer $10/mo for 2TB of family shared data then it should include an OPTION for a family bucket of full-res photos so that parents can choose to combine all/some of their library.
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Agreed. There should be an option and i would use it but I think they don’t allow it to follow along with their privacy push. There are a lot of crazy spouses out there…
 
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Faster iCloud Photos Library Syncing

Apple says that when you upgrade to a new device, iCloud Photos syncs more quickly than before, making it faster than ever for you to get access to your photo library.
Click to expand...

Someone care to explain why upgrading to a new decide will mean faster iCloud syncing? Why wouldn’t all existing devices also have this if they upgrade to iOS 15?
 
TVreporter said:
Someone care to explain why upgrading to a new decide will mean faster iCloud syncing? Why wouldn’t all existing devices also have this if they upgrade to iOS 15?
Click to expand...
Existing devices would have the data already on them.

This just means that devices that have been erased or are being setup new will pull in initial data faster. Not that it has to be a literal brand new device.
 
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But we still can’t copy and paste adjustments between photos?

Do Apple engineers not adjust their photos? Because I can’t tell you how much time I waste trying to replicate the same adjustments between multiple photos. I can do this in Pixelmator Photo but this very basic functionality needs to finally be built-in like it has been in Mac versions going back to early versions of iPhoto. Heck I think you could even do that when we had iPhoto on iOS.
 
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Reactions: xmach and GregoriusM
As always , Apple is pretty bad when it comes to “text recognition” , live text is very-very bad compared to google’s , and Spotlight should be able to search text in photos.
Apple’s text recognition was always very very bad , in notes when you scanned a document, not even half of the text is recognized, compared to the excellent job Google Keep is doing.
So no improvement in iOS 15.
 
  • Disagree
Reactions: matrix07
Can you use purchased iTunes songs too?
(or Apple Music only)
 
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