iOS 18 Photos App Adds New Utilities Categories for Finding QR Codes, Receipts, Illustrations and More

[MacRumors]

Apple introduced a new design for the iOS 18 Photos app that replaces the Library and For You sections with a more integrated all-in-one view, and part of that redesign includes an overhauled Utilities section that makes it easier to find different types of images.

Rather than being limited to Imports, Duplicates, Hidden, and Recently Deleted as in iOS 17, the Utilities section of the app has all of the following categories:

• Hidden
• Recently Deleted
• Duplicates
• Receipts
• Handwriting
• Illustrations
• QR Codes
• Recently Saved
• Recently Viewed
• Recently Edited
• Documents
• Imports
• Maps

You've been able to search for things like receipts in prior versions of iOS, and still can, but having them in a dedicated Utilities section makes them quicker to locate.

Along with Utilities, the Photos app also features Media Types, and while this section is largely the same, there is a new Animated category. The Animated category and the Illustrations utility section may be aimed at the image generation tools that are coming to iOS 18 as part of the Apple Intelligence feature set.

Apple also added a "Pinned Collections" section to Photos, which houses things that you might want quick access to like Videos, Favorites, Screenshots, and Selfies. Collections are a repeat of content that can be found elsewhere in Photos, but you can customize it to your liking so you see your preferred content at the top of the app. These changes to Photos are in iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia as well as iOS 18.

Article Link: iOS 18 Photos App Adds New Utilities Categories for Finding QR Codes, Receipts, Illustrations and More

 

[ellpee]

Apple introduced a new design and now it’s time to say goodbye.

 

[sw1tcher]

Rather than being limited to Imports, Duplicates, Hidden, and Recently Deleted as in iOS 17, the Utilities section of the app has all of the following categories:

• Hidden
• Recently Deleted
• . . . .

No Deleted Years Ago section?

 

[someshwaradas]

Yet, still no ability on iOS/iPadOS to view all photos not in an album. 🤷‍♂️

 

[anthogag]

Can files easily be renamed? For example, it is much better to rename a file when it is shared.

 

[stiligFox]

I mostly just want the option to filter out the photos I’ve taken with the device from everything and keep them from getting synced to my larger photo library. Apple always shows off the Photos with libraries full of beautiful photos and never shows off the screenshots, memes, saved videos, discord snippets and quick clips form websites that fill up the majority of my library, making it a pain to scroll through my library and look back at the memories of JUST the photos I TOOK with the device - what the “camera roll” should really have been. Everything else should go into a hard secondary folder, in my opinion. It’s kept me from using iCloud Photos because I know the second I do, my 160GB of 15 years of photos is going to get mixed in with thousands of memes and saved furry art…

 

[GuruZac]

Where’s the new Clean Up feature in Photos when editing?

 

[HouseofG]

I mostly just want the option to filter out the photos I’ve taken with the device from everything and keep them from getting synced to my larger photo library. Apple always shows off the Photos with libraries full of beautiful photos and never shows off the screenshots, memes, saved videos, discord snippets and quick clips form websites that fill up the majority of my library, making it a pain to scroll through my library and look back at the memories of JUST the photos I TOOK with the device - what the “camera roll” should really have been. Everything else should go into a hard secondary folder, in my opinion. It’s kept me from using iCloud Photos because I know the second I do, my 160GB of 15 years of photos is going to get mixed in with thousands of memes and saved furry art…

Exactly. There used to be an app for taking "utility" photos that wouldn't mix them with your photo library. Used it all the time but it's now in the dustbin of history unfortunately. Anyone aware of anything else like that out there?

 

[munpip214]

Need a save offline feature. My photos are always getting offloaded, as I want due to limited storage, but certain ones I always want downloaded

 

[CrysisDeu]

Apple introduced a new design and now it’s time to say goodbye.

Lol I used to look for ways to manage my external albums like Synology photos on the Photos App.

Now I am happy with the Synology Photos app

 

[SoldOnApple]

The image to text detection in Photos is already very handy for searching for random stuff from years ago.

 

[timeislove]

simply trying to equalise the feature sets provided by google photos.

the current implementation of duplicates is simply useless cos it only lists out the near exact copies of photos. an option should be added to allow fine adjustment on the tolerance for similarities of photos hence the users could find out the similar photos (usually a lot when trying to capture snapshots of a scene) and delete those not-so-good shots.

 

[DotCom2]

So is the “For You” gone now? I really like it.

 

[bruno7]

Please tell me that there is a screen within this app where I can just quickly swipe all the way to the bottom to see my recent photos - like the present Albums behave.

 

[zakarhino]

I mostly just want the option to filter out the photos I’ve taken with the device from everything and keep them from getting synced to my larger photo library. Apple always shows off the Photos with libraries full of beautiful photos and never shows off the screenshots, memes, saved videos, discord snippets and quick clips form websites that fill up the majority of my library, making it a pain to scroll through my library and look back at the memories of JUST the photos I TOOK with the device - what the “camera roll” should really have been. Everything else should go into a hard secondary folder, in my opinion. It’s kept me from using iCloud Photos because I know the second I do, my 160GB of 15 years of photos is going to get mixed in with thousands of memes and saved furry art…

Absolutely, this is my biggest request. It should have been a headline feature this year but no... I want it to be intelligent too, it should generally distinguish between photos vs. everything else you listed (minus the furry art lol) based on something other than metadata (semantically?) similar to how it uses machine learning to identify receipts or whatever, because if I import photos I took from a Sony camera or imported from Lighroom I want those to display in my 'real photos.'

 

[contacos]

All this and yet we still cannot tell which photos have yet to be sorted into an album or which album they are part of to make sorting photos easier

 

[SebCohen]

Can we just get folders? I want folders…and yes I know we have albums and one hidden. I just need a place to store my memes and stuff.

 

[Boeingfan]

Very good

 

[bebarhood]

Is it hard to tag an image with keywords so you can find it whenever you search it?

 

[Tevos]

It took Apple 14 years and 3T$ market valuation to add Calculator for iPad. It'll probably take 20 years (still 3 years to go) and 6T$ to add "Sort by Name" option in Photos. 🤦

Really being multi-platform user over the years Win/Lin/Mac iOS/PadOS has the worst file management imaginable. Total disaster.

 

[Skyscraperfan]

Seems like a strange understanding of "deleted". If I delete something, I want it to be gone. To prevent accidental deletion, there could be a one minute delay or whatever time you specify.

If those categories come to Macs, you have to be extra careful if you let someone else use your Mac. Even without thar feature you already might not want anybody to search for *.jpg on your computer, but that is another level.

It also feels creepy if an AI "understands" the content of your photos, because AI feels more and more like it has a mind. Do you really want an AI to see all your adult content?

And will that AI still protect your privacy if their is something illegal on your photos or in your files? Imagine an AI comes to the conclusion that you pose a threat to others, even if that is not true. Will it inform the authorities? If the AI can read receipts, it might find a certain combination of items that can be used to do something bad.

Just think about the scandal a few years ago when Apple searched the photos in the cloud for child abuse. It is understandable that Apple did not want photos like that on their servers, but Apple has to understand what "private" means. Not even law enforcement has the right to invade your privacy unless there are strong indications that you committed a crime or plan to commit one. Police can't just search the homes of everyone to check if somebody might build a bomb or sell drugs. So why do private companies think that they have right to spy on us?

 

[platinumaqua]

Seems like a strange understanding of "deleted". If I delete something, I want it to be gone. To prevent accidental deletion, there could be a one minute delay or whatever time you specify.

If those categories come to Macs, you have to be extra careful if you let someone else use your Mac. Even without thar feature you already might not want anybody to search for *.jpg on your computer, but that is another level.

It also feels creepy if an AI "understands" the content of your photos, because AI feels more and more like it has a mind. Do you really want an AI to see all your adult content?

And will that AI still protect your privacy if their is something illegal on your photos or in your files? Imagine an AI comes to the conclusion that you pose a threat to others, even if that is not true. Will it inform the authorities? If the AI can read receipts, it might find a certain combination of items that can be used to do something bad.

Just think about the scandal a few years ago when Apple searched the photos in the cloud for child abuse. It is understandable that Apple did not want photos like that on their servers, but Apple has to understand what "private" means. Not even law enforcement has the right to invade your privacy unless there are strong indications that you committed a crime or plan to commit one. Police can't just search the homes of everyone to check if somebody might build a bomb or sell drugs. So why do private companies think that they have right to spy on us?

it's their way of implementing the Trash/Rubbish/Recycle Bin since iOS hides the concept of files so there's no system-wide trash bin.

 

[hoorayforhollywood]

There should definitely be a 'screenshots' category so if you take a snap of train times, etc, you can easily get to them all and delete them. Or does that exist?

 

[Skyscraperfan]

There should definitely be a 'screenshots' category so if you take a snap of train times, etc, you can easily get to them all and delete them. Or does that exist?

Actually in the keynote on Monday they showed a toggle that allows you to hide screenshots from the photo grid view. So for that feature they already categorize screenshots.

 

[kirky29]

How is it selecting the 'featured photos'? It's showing me some random photos of tree branches, very dimly lit rooms and even an upside down church photo..

Same with the trips feature... this one, of the most boring selection of pictures (except for my cat) all taken at home over a 3 day period in Lincolnshire, England... has decided to call it 'Iran'! All the images seem to have exif data for the correct locations.

Honestly, this app is now a mess