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I can’t be the only one who thinks this is the best thing that’s happened to the app. You can literally set the entire bottom half to be whatever you want. You can choose what’s hidden and what’s not, and in what order everything is in. So much more visually pleasing too.
Agreed. I initially knee jerked into thinking its a big fat mess, but once I got over the 'I hate any changes' phase and actually configured it properly, I found it to be a big improvement over the previous. I'm not saying that there aren't any areas it can be improved upon, but generally speaking I'm finding that I'm sifting through a lot of old photo's / memories in a much more structured way than I used to. I won't sit on my high horse to say everyone should like it like I do, its horses for courses. It works for me, so I like it, obviously it doesn't work for a lot of other people and they aren't wrong either.
 
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Me and my wife both hate it.

In the entire system the swipe from the left edge to the center of the screen results in the navigation to previous screen.

It works the same way in new Photos app in individual albums created by user. BUT, in Photo Library, which is the main area of the Photos app, the same swipe will lead to switching the view from "All" to "Months" which is VERY frustrating. It is so inconsistent and it is so inconvenient, and it drives crazy every person I asked about it. Navigation happens far more often than changing the view to Month/Year. And in the entire system you cannot find a place where navigation to previous screen happens by tapping on floating "X" button. It is either Back button on top area of the screen or the gesture.
Inconsistency has been their motto for years.

The 18 Control Center is a messss in UI. So much inconsistency in design of elements, as if each team preceded with their own interpretation of the new visual design direction.

In iOS 17, they messed with iMessage apps. It used to be very accessible right above the keyboard, but with iOS17 they decided to hide it behind a couple taps and blurring the screen. They could have at the VERY least done it like the + icon in Notes app. It is so much more intuitive than the mess they created in iMessage.

For years, the “compose” button in Notes and Mail has been at the bottom right corner (logical) but out of reach at the top in Messages, despite all having the exact same icon.

I can go on and on 🤦‍♂️
 
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I got used to it after removing unnecessary items like memories. That doesn’t mean I like it. I wish we had no photo grid and a separate section for pics taken exclusively on my phone, like what the camera roll was. Video scrubbing is bad.

I did email Craig Federighi about the lack of camera roll and he said that’s what recent days can be used for, but it’s me still not great. I’m not switching platforms because of the photos app.
Craig is wrong here. I have items in my Camera Roll that are over a year old, because that's how I use it. Photos that I want in my permanent files get imported to my iMac, then sent back to the iPhone, so they get removed from my Camera Roll.

The Camera Roll still kinda exists. If you go into the Photo app and tap the image in the lower-left corner, you can see your Camera Roll items, but only one-by-one, you can't see thumbnails. And in Facebook, you can select Camera Roll and see all those items.

I wish some programmer could make a Camera Roll app that allows us complainers to view and delete items from the Camera Roll.
 
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No 💩.
That is one of the reason I am not getting iOS 18 despite the daily nudging from Apple. This had already happened 3 days in a row!
Absolutely hated the photos app on my work phone.
Glad I'm not the only one getting daily Apple notifications about the iOS 18 update even with auto updates turned off...

I just don't want iOS18 Apple. That's why I don't have installed the system yet.. let me in peace!
 
I'm feeling that too. I was planning on having an iPhone and Apple Watch when I'm even older, but am concerned that I will not be willing or able to do the homework to keep up. What are our older relatives who don't read tech sites doing?
I’ve been following this journey since iOS 3. I’ve had years of slowly getting new features and playing around and getting used to them.
I’m in my early 30s and I’m already feeling I can’t keep up with these anymore. How is someone expected to jump in and learn all these from scratch?
 
I can’t be the only one who thinks this is the best thing that’s happened to the app. You can literally set the entire bottom half to be whatever you want. You can choose what’s hidden and what’s not, and in what order everything is in. So much more visually pleasing too.
Tabs need to be brought back, and that entire bottom half should be in its own Albums tab, separate from the camera roll. That would solve so many of the "difficult to use" issues.
 
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Apple should have predicted that any changes to the Photos app would run great risk given how inherently personal the photos within the app are to users.

My wife and I still comment on how much we hate the existing experience, even though I have customized it down to remove the enhancements.

Just like Apple has needed time to nail down multitasking on the iPad (and haven’t nailed it yet!), there is much work to be done on the Photos app. I hope they course correct in 18.3..
I cannot believe after all these years, we STILL can’t have split screen with two app stacked vertically, which makes WAY more sense in portrait mode.

That would make multitasking so much better on the iPad.
 
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Customizing the app helps a lot, but there is still things I miss from the old version. Maybe I was the only one using it, but I really liked the view of the curated photos in comparison to the all photos view.
Maybe I am mistaken, but in the new app I can only filter for what to include rather than what to exclude. I’d love to exclude screenshots for example. If this option returns plus a much nicer version of the current month view (which is ugly and space wasting) that provides options for a week and a day view, then I am alright with the update.
 
I chalk this redesign to the pressure on Apple's software teams to have something new each year. There are some tweaks I could see would be helpful to the Photos app, but this feels like change for change's sake. You cannot open this app and easily use it, which was always the key to Apple's success.

They still can't get shuffle to work properly in the Music app (for me it will shuffle in the exact same order no matter what I try), but they redesigned the Photos app into something that requires customizing to get it working in a way you like.
I long for the day Apple says “iOS __ with ZERO new features.” Like they did with Snow Leopard. It was all about improvements under the hood. Oh how I miss that mindset.
 
If “reduce motion” is turned on, it has become impossible to scroll through big albums (folders) without closing them. Has been a bug since iOS 18.0.

How to reproduce: Turn on “reduce motion” in accessibility. Go to your recents album. Should have a few hundred photos in it. Scroll twice down and then once up. The folder closes.

One can basically not scroll back up to a photo one has just recognised without the album closing.

Devastating bug.

YouTube Video showing the bug
 
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Many people often tell me in comments in response “but you do have a choice! Switch to Android!”. I definitely will, especially after such awful overhaul of one of the key apps that I am using.

Apple has no right to implement such overhauls without at least doing some focus group studies. The interface of photos app is ultra cluttered and impossible to get used to. Grid is too large, no focus points so you gotta search with your eyes what you want, lack of manual organization. I think in the next few years new apps for viewing photos will emerge.

They were saying AI will be optional, but photos app is not optional and AI features cannot be turned off at all

I would like to see a "classic" option (grandpa mode?) for iOS and iPadOS with a predictable UI based on the stuff that everyone said was too boring for years. Hopefully they'll do something like that before it's regulated by the EU or others that everyone must use a standardized UI since our devices have become too essential for our daily lives.
 
It took me maybe 2 days to get used to it, was frustrating at first because it went against all my built up muscle memory, but once I got conceptually reoriented and customized the feed to my liking, I can't go back to the old version which I have on an older iPad Air.

People often ask for customization from Apple and the new Photos app is highly customizable with everything within a scroll away, instead of hidden away in tabs. I love it.
 
The much-needed search function is still at the opposite end of the phone to my thumbs though. The rest I can live with.

I agree that it should at least be customizable to be placed the bottom, because many of us use our phones one handed with a thumb. But every product demo Apple has the user holding the phone with one hand and using their index finger with the other hand palm pilot style.
 
Just today I started getting nagged (red dot notification on System Settings) to upgrade to iOS 18 even though I updated to 17.7.2 just yesterday. Hell no, Apple! Fix your cursed Photos app first. Your nagging won't work on me.
 
I agree that it should at least be customizable to be placed the bottom, because many of us use our phones one handed with a thumb. But every product demo Apple has the user holding the phone with one hand and using their index finger with the other hand palm pilot style.
Whilst this is an option, the spare hand might also be holding shopping/a small child/public transport/a burrito :)
 
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Craig is wrong here. I have items in my Camera Roll that are over a year old, because that's how I use it. Photos that I want in my permanent files get imported to my iMac, then sent back to the iPhone, so they get removed from my Camera Roll.

The Camera Roll still kinda exists. If you go into the Photo app and tap the image in the lower-left corner, you can see your Camera Roll items, but only one-by-one, you can't see thumbnails. And in Facebook, you can select Camera Roll and see all those items.

I wish some programmer could make a Camera Roll app that allows us complainers to view and delete items from the Camera Roll.

You can do that now. Just reconfigure the Photos app so that it *only* shows your photos grid (ie camera roll). You can scroll viewing your photos and deleting any that you don't like. Easy.
 
Cra
You can do that now. Just reconfigure the Photos app so that it *only* shows your photos grid (ie camera roll). You can scroll viewing your photos and deleting any that you don't like. Easy.
The Photos grid mixes Camera Roll and Library photos. I can't easily find a 3 month old item in my Camera Roll. Unless I'm missing something that you are explaining.
 
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Cra

The Photos grid mixes Camera Roll and Library photos. I can't easily find a 3 month old item in my Camera Roll. Unless I'm missing something that you are explaining.

I'm not following you. My Photos app only shows photographs I made with my current and past iPhones (around 27,000 photos).

If I want to, I can select photos based on year and/or month (or subject matter: dogs, bridges, cars, etc) and see only those photos.
 
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