photos

It’s only a few weeks until the first Apple Intelligence features arrive in iOS 18.1. You can join a public beta to try them now. Otherwise, mid-to-late October is the expected release date. During my beta testing, I’ve discovered that perhaps the most overlooked Apple Intelligence feature is actually one of the best. What’s the feature? Search in the iOS 18.1 Photos app.

I’ve been using Apple Intelligence for a few days now, since iOS 18.1 beta 1 dropped on Monday. I’ve put the new Siri to the test and started implementing Apple’s writing tools. But my surprise early favorite AI feature is in the Photos app: creating Memory movies.

Years ago, the iPhone was young enough that Apple could make major changes to how iOS works and receive minimal pushback. Today, the iPhone is a mature product with billions of users, so any change in iOS is bound to receive more attention and even criticism.

Change is hard, especially when it affects apps that are used by nearly every iPhone owner.

That’s why the new Photos app in iOS 18 is about to be subject to a whole lot of scrutiny. Here’s what’s new.

A remark by EU competition head Margrethe Vestager has suggested that Apple may be required to let iPhone owners delete the Photos app.

While this possibility hasn’t previously been raised, Vestager mentioned in a brief speech that this was one of the things Apple had failed to do in its DMA response – and it would obviously involve a massive change to the way iOS works …

Beyond the attention-grabbing new features with iOS 17, there are a number of small, yet very handy upgrades. One of those is a quick crop on iPhone Photos app. Here’s how it works.

Leitmotif, the team behind Kaleidoscope and Versions for Mac, is out with a brand new photo management tool. Photoscope just launched on both iPhone and Apple Vision Pro (possibly a first for that combo with a new app). The pitch is that it can help you clean up your massive photo library and rediscover your best shots. And to start, t’s completely free with no in-app purchases or subscriptions.

It may be news to many that Apple’s “My Photo Stream” feature was still alive and kicking, but the real news today is that Apple is pulling the plug on the free iCloud feature this summer.

This week we heard about a new way Apple plans to let us use the iPhone 14 Pro always-on display in iOS 17. If you’ve ever wanted your iPhone to present more info panels in landscape, well, you’re in luck.

I hope there are more updates to customizing the standard Lock Screen as well. Specifically, there’s one thing about the Photo Shuffle version of the Lock Screen in iOS 16 that I hope changes in iOS 17.

Apple’s Photos app gets lots of attention with iOS 16 and one of the valuable new features is the ability to batch edit photos thanks to new copy and paste edits buttons. Here’s how it works to batch edit iPhone Photos in iOS 16.

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iOS 16 comes with lots of love for Apple’s Photos app and one of the useful new additions is a built-in duplicate finder. Here’s how it works to use the new feature to delete duplicate iPhone photos a few at a time or in large batches.

iCloud Photos is a fantastic feature for syncing large photo and video libraries across all your devices. Have a 300GB photo library? With an iCloud subscription and Optimize Storage, you don’t need a 512GB or 1TB iPhone to take your media with you. Still, iCloud Photos backups shouldn’t be ignored.

Keeping a local backup of your photo library is mighty important. iCloud Photos can feel like a backup. It’s really just your photo library in a single place — even if you don’t use Optimize Storage. iCloud Photos really doesn’t encourage methods of keeping separate, offline copies of photos and videos.

Apple’s Photos app is gaining a lot of useful features in iOS 16. While the star of the keynote was iCloud Shared Photo Library, Photos has also learned how to detect duplicates in your library, new ways to edit, and more.

Apple today released the third beta of iOS 15.5 to developers, and while the update doesn’t seem to have any significant changes, Apple has made an interesting tweak to its native Photos app. The system will now block “Sensitive Locations” for Memories in the Photos app.

Today I learned that you can search your photos by text on your iPhone – that is, by printed text found within the images, using the same tech as Live Text.

Apple seems to have kept quiet about it so far, and that may be with good reason …

While you may love or hate the iPhone’s Photos app, it’s the place where all your photos end up either way. With iCloud’s capabilities, it’s an easy way to keep track of your images across your Apple ecosystem. As the iPhone’s camera continues to make a name for itself, professional and amateur photographers alike keep crawling back to Apple to capture their memories.

Here’s a guide to help you better understand your iPhone’s Photos app.

Update: This has now been officially announced: notably your phone will only be scanning photos uploaded to iCloud, in line with policies of all major social networks and web services. (Original story below for context.)

Apple is reportedly set to announce new photo identification features that will use hashing algorithms to match the content of photos in users’ photo libraries with known child abuse materials, such as child pornography.

Apple’s system will happen on the client — on the user’s device — in the name of privacy, so the iPhone would download a set of fingerprints representing illegal content and then check each photo in the user’s camera roll against that list. Presumably, any matches would then be reported for human review.

Photos in iOS 15 will finally let users mark specific subjects for featuring less often in Memories, widgets, and more. The feature is one of many new changes coming to Apple’s Photos experience this fall.

Holiday photo books have always been well-received gifts, whether it’s photos of the vacations and other fun experiences you’ve had with your significant other, or photos of your kids as a present for their grandparents. But they also take some time and effort to put together.

We noted back in October that Motif – the company which previously made photo books under Apple branding – had been updated with a number of features designed to make it quicker and easier to create to turn the iPhone shots in your Photos app into a printed photo book. Since the company is also repeating its 30% discount for 9to5Mac readers, I took it out for another spin …

This past summer, the ability to order large acrylic, canvas, and metal prints arrived on the Photos app for Mac with the Mimeo integration. Now the company is expanding its lineup even further with Mac users able to transform photos into personalized puzzles and blankets.

After Apple stopped offering a direct way to print photos, calendars, and more in macOS, it fortunately allowed Photo app extensions from third-parties to integrate printing options. Now, popular Mac printing service Mimeo Photos has launched the ability to bring large wall decor prints to your home on metal, acrylic, and canvas.

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