Controversial redesign of the Photos app in iOS 18: Apple speaks out
Apple has radically changed the look and feel of one of its most important iOS apps. The reason: the aim is to "eliminate friction losses".
Photos app in iOS 18 with a new look.Photos app in iOS 18 with a new look
(Image: Apple)
One of the already hotly debated innovations in iOS 18 is Apple's major overhaul of the Photos app. According to the manufacturer, this comes with the "biggest overhaul to date" since its introduction. According to Apple, the aim is to "make it easier to find and relive special moments". To this end, there is a single, now significantly simplified standard view. With new collections, it should also be possible to sort photos by topic without having to sort them into albums first. However, not every user likes the new look: beta testers complain that they find it difficult to navigate, at least at first. Apple has now commented on this publicly: Apple managers commented to a newspaper published in Abu Dhabi on the changes and the reasoning behind them.
Where is my favorite feature?
Bill Sorrentino, Senior Director of Human Interface Design, said that Apple's aim was to eliminate friction. "With the growing number of features, users and photo libraries, the density of the [Photos] app has also increased." The aim was to avoid users having to rummage through half the app. "Instead, we have created a simplified, optimized single view that relies on deep artificial intelligence." How intelligent this really is remains to be seen when dealing with large media collections.
The main problem is that long-time users will initially not know where to find their frequently used functions. After all, there are now various new filters that make it easier to find (or exclude from display) invoices or screenshots, for example. Apple is also continuing to work on its "biggest redesign of the Photos app" as part of the beta and could therefore still fix particularly annoying changes.
Apple: Automated views are "the key"
Sorrentino's colleague Della Huff, manager in the Camera and Photos product marketing team at Apple, said that the app offers a wide range of customization options, which will be automated in the future thanks to the aforementioned "deep AI". "Everyone has a different workflow (...) But that's really the key."
iOS 18 is expected to be released in September. Until then, normal users will also be able to try out the update. The public beta is expected to be launched in July,
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