Photos

• Free

Last verified 5 Sep 2026

3.1 15520 ratings · App Store

1. 1/5ios 18 ruined it

   I’ve been using the photos app as long as I can remember, and I’ve loved it so much. The tabs made navigation so great, where you switch switch from your main photos library quickly to searching something up that you remembered, than going back exactly where you were in your photos library. I just loved how there were multiple pages too- everything was so organized and perfect. You could also see the most recent photo in your albums nice and big like always. But now, I can’t stand this everything in one page design. Multitasking within the photos app is ruined, making it so hard to go from viewing photos in your main library to searching something up and then looking at photos in your albums all at the same time by the click of a tab change. So so upset about this. The old app had nostalgia to it too as I’ve literally been using it since i was a kid - i’m 17 now and got my first iphone when I was 10. There’s nothing about this redesign of the photos app that I like. Its downgraded so much, becoming more complex by attempting to simplify it. It’s also worth noting how glitchy it is, as it keeps freezing while I’m searching and opening photo albums. Please please PLEASE bring back the old app, or at least an option in settings where you can bring the old app design back, similar to how you can switch your safari tab view in settings. Please. 🙏

   Danyel Shaikh · 5 Sep 2026

2. 1/5iOS 18 is not okay

   I’ve never written a review before, but my phone just updated to iOS 18, and now I am so full of hatred for it because navigating the photos app is absolutely impossible. Before the update, there were tabs that were so user friendly and easy to organize for yourself. Now, everything is on one page, and you have to endlessly scroll in order to find anything. Also, scrolling through the app isn’t even easy since the the app will pause at certain spots, probably to stop at the different “regions” that would have normally been under different tabs, but it just makes the whole experience clunky and almost glitchy. It treats the albums you create as if they don’t matter, and it’s so hard to find them. It’s so frustrating because in a way it can be considered not disability friendly. I say this because the text and photos are so much smaller and it’s hard to read because of it. You can no longer adjust the number of photos per row so that the pictures are bigger or smaller, or if you can, the settings are not clear enough to understand. Overall, this is by far the worst apple update I’ve ever seen in my life. In all other updates, there have been some sort of positive change that outweighs the negative, but this one has only been a huge step back in the name of unnecessary “progress”.

   Lindssssssssssssssssss · 5 Sep 2026

3. 2/5Very buggy…could be more functional/stable

   There’s a lot that I love about this standard Apple app and I use it more than any other photo app, but I’m starting to use it less and less due to lots of bugs and glitches with the last few updates from 2024. Lately, I’m finding issues when I’m editing photos, particularly if I’m trying to add text. Also seeing a lot with video editing so I use a different app for that now too. I do all the things that I can, including restarting my phone, deleting the photo retaking the photo (if that’s possible). In the end, it’s a lot more work to try to use this app and work around its glitches, and I really feel Apple should be doing better to address it. Alternatively, I’m having to go to other applications to do what I feel Apple should be doing to address the glitches but months go by and the same bugs still seem to be happening. When I spend a tremendous amount of money on my device and I just want the standard Apple photo app to work as well as it used to… it’s a disappointment. I do hold Apple to a high standard as I’ve been an Apple customer since 2009. I’ve seen their customer service slip in the last 5 years or so too, which is also disappointing. I hope devs read this and address the glitches and bugs please. Please do better. I want to love my iPhone apps like I used to.

   Nyx-6 · 5 Sep 2026

4. 3/5Don’t understand some updates

   I’m just mad right now, this isn’t a terrible app or anything, but usually I can take it in stride when apps change things like their general set up and format, because you get used it after a while or it’s solving some issue, but for some reason I feel like photos has changed their layout quite a few times recently, and I wouldn’t be as upset about it if it wasn’t repeatedly getting you used to a layout such as scrolling down to see albums or seeing them along the side, and then suddenly changing it to a different location? Why take away, relocate, or fully remove features that are arguably helpful, such as being able to scroll between albums you created suddenly no longer being a thing. I don’t understand, I understand apps changing things now and then, but when it happens so often back to back and not to fix any apparent issue, but instead seemingly just to try out new layouts, I wish it wasn’t in a way that got you used to something only to out of nowhere take it back. I don’t want to relearn an app I use, this many times. Let alone an app I use quite often and have gotten used to or even rely on, because I probably enjoy it because I am used to the features it has and the way it’s set up. That is all.

   BlApTe · 5 Sep 2026

5. 3/5Would like some updates

   Please please please - when I search for a photo, stop highlighting the word in the photo or make it possible to turn that off. It is so annoying to not be able to see the actual picture bc it is greyed out so you can highlight the word you sear Chy ed. The organization of photos is confusing right now. I would like to organize my albums by different metrics like alphabetical or most rcently updated/added to rather than date created. Also what does pinning do? Doesnt seem to make a difference. The gesture controls are too sensitive on my iPhone 14 as well - it is so easy to close out of an album when youre just trying to scroll. I also dont like the card visualization of the albums with the drop shadow bc it adds more visual clutter and makes me feel like I have to do more work to look through my list of albums even though it is just a visual treatment. Would love a redesign to make it cleaner visually and easier to arrange in a way that is useful to me. Also strongly dislike the preview huge image that was default to albums but figured out how to turn that off so thats great. Im sure different people have different preferences but that added no value to me and just meant I had to scroll more. I do really like the way that my most recently-edited album is suggested when I select a photo to add to an album - super nice to have the shortcut as well as the ability to choose which album to add to. I also like the selection mechanism where I can drag my finger and select huge amounts of pics - can be easy to do accidentally but easy to undo as well and helps for situations where Im trying to add large amounts of pics to other places!

   kiufrraeygg hi kougydsrr · 5 Sep 2026

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• 1.6 · 12 Dec 2025

  Bug Fixes and Feature Enhancements