The new Photos app in iOS 18 just doesn't do it for me; in fact, I can't stand the changes they've made to the UI and navigation. I am firmly in the camp that feels the photo library is a feature, a utility to be used by other apps. Apple, however, wants Photos to be a destination, a product with a unique UI, flashy features and user retention gimmicks. Whether these two things should be two different apps, I don't know, but what we've got here isn't an app I want to have my photos in anymore
It's worth saying: none of this would be a problem if the Photos app were a user-replaceable component like antitrust regulators in the EU desire. I could just replace the Photos app, which is clearly going off in a direction I want nothing to do with, with an alternative that looks and functions like the old one
@stroughtonsmith I wonder if these will be the changes that finally get me to dump using photos, which would actually get me off needing to pay for iCloud also
@stroughtonsmith How is it not possible today? If you squint, Peek‑a‑View is a Photos.app replacement.
@caseyliss @stroughtonsmith There’s a lot of functionality that only the Photos app can access and isn’t in the public PhotoKit API (captions and face/object recognition just to name a couple)
@bwebster @caseyliss @stroughtonsmith Can’t third party apps already implement these by themselves? Google Photos has face recognition.
@vinski @caseyliss @stroughtonsmith The face recognition is the easy part. But then there would be no way for that app to store its results as part of the photo library database so it would be available to any other app that accesses the library. Only Photos can do that. Not that other apps can even access Photos’ face info right now in the first place…
@caseyliss @stroughtonsmith I agree with Casey.I haven’t used Apple Photos in years.
@caseyliss @stroughtonsmith Oh so many ways. No search api is a big one
@caseyliss @stroughtonsmith The thing I can think of that I don't think people are getting right is probably things like stock photo pickers. If you use Google Photos, for example, you're going to get the AI/ML stuff through Google's implementation, but apps/web aren't going to implement a photo picker API for everything. Or just not being able to not work around photos.app entirely.
@stroughtonsmith I’ve been wishing for so long that they brought back the camera roll and made it separate from the photos library. I like Photos, but I’d rather pick what photos go in there instead of constantly having it be littered with every single photo and screenshot ever taken with any of my devices
@stroughtonsmith
I think you would be the one writing such an app.
Because you could say the same about music players that act like an old iTunes or iPod. Totally possible but nothing exists in this space.
@ritchey_de what do you mean, plenty of apps like those exist?
@stroughtonsmith
I appreciate any recommendation. I’ve tried several. Currently I run Cs Music (previously Cesium). It’s not good.
@ritchey_de @stroughtonsmith How about Doppler? They also have a Mac and a "Transfer" app. https://brushedtype.co/doppler/
It uses the Apple design language but it's pretty basic. For a more feature-complete solution, there is Plexamp, though this requires setting up a Plex server. https://www.plex.tv/plexamp/
@imkh @stroughtonsmith
I had Doppler installed. Don’t remember exactly what didn’t work for me. Maybe I give it another shot.
It seems many apps try too hard with a million features. Maybe I’m just an oddball and there’s no market for it. I just want local music, organized in playlists, and with very clear modes. Like show me if the shuffle mode is on or off. Let me set this per playlist and remember the setting.
Also, what seems to be lost: shuffle the playlist but let me pick the first song.
@stroughtonsmith
BTW, I might be wrong but I thought you and I a quick exchange back then on Twitter, when you complained about a lack of good apps in the music player section and you fantasized about creating your own. I said I would pay good money for such an app.
I told Marco Arment the same when he did suggested that he might have to create his own simple music player.