iOS 18 is now available. It’s a huge improvement in many ways, but the most controversial one is the Photos app. It’s been deeply redesigned. After all, it’s the app that 100% of iPhone users use.

Why is it important?An app like Photos is essential for everyone, and the familiar design it has had for years has now been replaced by a much less intuitive, more confusing app.

Its success or failure will have a huge impact on the overall experience of iOS 18.

Learning curve. This is your biggest challenge. Navigation is completely different and doesn’t seem very intuitive at first glance. Some basic functions, like accessing favorite photos, require more steps than before, which means going back instead of forward.

In addition, there’s feature overload that can be overwhelming. There are so many buttons, buttons, and boxes that it’s hard to imagine what they do or how to access a step that previously seemed natural, even for advanced users. And it’s not something you can learn in an afternoon.

Even in Apple’s promotional material, you can see part of the problem: the last photos of the top module have the same initials as the next module. Unnecessarily duplicated information. Image: Apple.

The carousel shows your favorite photos by scrolling sideways. The same section then appears when scrolling vertically. Image: Apple.

Some examples:

• The same photo taken in portrait mode appears highlighted in several places: the main library, the ‘Recent’ collection, and the ‘Portrait’ collection.
• Featured photos appear in both the home carousel and collections.
• The featured photo suggestions show me a few suggestions of photos of a friend, but not photos of other friends or family members, whose larger importance in my life reflects the fact that they appear in many more photos than her.
• Modular design in general tends to show photos multiple times in different places, rather than dividing them into better sections.

Between the linesApple has tried to modernize this app by adding more intelligence and customization, but the app sacrifices much of the simplicity that characterized it until iOS 17.

Simplicity is important everywhere in the Apple universe, but it’s even more so in everyday apps like Photos, where there are many elements to manage.

• In our experience, the redesign goes too far and adds unnecessary complexity to the application.
• In its defense, it must be acknowledged that it provides greater flexibility and more organizational options.
• It requires a serious adaptation process.

in detailIt’s a discussion that recalls the controversial redesign that Safari was set to bring with iOS 15. Apple announced major changes to its browser at WWDC that year, and so the first betas were released.

A flood of complaints from Apple heavyweights in the media led Apple to reverse most of the reporting, with Safari’s deep redesign resulting in little more than cosmetic changes.

In perspective. On the one hand, any aesthetic or functional change can be confusing at first, but it can make for a much better experience in the long run. Will Photos achieve this result? It’s too early to know, but perhaps only very heavy users who take full advantage of the app’s capabilities can achieve this ideal scenario.

The rest of the iPhone users, a much larger group, may end up with a half-hearted attempt that may not convince them. It remains to be seen whether Apple still has room to back down in its next iOS update.

On Xataka | How to customize your iPhone’s Control Center with iOS 18

Featured image | Apple, Xataka