Apple has now released the second beta of iOS 18 after its announcement during the Worldwide Developers Conference 24 on June 10, and while it works without many problems, the Photos app is a mess. No one understands the navigation system, finding albums like our favorites and ones we have created becomes a real task of orientation. Apple always boasts about how intuitive its operating systems are, and that was and is the case with the Photos app in iOS 17. However, with this new version, all that intuition has been exchanged for unnecessary complications in order to present a redesign that perhaps was not necessary.
With each release of a new version of iOS, Apple’s designers and engineers seek to redesign certain aspects of the system to make their products more attractive and changeable. They usually do it quite well, as is the case with the Mail application in iOS 18, which has not even been released as a beta yet, but from what we have seen during the keynote, it is much more organized and simple than the one we have right now. However, sometimes Apple makes mistakes too. As technical and meticulous as Apple employees may seem—and be—they are also human, and sometimes, as humans, they make mistakes. faults.
A redesign without purpose
I believe – I emphasize that this is an opinion and in no way do I claim it to be a universal truth – that the application of Photos in iOS 18 it’s a mistake. It involves a top-to-bottom redesign of one of the most essential elements of the iPhone, and that requires being very meticulous. It is redesigned with the aim of making something more attractive, intuitive and simple. That is what has always prevailed in the Californian company.
This app on iOS 18 accomplishes the first goal, but neglects the other two. Even I, who am presumed to have above-average knowledge of software and Apple products—it’s my livelihood, after all—have trouble finding albums that were once just a tap away. They eventually do find themselves, but if the original version of the app only required one tap to do something, the redesigned one can’t possibly require two. against nature.
At the moment, those of Cupertino They have time to fix it. iOS 18 is still in beta, and its official, public version will not be released until September. Apple has already rolled back some software changes due to the feedback received during its beta —that is one of its objectives—, and reading the networks, the most repeated complaint is the lack of intuitiveness of the Photos application. Therefore, it would not be unreasonable for Apple to return to the previous version, or to make some changes to the beta version to make it easier to use. This redesign seems to be the result of a need to redesign for the sake of redesign, rather than a redesign that really adds value to the user.
