Photos App

Pictures you take with the Camera app and pictures you download and save to your device from email, Messages, web pages, and other sources are stored and organized in the Photos app. The Photos app allows you to create albums and slideshows, edit pictures, share photos and albums, and much more.

Interact with items in Photos and Videos

When you view a photo or paused video within the Photos app, you can interact with text within the still image with Live Text. You can learn about landmarks, art, plants, animals, and more with Visual Look Up. You can also ‘lift’ the subject of a photo from the background to paste it into another app. Visual Look Up does not work with paused video.

Using Live Text

1. Open a photo or pause a video with visible text.
2. Tap , then touch and hold the selected text.
3. Use the grab points to narrow or expand the selection, then do any of the following:
   • Copy Text. Copy the selection to the clipboard.
   • Select All. Select all text within the video frame or photo.
   • Look Up. Siri will suggest personalized search results in a pop-up card.
   • Translate. Translate text.
   • Search the web. Opens a search within Safari.
   • Share. Share text using AirDrop, Messages, or other methods.
4. Tap to close Live Text and return to the photo or video.

Using Visual Look Up

1. If you see while viewing a photo, Visual Look Up information is available.
2. Swipe up on the photo or tap .
3. Tap the icon that appears on the photo or at the top of the photo information card to view Siri Knowledge and web search results.

Lifting a photo subject from the background

1. Open a photo.
2. Touch and hold the subject of the photo until an outline appears, then do one of the following:
   • Tap Copy, then paste the lifted subject into Mail, Note, or another app.
   • Tap Share, then choose a sharing option.

How Photos organizes your pictures

Open the Photos app and look for the categories at the bottom of your screen. You can view your photos by Library, For You, Albums, or use the Search box to look for pictures by context, location, date, and more. The default categories are:

• Library groups your photos by Years, Months, Days, and All Photos. As you scroll through your pictures, videos will play a preview.

• For You displays collections of photos curated by iOS. You’ll find photos grouped by location and time, shared albums, groups of photos by themes, and more. For You will also make suggestions for editing pictures.
• Albums collects pictures in a bunch of different ways, including grouping people, locations, type of media, and more. You can also create any number of albums for yourself. Albums can be shared or viewed as slideshows.
• Open Search to type in search terms, like a person, city, landscape, or time period. Search will even return results of pictures containing text that matches your search term! Search automatically creates groups of search results you might want to view.

Photos in iCloud

You can choose to automatically upload your photos to iCloud in full resolution. To enable this feature, go to Settings > Account ID [your name] > iCloud > Photos, then turn on Sync this iPhone. You may find that you run out of your 5GB of free iCloud storage quickly.

Photo Stream

Photo Stream syncs your last 30 days of photos to iCloud and other devices on your Apple account with Photo Stream enabled. After 30 days, the photos are removed from iCloud—and removed from the synced devices on your Apple account sharing the Photo Stream—but always remain on the original device (the iPhone or iPad used to take the photo originally).

Think of Photo Stream as a rolling 30-day period; today’s shots are added while photos from 31 days old and older are removed.

• You can’t use both iCloud storage and Photo Stream.
• Photo Stream will only store up to 1000 images.
• Your Photo Stream will only sync still photos, not Live Photos or videos.
• Photo Stream does not count against your iCloud storage limits.
• Photo Stream will only upload on Wi-Fi.

Albums

Albums are great for creating collections of photos and videos that you can easily view or share.

Creating a new album

1. Open Albums, tap , then choose a New Album or a New Shared Album.
2. Enter a name for the album and tap Save.
3. Select the photos, albums, or people you want to add.
4. When finished, tap Done.

Adding photos to an existing album

1. Open a photo or video.
2. Tap Share , swipe up to reveal more options, then tap Add to Album  .
3. Select the album you want to add to or create a new album.

Playing slideshows from an album

Albums are great for slideshows. Create albums that collect your favorite photos from vacations or other fun events, and play them on your device or cast them to a big screen.

1. Open any Photos album and open any photo.
2. Tap , then Slideshow.
3. Tap the screen while the slideshow is playing, then tap Options to display controls for theme, music, repeating, and speed.

Sharing photos and albums

Tapping the Share button brings up a bunch of options, including shortcuts to:

• People you frequently message.
• Apps, like email or Reminders.
• AirDrop to another nearby Apple device.
• Messages adds the photo to a text message.
• iCloud sends the image or collection to iCloud.
• Twitter, Facebook, or Flickr shares the image on social media.
• Use as Wallpaper sets the image as your device’s background image.
• Print to make a paper copy.
• Set as a Watch Face on the Apple Watch.
• Copy Photo allows you to paste the photo somewhere else, like the Notes app.
• Add to New Quick Note creates a Quick Note within the Notes app.

Shared Library

With iCloud Shared Photo Library in the Photos app, you can set up a library to be shared between you and five other friends or family members. All members can add, edit, and delete photos from the Library. You can only belong to one Shared Library at a time.

To enable this feature, go to Settings > Account ID [your name] > iCloud > Photos, then turn on Sync this iPhone. Then scroll down, tap Shared Library > Set up, and follow the on-screen instructions.

To accept an invitation to an iCloud Shared Photo Library, tap the invitation sent from the organizer, tap Get Started, then follow the on-screen instructions.

To add a photo to a Shared Library, open the photo, tap , then tap Move to Shared Library.

To add participants to a Shared Library, go to Settings > Photos > Shared Library, then tap Add Participants.

To leave a Shared Library, go to Settings > Photos > Shared Library, then tap Leave Shared Library.

Searching your photos

Photos gives you several search options, including Siri and voice commands. You can, for instance, tell Siri to “show me photos from San Diego” or “show me photos of mountains.” Siri will use location information stored with the photos as well as photo recognition technology to find and display all the photos on your device that match. If no photos are found, Siri may offer to show you matches from the Internet.

Tap Search  to automatically display some default collections iOS organizes for you, including:

• Favorites. Photos you have favorited .
• Places. Photos grouped by location data.
• Categories. Photos are grouped by the animals, places, or things within the photos.

You can use search to type in keywords, including months, cities, and states—even street names.