# Apple Photos Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-photos/ 39 people recommended Apple Photos in Hacker News comments, 24 had mixed feelings and 83 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 11 of 12 months, in 29 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Criticized more than recommended, mainly for iCloud upsell and frequent interface changes; those who recommend it cite on-device search across huge libraries and reliable sync across Apple devices. Summary written by Claude from the comments below. ## What people warn about - Interface changes and confusing behavior (6 comments in the sample): "They really like to screw around with the photos app such that "show me my photos most recently taken in time order" is somehow different…" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49035622)) "Then they should've left those things off by default, rather than messing with the expected flow of the application for everyone." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49429011)) "common workflows like “show me the picture I just took” or “copy the damned image file elsewhere” are completely broken" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50112305)) - Slow with no progress feedback (3 comments in the sample): "Photos is horrific for this. No progress, no indicators. And what little status you get has no connection to reality." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46115705)) "Photos beachballs constantly, even when I do simple things like creating a new folder or naming a photo." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46115805)) "adding a tag or removing from an album takes about 5 seconds for the UI to visually represent my change" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47768191)) - Pushes iCloud and hides originals (3 comments in the sample): "I literally did not have some of my original files since apple shifts things off disk to preserve storage space." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49538780)) "Photos comes with iCloud sync and storage upsell. Preferential treatment, promoting their own paid services and subscriptions." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49343449)) "I'm unable to locate any button, status bar, or option to refresh or pull everything from iCloud in macOS Photos." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46584748)) - Limited advanced editing features (3 comments in the sample): "The native Photos app also doesn't have many advanced RAW tools for editing the RAWs." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45983540)) "that has 15% extremely annoying and/or lack of features and functionality" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49709818)) "the photo apps it offers are clearly inferior with less information density and less powerful features" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46755289)) ## Why people recommend it - On-device search across large libraries (4 comments in the sample): "I’ve found unreasonable value in being able to search through hundreds of thousands of photos from my phone" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46580308)) "searching "dog at beach" in the photos app on my iPhone returns a set of photos of my dog at a sandy beach" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49337144)) "you can describe what you want to find and it will consistently find it, even inside of videos" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48461140)) - Handles large libraries reliably (3 comments in the sample): "I've been syncing _my entire photos library_ to my Mac for years, since it was iPhoto even." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46580535)) "I use Photos for macOS daily and I've never run into a bug with my 50K+ photos library." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46579713)) "My photo library is larger than my iPhone’s storage yet downloads fine on my Mac." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46580050)) - Basic features are easy to find (3 comments in the sample): "Apple generally makes it hard to do non-default things, but "basic" functionality is usually evident." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48439802)) "iCloud, Photos, Music, all that stuff is fine, it meets the standard, it works" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46590909)) "Basic photo editing works okay too, in Google Photos, Apple Photos, etc." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48960725)) - Useful built-in AI features (2 comments in the sample): "Photos, for instance, makes better use of AI than any other photo management app in existence." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46984550)) "I don't mind the subtle ML integrations that they have put in the photos app" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48862981)) ## Other photo managers people recommend - [Immich](https://hackerapproved.com/p/immich/): 228 recommend, 54 mixed, 51 criticize - [Google Photos](https://hackerapproved.com/p/google-photos/): 41 recommend, 27 mixed, 135 criticize - [digiKam](https://hackerapproved.com/p/digikam/): 8 recommend, 0 mixed, 1 criticize - [PhotoPrism](https://hackerapproved.com/p/photoprism/): 8 recommend, 2 mixed, 4 criticize ## The badge A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged. ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Apple Photos", https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-photos/ (39 recommend, 24 mixed, 83 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026). Counts updated 3 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.