iOS 8 Photos App Tips & Tricks

The iOS 8 Photos app on iPhone and iPad has undergone some changes since iOS 7, and if you haven’t taken advantage of all its features, now is a good time to do so. Here are some iOS 8 Photos app tips and tricks that you should know.

When you take a photo on your iPhone or iPad, it automatically gets saved in the Photos app, from which you can then view that photo and do whatever you’d like with it. However, many users don’t use the Photos app to its greatest potential. There’s nothing wrong with that, obviously, but you can take your photo collection to the next level if you learn some tips & tricks about the iOS 8 Photos app.

You can do things like edit photos right within the app and even create folders to organize your photos. It’s definitely an app that looks basic from the face of it, but if you dig a little deeper, you’ll find some cool features that you may not have known about previously.

Without further ado, here are some iOS 8 Photos app tips & tricks that you should know about.

Just Stick to the Albums Tab

The iOS 8 Photos app can get confusing, especially when you start playing around with iOS’s own organizational method, where it organizes photos by date and calls different organizational levels by different names, like Moments and Collections. It’s weird and stupid, which is why you should just stick to the Albums tab.

The Albums tab simply includes a list of the folders that you created, as well as the Camera Roll and the Recently Deleted folder. It’s simple and easy to use. By going into Camera Roll, you get a simple layout of every photo that’s stored on your iPhone. It can be a bit overwhelming, but that’s why you can create folders and organize those photos.

Organize Photos by Creating Folders

In the Albums tab, you can create your own folders and put photos into those folders to keep your collection organized.

To do this, simply click on the + icon in the upper-left corner of the screen and enter in a name for the folder. Then click Save and the folder will appear in the list.

To add photos to that folder, open it up and tap on Edit in the upper-right corner. Then tap on Add down at the bottom. From there, navigate to the Camera Roll and tap on every photo that you want to add to that folder you just created. A checkmark will appear inside the folder. Once you have all the images selected that you want, click Done and those images will be added to that folder. Just be aware that the photos will also still appear in the Camera Roll as we.

Edit Photos Right in the App

If you need to make basic edits to a photo that you took with your iPhone or iPad, there’s no need for a third-party photo editing app. Instead, the Photos app has a basic photo editor built right in.

To make an edit on a photo, open up the Photos app and find and open the photo that you want to edit. Next, tap Edit in the upper-right corner to make changes to the photo.

The Photos app can do basic edits, such as rotating a photo, enabling “auto-enhance”, adding filters, getting rid of red eye, adjusting exposure, and cropping the photo.

If you’re curious what auto-enhance is, it simply adjusts exposure and the color of a photo to make it look better — it’s pretty simple and just requires one tap.

Once you’re done editing a photo, tap on Done in the upper-right corner to save the changes.

Share Photos to Social Media

If you want to post a photo that you took with your iPhone or iPad to Facebook or Twitter, you can do that right from the Photos app in iOS 8.

To share a photo to social media, open up the Photos app and select a photo that you want to share. From there, tap on the Share button in the lower-left corner of the screen and select either Facebook or Twitter. A pop-up will appear where you can enter in text and then publish it to the social network of choice. No need to actually go into the respective social app in order to post a photo.

Make Sure to Delete Photos Twice

The Photos app on iOS 8 now comes with a Recently Deleted folder, which is put into action when a user deletes a photo. The deleted photo automatically gets put into the Recently Deleted folder, meaning that it’s not truly deleted from your iPhone or iPad.

In order to truly delete a photo off of your iOS 8 device, you have to essentially delete it twice, which is less than convenient, but also saves users from losing a photo forever by accidentally deleting it.

When you open the Photos app and tap on Albums in the lower-right corner, you’ll see the Recently Deleted folder. When you delete a photo, it will be moved to that folder.

In order to permanently delete the photo, you’ll need to go into that folder and essentially redo the deletion process that you did originally. Select the photos you want to delete by tapping on Select in the upper-right corner of the screen and then tapping on the photos that you want deleted. Then tap on Delete in the lower-left corner and confirm the action when the pop-up appears.

Those photos will now be permanently deleted from your iOS 8 device with no possibility of getting them back.