The Photos app is fulfilling a wish that some users expressed at least five years ago. Starting with iOS 16, the "Hidden Album" section can be locked with your password or biometric features - duplicates will also be recognized from now on.
In previous versions of iOS, marking a photo as "Hidden" simply removed it from the main camera roll and placed it in a separate area in the album list. However, this did not protect it from prying eyes. There is now an entire ecosystem of third-party "secret folder" apps that remedy this shortcoming and allow you to protect special images with Face ID or Touch ID. Competing manufacturers such as Samsung offer Secret Folder apps as standard apps to meet precisely this need. Apple has finally closed the functionality gap with iOS 16.
Locked, hidden photos
With iOS 16, you no longer need a separate app. The Photos app itself automatically locks the Hidden and Recently Deleted sections. By default, these sections require Face ID, Touch ID, or your iPhone's passcode to gain access. This feature was not announced during the WWDC keynote. announced. The introduction of shared iCloud photo libraries for families was highlighted. Starting with iOS 16, users can create a family library with up to five other people to automatically share photos with each other. The Camera app even allows you to send photos directly to the shared photo roll.
iOS 16 detects duplicates in the Photos app
If you take and save a lot of photos on your iPhone, it's very likely that you have a few duplicate images that are unnecessarily weighing down your photo library, and that's where iOS 16 comes in. Apple calls the new feature "Duplicate Detection" and it works as expected. Using on-device machine learning on iOS 16 and macOS Ventura, your device now easily detects all the duplicate photos in your library and groups them together in Photos in the Media Types section. From there, you can easily delete them to free up space on your device and declutter your photo library. Because the feature requires your device to scan and sort your entire library, it may take a while before your device offers you duplicates to delete. iOS 16 will be available to all iPhone users in the fall. A developer beta is already available for download. Whether your device is compatible with the new software, you can find out here. (Photo by hadrian / Bigstockphoto)
