Apple Testing Redesigned Photos Web App on iCloud.com Beta With macOS-like Interface - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Apple Testing Redesigned Photos Web App on iCloud.com Beta With macOS-like Interface

by

Apple has updated the iCloud beta website with a new Photos section that includes improved navigation tools similar to the native Photos app on macOS Sierra. As discovered by MacMagazine [Google Translate], the Photos section in the beta site now includes a sidebar for navigation, which displays all of a user's albums so it's easier to jump between photo collections.

icloud-website-update
In the current iteration of iCloud.com albums are found in a tab bar at the top of the Photos part of the website, next to a user's moments. With the update, users are also able to choose multiple photos from the new album select toolbar "and use the action buttons in the upper right corner to add, share, download, or remove albums."

Within each album, when a specific photo is clicked on, users will be presented with a scrollable thumbnail view of the entire album's contents, providing further ease of navigating through large photo collections.

The iCloud.com updates are strictly navigational improvements, with no addition of the new macOS Sierra Photos features like Faces and Memories. It's unclear how long it will take for the new changes to launch on a broader scale after debuting on the iCloud.com beta site.

Tag: iCloud

Top Rated Comments

Vertigo50 Avatar
121 months ago
So someone at Apple woke up and realized they've barely touched the Photos service in forever and that Google Photos is eating their lunch. So now they will pool resources and work on this while a bunch of other projects suffer. The cycle continues.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
121 months ago
Well this is a slightly positive move by Apple. Now let's really move -
1. bring faces to the web
2. sync face tags across platforms - the lack of this is a serious issue for me
3. fix the pixelmator addon bug - in macOS, using the addon inside of Photos, crashes Photos
4. put the repair tool on iOS
5. allow me to manage memories consistently across platforms - can't right now and it isn't very intuitive on any platform
7. add a dedupe feature
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
121 months ago
Hopefully this means they're going to focus on improving iCloud + Photos, especially by giving users more storage for free (perhaps even unlimited photo storage) by iOS 11!

Wishful thinking, I know...
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
121 months ago
Why would you? Genuinely curious.
If you access iCloud.com on your iphone, you are not given the web version. Even if you request the 'desktop site', it does not load properly on your idevices. Try it. A recent example where this became an issue was when multiple users were receiving spam calendar invites and one way to address the issue was to go to ICloud.com and change the settings on calendar, which you could not do on your idevices (you had to use a desktop or laptop).
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
zorinlynx Avatar
121 months ago
Maybe a year or two ago that would have been a justification for paying. But now that Google Photos backs up every photo and video you have for the price of $0.00, Apple must compete. You can argue all you want about how Google is giving you their service in return for your data, but that shouldn't stop Apple from outdoing them. You can also argue that iCloud backs up more than photos and videos, but realistically those are what fill up the 5Gb free storage we all get. I have since turned off photo backups for iCloud, and I have no issues with iCloud filling up. But Apple should realize that they're losing people to Google Photos and take action.
A lot of people are being fooled by Google Photo's "free unlimited storage" when the truth is, this is not a backup AT ALL.

Google Photos will recompress your photos into smaller versions when you use the free tier. It is NOT a backup because your data isn't being backed up, only an approximation of it. I feel sorry for people who "feel safe" that their entire photo collection is "backed up" on Google Photos; if they lose their original, all they'll have is slightly lower quality recompressed copies.

Flickr, to their credit, DOES store bit-perfect originals, but you have to deal with ads everywhere.

There's no free lunch and that includes Google Photos. That said I do wish they'd lower the cost of cloud storage, but that's not something we can control. All the companies charge more or less the same amount.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Glassed Silver Avatar
121 months ago
I'd love to edit the time and geotag of some photos from the web app too though.
Take a guess why Photos is so oversimplified and Aperture is binned.

Advanced functionality is an endangered species in the Apple ecosystem, and no, it has NOT always been like that.

I'm worrying about iTunes versatility... It already has taken some hits, take a look at Get info for example...

Glassed Silver:mac
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iOS 26

iOS 26.4 Adds Two New Features to CarPlay

Tuesday March 24, 2026 1:55 pm PDT by
iOS 26.4 was released today, and it includes a couple of new features for CarPlay: an Ambient Music widget and support for voice-based chatbot apps. To update your iPhone 11 or newer to iOS 26.4, open the Settings app and tap on General → Software Update. CarPlay will automatically offer the new features so long as the iPhone connected to your vehicle is running iOS 26.4 or later....
Apple Business hero

Apple Unveils 'Apple Business' All-in-One Platform

Tuesday March 24, 2026 8:53 am PDT by
Apple today announced Apple Business, a new all-in-one platform that unifies device management, productivity tools, and customer outreach features. The service is designed to be a consolidated replacement for several of Apple's existing business-focused offerings, including Apple Business Essentials, Apple Business Manager, and Apple Business Connect. It provides organizations with a single...
AirPods Pro Firmware Feature

Apple Releases New Firmware for AirPods Pro 3, AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4

Tuesday March 24, 2026 12:31 pm PDT by
Apple today released new firmware for the AirPods Pro 2, AirPods Pro 3, and the AirPods 4. The firmware has a version number of 8B39, up from 8B34 on the AirPods Pro 3, 8B28 on the AirPods Pro 2, and 8B21 on the AirPods 4. There is no word on what's included in the firmware, but Apple has a support document with limited notes. Most updates are limited to bug fixes and performance...