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How to use the revamped Photos app in visionOS 2

visionOS 2 boasts a revamped Photos app designed to, in Apple’s words, “keep your library organized and makes it supereasy to find photos and featured spatial photos fast."

visionOS 2 boasts a revamped Photos app designed to, in Apple’s words, “keep your library organized and makes it supereasy to find photos and featured spatial photos fast.

Here’s how photos and videos are organized in Photos:

  • Library: Browse your photos and videos organized by months, years, and all photos. If you choose a view like Years, it’s curated to show your best shots; similar photos, screenshots, photos of whiteboards, and receipts aren’t shown.
  • Collections: Collections organizes your library by topics like Featured Spatial Photos, Albums, Trips, and People & Pets. You can also pin collections for quick access to the collections most important to you. You can also change what appears in the Collections tab. 
  • Spatial: See all your spatial photos and videos in one place, including spatial photos created from 2D photos.
  • Panoramas: See all your horizontal panoramas.
  • Search: Search for photos by location, contents, and more.

View individual photos and videos

  • View a photo: Tap a photo to view it. Pinch with both hands and drag apart to zoom in on the photo—move hands back together to zoom out.
  • Watch a Live Photo: Pinch and hold a photo with pastedGraphic.png Live in the top-left corner.
  • Play a video: Tap a video to play it. You can use the player controls to pause or unmute.
  • View a panorama: Tap Panoramas in the tab bar, then tap a photo. To immerse yourself in the photo, tap pastedGraphic_1.png.
  • View spatial photos and videos: Tap Spatial in the tab bar, then choose a spatial photo or video. To immerse yourself in the photo, tap pastedGraphic_1.png.
    If the video contains excess motion, an alert appears to let you know that watching the video could cause discomfort.
    If you want to view a 2D version of a spatial photo or video, tap pastedGraphic_2.png. You can tap it again to return to the spatial version. Spatial photos and videos you captured on your Apple Vision Pro, or spatial videos you captured on your iPhone, are visible in the Spatial tab, even if you’re viewing a 2D version.

Tip: When you view photos and videos on Apple Vision Pro, your view is automatically dimmed. To turn off automatic dimming, tap pastedGraphic_3.png while viewing a photo, then tap Auto Dimming.

Play, share, edit, or delete memories

The Memories feature in the Photos app creates a personalized collection of photos and videos set to music, which you can watch like a movie. Each memory features a significant person, place, or event from your Photos library. You can also try out Memory mixes, which let you apply different songs with a matching photographic look.

  1. Go to the Photos app on your Apple Vision Pro.
  2. Tap Collections in the tab bar.
  3. Tap a memory to play it. As you watch, you can do any of the following:
    • See the playback controls (if they’re not visible): Tap anywhere in the app window.
    • Pause: Tap pastedGraphic_4.png.
    • Go backward or forward: Swipe left or right, or pinch and drag the frames at the bottom of the window.
    • Change the look and feel of a memory: Tap pastedGraphic_5.png, then swipe to view different Memory mixes.
      You can also tap pastedGraphic_6.png to change the music or tap pastedGraphic_7.png to change the color and style of the photos.
    • Share a memory: Tap the window, tap pastedGraphic_8.png, then choose how you want to share.
    • Add a memory to Favorites, edit, or delete a memory: Tap the window, tap pastedGraphic_9.png, then tap an option.

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Dennis Sellers
the authorDennis Sellers
Dennis Sellers is the editor/publisher of Apple World Today. He’s been an “Apple journalist” since 1995 (starting with the first big Apple news site, MacCentral). He loves to read, run, play sports, and watch movies.