Apple Testing Redesigned Photos Web App on iCloud.com Beta With macOS-like Interface - MacRumorsOpen MenuShow RoundupsShow Forums menuVisit ForumsOpen Sidebar
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
126 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)
126 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)
126 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)
126 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
126 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
126 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

iCloud General Feature Redux

Apple Raises iCloud+ Prices in 8 Countries

Friday July 17, 2026 11:56 am PDT by
Apple has increased the price of iCloud+ in Nigeria, Türkiye, Vietnam, Japan, Egypt, New Zealand, the Philippines, and Indonesia, according to an updated version of its iCloud support document. Price increases range from 11 percent to 55 percent depending on the plan and the country. Nigeria saw the biggest hike, and a 50GB plan is now ₦1,300, up from ₦900. Türkiye saw the next largest...
General iCloud App Feature

Apple Plans Paid iCloud+ Upgrades for Heavy AI Users

Thursday July 30, 2026 4:11 pm PDT by
Apple is planning to let users pay to increase their AI limits, with upgrade possibilities available through iCloud+. During today's earnings call for the third fiscal quarter of 2026, Apple CEO Tim Cook said it's early, but the company expects to offer options for people who want to make heavy use of AI services. In terms of what it means for compute cost, it's obviously early going for...
Apple Event Logo

Apple Working on All-New Operating System

Wednesday July 29, 2026 11:39 am PDT by
Apple is developing an all-new operating system that is essentially a mix of tvOS, watchOS, and iOS, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In a report this week, he said the operating system will feature a grid of icons, widgets, and apps, along with customizable clock faces. The new software platform is intended for Apple's long-rumored smart home hub. With built-in facial recognition,...

🔗 Related Apple News & Rumors

Stay updated with the latest Apple ecosystem news and verified rumors