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iOS 7 Photos, Camera apps get better shooting, sharing

Improved iCloud integration, more-logical collections, and live filters all coming to iOS 7.

Joshua Goldman Managing Editor / Advice
Managing Editor Josh Goldman is a laptop expert and has been writing about and reviewing them since built-in Wi-Fi was an optional feature. He also covers almost anything connected to a PC, including keyboards, mice, USB-C docks and PC gaming accessories. In addition, he writes about cameras, including action cams and drones. And while he doesn't consider himself a gamer, he spends entirely too much time playing them.
Expertise Laptops, desktops and computer and PC gaming accessories including keyboards, mice and controllers, cameras, action cameras and drones Credentials
  • More than two decades experience writing about PCs and accessories, and 15 years writing about cameras of all kinds.
Joshua Goldman
2 min read
Watch this: iOS 7 gets revamped photos app

A little bit of organization can go a long way -- especially when it comes to pictures and videos.

That seems to be the theme for the improvements coming to iOS 7's Photos and Camera apps, with new features to help rediscover the photos you've already taken and make it easier to snap ones in the future.

Photos app
Given how many people seem to use their smartphones as their primary camera, it's amazing how lacking organization is within the iOS Photos app, which is basically just a never-ending folder of photos and videos.

With iOS 7, Apple is introducing iPhoto-like groupings to make it faster and easier to surface pictures and movies. You will now be able to better view them based on time and place with Collections, Moments, and Years. Each Year holds a Collection and each Collection is broken down into separate Moments.

For iCloud users, Apple will introduce new features for shared photo streams. These streams currently let you share photos with the family and friends you choose, but with iOS 7, they'll be able to share stuff in your stream as well. For example, say you go on a vacation and you share a stream of your photos, others can now add their shots of the vacation to your stream. Everyone involved can comment on what is shared, and everything is automatically updated on everyone's iOS devices.

Other updates to shared streams include the capability to share videos as well as a new Activity view giving you one location to see the latest updates from all your shared streams.

The fresh new look of Apple iOS 7 (pictures)

See all photos

Camera app
Tired of hunting through the camera interface to shoot stills, video, or panoramas? Well, with iOS 7 you'll be able to just swipe through your options. New to the mix is a square (1:1) format, so not all of your photos have to be wide-screen (16:9) shots.

You'll also be able to swipe through a list of new filters -- before you shoot -- so you can see what your final result will look like before you shoot. You'll also be able to apply filters after the fact as well as remove those you shot with to view the original, untouched photo.