I fully switched to Immich as our photo backup system last year, but didn’t learn about this client app until a few days ago. It works well and will be installed on every Apple TV in our house soon.

➝ Source: github.com

Alex Tran, writing on GitHub:

This has been a journey long in the making. So much has changed since the first commit on the project, all the way back in February, 2022. The project and team continue to grow, and today we’re proud to announce v2.0.0, our stable release. Stable signifies that we have now resolved a significant amount of technical debt. It also means we will be prioritizing compatibility and less effort will be required to keep Immich up-to-date.

To commemorate the release, they’re selling a physical copy of Immich that can, optionally, be ordered with a server or client key.

➝ Source: github.com

I’ve been trying out Immich as a replacement for Google Photos recently. I’m liking it quite a bit, but there are some odd bugs here and there — I understand why they say it shouldn’t be used as the only way you store your photos.

I’m hopefully that it will improve over time, though, and will eventually replace Google Photos for my wife and I. One of the reasons I’m so hopefully is because they publish a roadmap page on their site with information about planned features and an estimated timeframe for when it can be expected. More software projects should do something like this.

➝ Source: immich.app

Chris Hannah:

I’ve been thinking for a while that there needs to be a new dominant photo-sharing service, but it’s definitely starting to feel like more people are thinking that way too.

We’ve allowed the major social networks into our lives for too long. They’ve overstayed their welcome. If you’re still using Instagram, you should consider trying something else. Chris recommended some options, but I’d also add Pixelfed to the list.

Pixelfed is an open source photo sharing platform that you can self-host. And, like email, you can interact with people across different instances. I have my own instance that I run, but you can also sign up on a public instance. There’s a server list on Fediverse.party and you can follow me @mike@libertynode.cam.

➝ Source: chrishannah.me

Om Malik:

Instagram’s co-founders, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger created a mobile social network based on visual storytelling. The impetus provided by the early photography-centric approach turned it into a fast-growing phenomenon. For Facebook, it was an existential threat. And it was worth spending nearly a billion dollars to own, control, and eventually subsume. And that’s precisely what Facebook has done.

What’s left is a constantly mutating product that copies features from “whomever is popular now” service — Snapchat, TikTok, or whatever. It is all about marketing and selling substandard products and mediocre services by influencers with less depth than a sheet of paper.

I still publish photos to Instagram because that’s where my family is, but Pixelfed is my home for photography on the web now — you can follow me @mike@libertynode.cam. I only check Instagram when I’m posting and only because the service lacks the APIs to do so through a third-party automation.

➝ Source: om.co

Juli Clover, writing for MacRumors:

An ‌iCloud‌ Shared Photo Library can be shared with up to five other people, and each contributor has equal access to add, edit, favorite, caption, and delete shared photos.

To prevent accidentally shared photos, there are smart setup rules that can be implemented. You can opt to share all past photos or just photos from a specific start date. You can also choose to share photos that have only specific people, such as your family members.

Photos can be added to the Shared Library automatically, but there are also options to share based on Bluetooth proximity. Sharing suggestions will continue to pop up in For You as well.

My wife and I have been using Google Photos for years specifically because of their partner sharing feature. But I look forward to kicking that to the curb and using Apple’s offering instead.

➝ Source: macrumors.com

I started using Instagram a handful of years ago, with the goal being to keep in touch with my extended family. We don’t have get-togethers as often anymore and since I wasn’t going to touch Facebook with a ten foot pole, I thought Instagram might be a reasonable middle ground.

I never really felt too comfortable with it, though. Instagram is, of course, owned by Facebook and comes with all of the same privacy-related baggage. I was able to get past that because I could see photos of my cousins and leave the occasional comment, but eventually, I stopped posting.

It wasn’t just the privacy issues, another problem I have with photo sharing services like Instagram is that they just make me feel terrible. People distill their lives to only the best parts. I look at my life by comparison and feel like I’m not doing as many interesting things. It’s a mental trick, mind you, my friends and family aren’t spending their lives in luxury any more than I am, but because everyone is sharing exclusively that portion of their life, my Instagram timeline is continuously filled with people having way more fun than I currently am.

I’ve since deleted the Instagram app from my iPhone and have only jumped back into my timeline once or twice through a web browser. Each time I came out of it feeling worse than when I went in. I don’t want to do that anymore.

But it got me thinking about photo sharing in general. And more specifically about how we’ve created this efficient system for sharing to a mass audience. The personal aspect of photos is lost in the sharing process. When I would post a photo, I wouldn’t receive any comments, it never sparked any conversations. I would just get a handful of likes and that was that. What’s the point? It’s become a game of vanity where the number of likes you receive is the only feedback mechanism. It stinks.

As an experiment, I started sharing photos with individual people, privately, over iMessage. I wouldn’t send them a whole collection of photos, just one at a time here and there. And what I found is that when you send an individual person a photo privately, you actually spark a conversation. You end up relating the photo to something that you did when you were a child or reminiscing about when you and the other person traveled to that location years ago.

When you make the decision to share a photo like this you end with a real, meaningful interaction. An interaction that, otherwise, would have been reduced to them simply tapping a heart icon to send a notification. I want a lot more of the former and a lot less of the latter.

I still have my Instagram account, my Pixelfed instance, and a shared album in iCloud that friends and family can view. But I don’t know if I actually care about sharing photos publicly anymore. I suppose there is some value in having a place where only my best photos are located, but I already have Day One which does a great job at filling that role.

I’m going to sit with this thought for a while and see whether there’s room for some amount of public photo sharing in my life. But in the meantime, I’m going to enjoy the conversations that come from privately sharing those photos with individuals.

From Glass’ announcement:

With Glass 1.2 coming out today, you can now share your Glass Profile anywhere! We’re excited to open up profiles, letting you truly make Glass your home for highlighting your photography. Whether you’re using it as a portfolio, a quick showcase of your best shots, or a space to experiment with a new style, we’ve been blown away with the quality of your profiles. Now you can share them anywhere.

I’m happy to hear that every public profile has an RSS feed. I don’t use Glass myself, but now I’ll be able to follow my friends on the service with my existing setup.

I’d love to see them add ActivityPub next.

(Via Matt Birchler.)

➝ Source: glass.photo