# Photon Library — user reviews > 17 indexed App Store user reviews of Photon Library by LateNiteSoft S.L.. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/photon-library/id6670216955/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/photon-library/id6670216955.md ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Don’t waste your money. *2026-06-04* ★☆☆☆☆ I genuinely can’t tell the difference between Photon Library and the standard Photos app that’s already on my phone. After using it for a while, it feels like I’ve paid for something I already had for free. The interface is very similar, the functionality doesn’t offer anything that stands out, and there are no features that made me think, “I’m glad I spent money on this.” Save your money and stick with your normal photo library. In my experience, this app adds very little value and simply isn’t worth paying for. ### 1/5 — STILL BUGGY!!! *2024-11-11, version 1.1.1* I just updated the app thinking the problems I had were solved. Nope still doesn’t work. Found the problems within 30 seconds of updating so I don’t know how the developer hasn’t seen the issue. Some photos just freeze the app and I can’t navigate with it at all. Seriously thinking of getting a refund because this is not working at all! So disappointed as I really wanted an alternative to the stock photos app. I really had hopes for this but it’s let me down twice now. ### 1/5 — Crashes *2024-10-31* It keeps crashing. It’s frustrating and unusable. ### 1/5 — Dont buy this *2024-10-05* Cant do anything can’t even select multiple photos ### 1/5 — Crashes immediately on launch. *2024-09-27* Running iOS 18.0 and have yet to be able to even run this. Frustrating. ### 1/5 — Unusable for me *2024-09-22* It doesn’t sync albums and doesn’t seem to let you create smart albums. I tried for a refund a few minutes after purchase but it says that it ineligible. $5 wasted ### 2/5 — Don’t bother *2024-11-18* This does not recreate the old Photos app for iPhone. I can’t see any difference. Apple really failed with the new, updated Photos app - and this doesn’t fix it. Don’t spend your money on this one. ### 2/5 — Great layout but glaring error *2024-10-10, version 1.0.3* I love the look and layout of this app. But there is one glaring error. When I open it, it opens on the default 'Recents' tab. But I don't see the most recent photos I have taken, it shows the oldest ones in my library. This means I need to scroll all the way down to get to the most recent photos (which takes forever). Surely when you first open the app, it should show you the most recent photos in your library and not the oldest ones. As soon as this glaring error is fixed, I will change my review to 5 stars. Bit right now, it is very frustrating. ### 2/5 — Zu wenig für‘s Geld *2024-09-29* Sorry, aber das ist mir dann doch zu wenig. Keine deutsche Übersetzung, nicht mal ganz einfache Editierfunktionen (Zuschneiden würde ja schon reichen). Und alles nur auf Englisch. Leider gibt es auch keine Demo-Version, sehr ärgerlich. Die App ist jedenfalls keine 6 € wert. ### 3/5 — No Search function *2025-10-03* Looks good and simple, but no search function! Without a way to search for tagged photos this is not very useful to me. In any case, it does not pick up the subject tags that I added with the now useless Apple iOS 18 photos app. If I had known, I wouldn’t have bought it. ## Most praised reviews (7 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Simple and functional *2025-04-23* Photon Library is a simple and functional alternative the current iOS photos app, which is becoming awful to use. ### 5/5 — Promising *2024-10-20* I found Photon whilst seeking a replacement for the awful revision of the Photos app in iOS 18. The current iteration of this app is a good start toward restoring the functionality and simplicity lost in the update. A few features would be useful: - Add ability to order Albums by date of creation - Swipe up on photo to reveal metadata - Video scrubber bar should show preview of frames - Add search (by date, by location to start with) - Show map with location taken in metadata panel, add equivalent to "show nearby photos" - Add photo / video edit capabilities a la iOS 17 - OCR search in photos - Face identification - Enhance Calendar tab to provide year/month/day views, perhaps akin to the lost "For You" functionality. Can't wait to see where the app goes from here. Keep up the good work. ### 5/5 — Simplicity is a virtue *2024-09-29* Nothing “wrong” with the Apple Photos app, but Photon Library pares things down for quick access, as when pulling up a photo to show someone during a conversation. “Just Press Record” takes a similar approach for voice notes, and is my go-to app for that reason (I use other apps when more flexibility is needed). I anticipate using Proton Library the same way. Hopefully, the developer won’t be inclined to add bells and whistles, but just make improvements and fixes when needed. If they want to make something more complex, offer it as a separate app. ### 5/5 — I love you *2024-09-25* This is exactly the photoapp I would create if I could write any code. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!! All my anger about ios18 has gone. ### 5/5 — iOS 18 added too much junk *2024-09-19* No Apple, I don’t need a cluttered UI to access the most recent photos I’ve taken. I don’t need constant zooming in/out, and scrolling down to reveal all sorts of ways to view my photos library. Sad to see this mess got released by Apple. Happy to see privacy focused, small (3mb) apps like Photon were able to fill the gap. ### 4/5 — Needs little improvement *2024-10-30* I like the simplicity this app is offering now. I purchased it after becoming terribly frustrated with the recent iPhone Photos app in ios 18. But, I have a little suggestion to the app developers. Please add the following features in your app. 1. Swipe to select photos. 2. Add minimum editing ability like cropping, photo enhancement etc. If these are added, I will no longer use the creepy iphone photos app anymore. ### 4/5 — Great start!! *2024-09-21* A couple suggestions: (1) let me reorder albums (2) separate device created albums from Synced albums (3) setting for 3,4,5 across photo grid --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-27.*