Bringing back the Library in the Photos app is today’s “flush headphone jack” moment.
Say what you want about Liquid Glass. Whether you hate it or love it, what is no doubt a victory for everyone (unless you’re clinically insane) is the return of the Library in the Photos app. A staple feature that was always present from the beginning of iPhone was harshly taken away from us in iOS 18, only to return to its former glory.
The Library is like the Home Button for the Photos app. Simply tap the Library to see everything in chronological order. No more frustration in sorting between your recent Collections only to be frustrated trying to find photos you took just a few days ago.
If WWDC was a true live event, you would have seen people cheer when they saw the clip showing the return of the Library, exactly like when the flush headphone jack was announced with the iPhone 3G.
The iPhone (aka iPhone 2G), debuted with huge fanfare, but it had one glaring hardware issue, which was a recessed headphone jack. That meant any headphone jack with a wider diameter plug just wouldn’t work with your iPhone, the ultimate iPod. Every iPod prior to the iPhone had a flush headphone jack and you could use any pair of headphones with it, but now all of a sudden your special headphones were not compatible. You needed a 3.5mm to 3.5mm adapter in order to use your non-Apple headphones. Back in those days, I had a Nokia N95 8GB, and I would scoff at those iPhone users with their substandard headphone jack since mine was flush, even though the headphone jack on the Nokia N95 was side mounted!
It was one year of agony for early iPhone adopters (similar to iOS 18’s removal of the Library), but one that never surfaced again.*
Here’s to many more fantastic years with the Library.
*The iPhone 7 did get rid of the headphone jack, but that was justified.