Apple Apparently Working to Add Photos to iCloud.com Suite of Apps

Apple is phasing out Aperture and iPhoto on the Mac, replacing the pair with a new Photos app that is slated to debut early next year. Mac owners who want to access their iCloud photos before this new OS X app is released may soon be able to do so via an iCloud.com version of Photos that is currently under development, reports 9to5Mac.

icloud_photos_error
Screenshots from an Apple iCloud support document clearly show an icon for Photos, suggesting Apple is working on an iCloud version of its Photos app. Error messages obtained when trying to open the presumed URL for the app on the beta iCloud site also reference a "Photos" application that is unable to be opened.

This alert does not appear for any other URL string, so it is not simply a generic message shown for any non-existent URL. It clearly indicates that some form of ‘Photos’ app is in development for the website. The fact it shows only on the beta site is interesting, as iCloud Photo Library is also currently denoted as ‘beta’ in developer builds of iOS 8.

Details on the web app are not available, but it presumably will allow users to view and possibly manage pictures uploaded to Apple's iCloud service from an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. The launch date of this iCloud Photos app is, however, unknown.

Apple already offers online versions of its iWork suite including Pages, Numbers,and Keynote, with its new iCloud Drive storage feature rolling out fully when OS X Yosemite debuts later this year.

Tag: iCloud

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Top Rated Comments

jml12286 Avatar
146 months ago
give me cloud photos now!
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Lapidus Avatar
146 months ago
I wish Apple could get this cloud thing right. I still have problems with syncing my notes and messages isn't working on my Mac at all.

Really disappointing. Why do I keep buying their hardware?
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
reden Avatar
146 months ago
Never trust Apple with cloud services. They will just turn it off in the future and you're screwed.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
darkslide29 Avatar
146 months ago
iMessage works pretty good for me. Every now and again, it may take a minute for the conversation to update on whatever new device I'm using, but usually I can text from my phone and see the conversations in real time on my Mac.

I think they want an iMessage web app. Which doesn't sound impossible and would be kinda neat.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
WhoDaKat Avatar
146 months ago
I'm not changing ecosystems any time soon, but Apple does struggle with the cloud and this photos thing exasperates the issue. I can't believe they don't plan on releasing the new photos app until next year! I have photos in iPhoto on Mavericks and I have iOS 8 on my phone. Where are my pictures? LOL I deleted them all off to get a fresh start, and then woke up one day and there were tons of pics in my iOS 8 photos app. Where did they come from? This is so un-Apple. Photos should have been the first thing they got right.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Populism Avatar
146 months ago
Days ago I started moving my thousand-plus iPhone photos to my Google Drive. As much as I like the Apple ecosystem, and while I am high-school educated, I am wholly incapable of understanding how Photostream improved my life. The lack of photo storage in iCloud was the icing on the cake.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)