Microsoft Begins Rolling Out iCloud Photos Integration on Windows 11

Microsoft today announced that iCloud Photos integration in the Photos app on Windows 11 is beginning to roll out today with an update to the app on the Microsoft Store. Microsoft expects the update to be available to all Windows 11 customers by end of the month.

iCloud Photos Windows
iCloud Photos integration allows iPhone users to access all of their photos in the Photos app on Windows 11 devices. In a blog post, Microsoft says users simply need to download the iCloud for Windows app from the Microsoft Store, enable iCloud Photos syncing, and the photos will appear in the updated Photos app automatically.

Microsoft previously announced that standalone Apple Music and Apple TV apps are coming to Windows next year. Currently, Windows users must access the Apple TV+ streaming service on the web at tv.apple.com, while Apple Music is available on the web or within the antiquated iTunes for Windows app. Microsoft said previews of both apps would be available on the Microsoft Store starting later this year.

Last month, the Apple Music app launched on the Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Xbox One.

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Top Rated Comments

brofkand Avatar
40 months ago
I just updated - not as good as it could be. It's purely a view-only system. You can't edit the photos and sync your changes back to iCloud.

It's better than it was though. So there's that. Maybe it'll improve as time goes on.

iCloud in general needs an entire rewrite, it's really died on the vine in my view. They've bolted on new features here and there but nothing is a killer app and mostly they exist just to make you pay for more storage.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Radeon85 Avatar
40 months ago
At least MS will more than likely do a better job than Apples native Windows apps, Apple can't seem to make a smooth running app on Windows if their life depended on it.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
PinkyMacGodess Avatar
40 months ago

Can't be any worse than what Apple will do with them ('https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/14/22624770/apple-controversial-plan-csam-child-abuse-privacy-ios-messages'), right? ?‍♂️
Oh good grief, not that again...
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AppleTO Avatar
40 months ago
I hope this works better than the other functions iCloud control panel offers. I find everything really buggy.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sw1tcher Avatar
40 months ago

And what are they going to do with the images they slurp up? Hmm...
Can't be any worse than what Apple will do with them ('https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/14/22624770/apple-controversial-plan-csam-child-abuse-privacy-ios-messages'), right? ?‍♂️
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
krspkbl Avatar
40 months ago
microsoft doing apples work for them.

the icloud app is a joke on windows. tried using it and it's such a mess. takes forever for photos to download, upload, sync. don't even get me started on trying to use it to save documents to or access existing ones in icloud.

apple is building all these services and i get they want people to buy their macs but them ignoring windows users is the wrong thing to do.

i'd like to use my icloud storage to sync files between my pc and iphone but it doesn't work well. to be fair, the icloud website works and they are updating it so it's not too bad.

i wanted to join apple music but they expect me to use iTunes or their buggy web player which logs me out all the time or sometimes refuses to play anything. i know there is the third party cider app but that's a buggy mess too (and the dev is a horrible person).

if apple want to compete with spotify they need to do much better. on windows if i want to sync to cloud i'll just use one drive or google or dropbox.

apple are stretching themselves too thin and or simply not interested in letting people out their mac/ios bubble. again i get that but as long as that is their approach they will not be able to compete with others. windows user base is huge and that's a lot of money they are missing out on.

they need to take windows more seriously.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)