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Microsoft is redesigning Windows 11’s photos app again

Microsoft is redesigning Windows 11’s photos app again

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It revamped the app last year, but there are more changes on the way.

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The Microsoft logo on an orange background
Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft may have redesigned its photos app last year to better match the aesthetics of Windows 11, but now it’s testing a new version with a slightly new look and a few other improvements.

Perhaps the most noticeable change is a new gallery view, which offers a different way to browse through your photos. In a blog post, Microsoft’s Dave Grochocki says that the updated view is intended to simplify browsing, finding, managing, and consuming the photos you have in your collection. The new app will also offer improvements to the “Memories” feature, though Grochocki’s blog post doesn’t detail exactly what’s different.

One Windows 11 window shows Microsoft’s redesigned Photos app. Behind it is another window showing a large photo.
The new gallery view in Microsoft’s redesigned Photos app for Windows 11. You can get a closer look on Microsoft’s blog post.
Image: Microsoft

The new app does come with one big downside: you won’t be able to use the legacy app’s video editor. Instead, if you want to trim videos, Grochocki recommends using Clipchamp, the video editing app it began bundling into Windows 11 in March after acquiring the app last year. That said, if you prefer the way the legacy app works — including its video editor — the company is still offering it on the Microsoft Store as “Microsoft Photos Legacy.”

The redesigned photos app will be available to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel beginning Wednesday. It will roll out to everyone else in October, according to Microsoft’s head of devices and Windows Panos Panay. Perhaps it will arrive at the same time as some of the new Surface devices revealed at Microsoft’s just-announced October 12th event?

While you’re waiting for the new photos app, you might want to check out Microsoft’s big update to Windows 11 released on Tuesday, which added things like improvements to Snap Layouts and folders to the Start menu. Tom Warren covered the release in detail here.