By Joe Charat As a co-founder of Photo Organizer, I've had the unique opportunity to incorporate the app into my daily life. Although I'm obviously biased, I'm truly grateful that the app has pushed me to tackle my once daunting photo library. Here are the key reasons why:
Improved Memory of My Life: By systematically going through two decades of photos, I've significantly improved my memory and recall. It's like reliving my life year by year, recalling what I did, where I went, and who I was with.
Positive Reflection: Instead of endlessly scrolling through social media, I've spent my free time reliving past moments and reconnecting with the most meaningful social ties in my life. It's given me a more robust sense of my life story, and a stronger appreciation for life's shared experiences.
My Family Loves It: I frequently walk into our family room to find my family casting our Photo Organizer Gallery onto the TV. They usually search for videos of their toddler years and laugh hysterically at their own past antics. During car rides, they often ask to borrow our phones to look through their old photos. This really underscores the importance of having a clean, easily searchable library that’s not just a joy for me, but a treasure for the whole family to enjoy forever.
Vastly Better Search: I've removed 80% of the photos from my gallery, and for the remaining 20%, I've meticulously categorized and tagged all the faces. Now, whenever I need to find a specific photo to show someone or to share, I can locate it immediately without wasting minutes searching.
In essence, Photo Organizer isn't just a tool for managing images; it's a portal to the past that enriches my present. I hope you find it as transformative as I have. If you're intrigued and want to try it out, here's a glimpse into how I use the app, which you might find helpful.
When I Use the App:
I make it a point to stay on top of my recent photos. Whenever I have a few minutes—like waiting in the car to pick up my kids—I open the app and make sure all my recent photos are fully organized. If I have more downtime, like while watching a show, I take the opportunity to go through older photos month by month.
How I Share with Face Tags:
The vast majority of my sharing is through face tags. It's a straightforward concept: if someone appears in a photo, they'll want to see it. So, I make sure I’ve added contact info to each face that regularly appears in my photos. That way, everyone who appears in my best photos gets a copy. There’s no extra thought involved; if their face is tagged, I know they’ll receive the photo.
One of my biggest use cases for sharing are photos of my two kids—they appear most often in my photos. In this example of my son's face tag, you can see that I've set it to automatically share with his three grandparents. This automatic sharing makes it easy to keep them connected. If the kids' faces appear in a photo, I know all their grandparents will see a copy. I can’t overstate how much the grandparents enjoy this. My wife and I share so many more photos of their grandkids now than when we used a shared Apple album, which wasn't exclusively for the grandparents and made us wary of oversharing. Trust me, you absolutely cannot overshare photos of grandkids with grandparents. They want to see everything you have.
How I Share with Shared Albums:
Occasionally, I also use shared albums for photos that include a broader group of friends or family who might not be in the pictures. I have different albums for various circles, including college friends, high school friends, old work colleagues, and golf buddies. This way, I can share relevant memories with specific groups without overthinking it.
Adding a photo to a shared album is simple. I don’t need to craft the perfect story or worry about creating a curated reel like on Instagram. I just decide if a particular group of people would want to see the photo, and if yes, I share it. The "Reuse captions" feature is particularly handy, allowing me to maintain a consistent narrative when adding photos close together in time.
How My Wife and I Use Partner Share:
Partner Share is, in my view, what really sets Photo Organizer apart from options like Google or Apple Photos. We’ve experimented with Partner Share on other apps and found it to be a privacy and clutter nightmare. Their versions are fully automated, leading to unwanted photo shares and all the disorganization from my Apple Library spilling over into hers, and vice versa. This only multiplies the chaos in our individual libraries. Photo Organizer's approach is different; it involves manual curation supported by automated facial recognition. This means we have to confirm each photo before it’s shared, which helps us maintain privacy and avoid clutter by not transferring the 80% of photos we typically weed out during organization.
The ability to search for photos of our kids or revisit our vacation memories and see both my photos and those my wife has taken is simply invaluable. We get a complete view without any gaps.
My favorite notification on my phone, and I get a lot, is when my wife, Stacy, has added new photos to our shared gallery. This means I no longer have to borrow her phone to see photos from our kids' latest recital or the game I missed. I know they will be neatly organized and waiting for me in our shared gallery.
In Photo Organizer, we mostly share our face tags and albums. Of course, there are some exceptions, like my golf buddies album—I know she’s not interested in those pictures. Our sharing settings for albums and face tags are synchronized, so if one of us shares a face or an album, it's automatically set up for the other as well. This interconnected setup simplifies how we share and enjoy our memories and our shared story.
Send Your Questions My Way:
Please feel free to connect and I’ll happily talk with you about this new way of reliving memories.
