Apple takes on Google Photos with new Photos update

Onstage at the Worldwide Developers Conference today, Apple's Craig Federighi announced that, in addition to other improvements brought by iOS 10, Photos is getting a major update that aims to make the app even more powerful and personal. The new features appear to be Apple's answer to Google Photos, but with Apple's polish and commitment to security.

MAKING MEMORIES

Among the features Federighi demonstrated was facial recognition. The new Photos app will be able to identify the faces of family and friends across your photo library, letting you find them with easy. Federighi said that 11 billion computations per photo. In addition, the app has a new feature called Memories, which bundles photos according to events and places. The app can even automatically make montages set to music. What's more, Photos on the Mac will get most of these new features as well.

Many of these features exist in Google Photos already. (Android users will immediately see parallels between Memories and Collections, for instance.) However, Apple took the time to reiterate that these features happen locally on devices, meaning no personal data is being sent back to Apple. Photos will be released with iOS 10 and macOS Sierra this fall.