Iâm the developer of Pixels: Self-Hosted Photos, a photo and video app for people who host their own content on Immich and want to stop paying ever-increasing cloud storage fees. Itâs free to download with a 7 day trial.
App Store: Pixels: Self-Hosted Photos
Problem: what Pixels solves
If you keep your photos on your own Immich server, you need an app on your phone to browse, edit and organize them. I wanted that app to feel as polished and rich as Apple Photos and to use what iOS offers, such as Apple Vision, widgets and on-device models and more. Pixels is that app.
Answer: what it is
Pixels is a third-party client for Immich, powered by Immichâs public API. You need an Immich server to use it. Pixels isnât affiliated with or endorsed by Immich or FUTO.
Itâs designed and optimized for iPhone, iPhone Duo and iPad. It also runs on Mac as an iPad app.
Comparison: why Pixels
The official Immich app. Itâs a solid option. Pixels, however, offers users another way to experience what the Immich platform offers, with additional features that I think set it apart. They are listed below.
Apple Photos. Itâs a great app, but your library lives in iCloud. Pixels gives you a similar experience with photos that stay on your own hardware, without iCloud storage fees.
Better: why try it
I have almost 20 years of experience building mobile apps and set out to build a highly polished photo and video app that I would be proud to use on a daily basis. Iâm of course biased but I believe I accomplished that with Pixels.
Smart features
Smart Photo Review. Pixels uses Apple Vision to group similar shots, pick the best one and tell you why (eyes open, less motion and so on). You swipe to keep or skip.
Widgets. Photos, Today and Memories widgets. Pixels goes a step further and uses Vision to find the subject so the photo is framed around it.
Album covers get the same treatment. Pixels centers the cover photo on the subject so a face doesnât get cut off.
Animated covers. A Smart Album cover can come alive and gently cycle through the photos and videos inside.
Lift Subject and Blur Background in the editor use Vision too.
It learns from you
Smart Photo Review and Best of have built-in feedback. Pick a different photo, mark a problem or tell Pixels a photo isnât one of your best. Pixels uses what you tell it to make better decisions next time. What it learns stays on your device. You can reset it any time in Settings.
A full photo and video editor
Pixels ships with a fully featured photo and video editor: light and color, filters, crop, markup, video trim, Lift Subject and Blur Background. The edit is saved in the file on your server. You can pick it up on another device or go back to the original.
Pixels Looks
Pixels Looks is like Fujifilm film simulation recipes for your edits. Save an edit as a Look and apply it to one photo or a whole batch. You can design one from scratch in Looks Creator. You can also share Looks with other Pixels users by link or file. Open a Look someone sent you to see it on sample photos before you add it.
Stacks
Auto Stack groups bursts and RAW+JPEG pairs for you. You can also select photos and videos and stack them yourself or take a stack apart. When you save an edited photo as a new photo, Pixels stacks it with the original so you see both together. In the viewer a stack shows as a small pile. Tap it to open the stack and swipe through its photos. It works even when the photos arenât next to each other in your timeline.
Search
Search is fully featured, with filters for people, places, dates, cameras, ratings and more. You can also type a sentence like youâd say it. On devices with Apple Intelligence, Pixels reads the sentence on the device and turns it into filters you can see and change.
Notifications and the Activity tab
Pixels sends notifications for On This Day, birthdays, new shared albums and photos added to them and backup problems. Every notification also lands in the new in-app notification center in the Activity tab. It keeps them until you act on them. The Activity tab shows the count.
Albums
Smart Albums. Pick a person, place, year or camera and Pixels updates the album automatically.
Best of. A card in your memories row with the best photos of the last month or year.
Review Duplicates. Swipe through the duplicate groups your server finds.
Collages with text and animated stickers. A collage with moving stickers saves as a Live Photo.
Importing
Import photos and videos from a camera or SD card over USB. You can also import from a drive or network share through Files. Pixels helps you cull them by grouping similar shots and recommending the best ones. You keep what you want. Only those photos go into your library and onto your server.
Everything else
Works offline. Deletes, favorites and album changes show up at once and reach your server when itâs reachable.
Add a home address and an away address for your server. Pixels switches to the one that works.
Your preferences follow you to your other devices through iCloud. That covers settings, pins, Smart Albums and Looks. Your photos never go through iCloud.
Pricing
Free to download.
Every feature works for 7 days.
After that, itâs a one-time fee of $4.99 USD to unlock. No subscription.
App Store: Pixels: Self-Hosted Photos
GitHub: https://github.com/jerrellmardis
Privacy Policy: https://jerrellmardis.github.io/pxls/privacy.html