Support

Folders and albums

Create folders, then add albums inside them to organize photos by theme. Choose list, grid, or three-column views and sort by newest, oldest, or name. Pinch in an album to change how large the photos appear.

Adding and capturing photos

Pick several photos at once from your library and add them to an album — anything already in that album is skipped automatically. You can also shoot a new photo with the camera and add it right away.

Search and tags

Find things by folder or album name, and by the tags you put on photos. Tags belong to the photo rather than the album, so the same photo shows the same tags wherever you open it.

Calendar

Browse photos by the date they were taken and add them to an album right from there.

Map

Geotagged photos are gathered at the spot where they were taken. Zoom in and clusters split into smaller ones; tap a cluster to pick nearby photos and add them to an album. The pin button in an album takes you straight to where its photos were shot.

AI album suggestions

Open AI album suggestions inside a folder and the app builds a candidate album using on-device analysis only. It filters out screenshots and burst duplicates, picks the standout shots, and writes a title and description.

Home Screen widgets

Four widgets — On This Day, Favorites, My Collection, and Album Shortcuts — can live on your Home Screen.

Share extension

Tap Share in Photos or another app to drop photos straight into a PhotoChagok album. Duplicates are filtered so the same photo isn't added twice.

App lock

Lock the whole app with a 6-digit PIN and unlock it with Face ID. The app locks the moment it goes to the background.

Favorites

Star a photo to collect it in Favorites, and put the Favorites widget on your Home Screen to see them there too.

Why does the app need photo access?

PhotoChagok needs access to your iOS photo library to add photos to albums and show them by date and location. Both Full Access and Limited Access (selected photos only) work, though with Limited Access you'll only see the photos you picked.

Do I have to allow location access?

No. Location permission is used only to center the Map tab's first view around where you are. Every feature, the Map tab included, works without it. The coordinates in your photos are read on your device regardless of this permission, because they are already stored inside the photos.

Are my original photos uploaded to a server?

No. Your original photos, their coordinates, your album data, and your search terms are never sent to our servers. Vision analysis and title generation both run entirely on your device.

If I remove a photo from an album, is the original deleted?

No. Removing a photo from an album in the app keeps the original in your Apple Photos library. Deleting the original is a separate action that goes through an extra iOS confirmation.

What do I get for free?

You can create up to 15 albums for free, and organizing, search, calendar, and map are all free. Premium makes albums unlimited, removes ads, and lets you choose which album a widget shows and use the larger widget sizes.

How do I manage my subscription?

Open the Settings app, tap your name at the top, then Subscriptions to view, change, or cancel. The free trial runs for 3 days, and cancelling before it ends means you are not charged. Billing and refunds are handled by Apple.

I got a new device — do I have to pay again?

No. Sign in with the same Apple Account and tap Restore Purchases in the app's settings to bring your subscription back.

Does the app show ads?

The app is free to use and shows Google AdMob ads. Subscribing to Premium removes both the ad cards on screen and the full-screen ads.

Do AI suggestions use the internet?

No. Photos are analyzed with Vision and titles are written with Apple Foundation Models, both entirely on your device. On devices without Apple Intelligence, the app falls back to on-device wording built from dates and tags.

Do my tags show up in the iOS Photos app?

No. Tags added in PhotoChagok are stored only inside the app and are never written to the caption or keywords in the iOS Photos app.

Photos aren't showing

• Open the iPhone Settings app
• Select PhotoChagok
• Set photo access to Full Access
• If you're on Limited Access, tap Edit Selected Photos to add more

Nothing appears on the map

• Only photos that carry location data appear on the map
• If the camera's location setting was off, those photos have no coordinates
• Photos without a location are collected in the chip at the bottom right of the map

A widget is empty

• Open the app once — it prepares the photos the widget uses
• Touch and hold the widget, then choose which album to show in Edit Widget
• Choosing an album and the larger sizes require Premium

Include this when you write to us

• Your iPhone model
• iOS version
• PhotoChagok app version (bottom of the Settings tab)
• The screen where the issue happened and how to reproduce it