Popular Halide camera app finally adds batch photo actions

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The Halide MK II camera app for iPhone and iPad adds batch photo actions, improved
The Halide MK II camera app for iPhone and iPad adds batch photo actions, improved "Image Rescue" and more.
Photo: Lux Optics

On the heels of a big Obscura 3 camera app refresh, another popular and powerful photo app sees major changes this week. This time, it’s the Halide MK II app for iPhone and iPad, from Lux Optics, which also makes the Spectre app for creating long exposures.

The Halide app’s important updates include the addition of batch actions — so you can finally work with multiple photos at the same time — and an improved “Image Rescue” function.

Halide MK II: added batch photo actions, improved ‘Image Rescue’ and more

Cult of Mac last wrote about Halide in October 2021, when it improved its macro shot functionality. Halide 2.5 added “Neural Macro,” a feature designed to improve the look of close-up pictures after they have been taken.

Batch photo actions and interface upgrades

With the newest update, as Halide 2.7’s release notes describe, the app now features batch actions. The feature allows you to interact with multiple photos at once. For instance, you can select two or more photos to delete or to share with someone. That wasn’t possible in the app until now.

In addition, in the app’s Grid View you can now find a heart icon over the photos you mark as favorites. That makes it simpler to find them in the app. Better yet, when you press and hold a photo in Grid View, the app now shows a preview and a menu with options to favorite, delete, share or open the photo in a supported editor.

Another change to the interface involves gestures that make moving around within the app easier. For example, when you view a photo in full screen, you can now swipe up to go back to Grid View or swipe down to open the camera.

‘Image Rescue’ improvements

The update also brings improvements to Image Rescue. The function, introduced in 2020, creates a backup of every photo taken with the app to prevent file loss in the event of a crash. The app’s developers said the feature is now more reliable. And, they added, it can deal with an iOS bug that had sometimes prevented the app from saving photos to a user’s Photo Library.

As the release notes describe:

When iOS refuses to save photos, Halide will store a copy within the app, so you can just keep snapping. Of course we’ll show you a notification that something is up, but you’re welcome to ignore the problem until later. When you’re ready to get your photos out of Halide, just open our photo reviewer. You’ll notice a big banner at the top explaining that we saved your photos. Tap on it, and we’ll show you the photos we saved. From there, you can either try to save them again (because sometimes this iOS bug fixes itself) or you can tap the action button in the upper right to share them off your phone some other way, such as AirDropping them to your Mac.

Price: free trial; license is $2.99 per month, $11.99 per year or a one-time purchase of a $49.99 lifetime license.

Where to download: App Store

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