Hi everyone! My name’s Simon, and I’m the lead engineer on the new Photos app. You may know me from some of my work on Plexamp and Plex Dash 
First of all, I want to thank everyone here for all the great feedback and suggestions. I want you to know I’ve read every single post in this thread, and while I can’t reply individually to every post here, let me try and respond to a few of the most common topics:
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HEIF/HEIC support (and other image formats)
Unfortunately I don’t have an update I can share here. I know HEIF/HEIC support is a super important feature for a lot of people (as well as other formats like JpegXL, AVIF etc), but the work required to support these formats is predominantly on the server side. There’s an existing feature request here that you can upvote if it’s important to you. Additionally, I’ve raised the issue internally to discuss further with the server team. I’ll respond in the feature request thread if/when I have any updates to share. -
Photo uploads/mobile backup
I know this is a highly requested feature, however it isn’t something we’re working on at the moment. I know this may be disappointing to hear, but I want to be transparent and make sure we’re not promising anything we can’t deliver. With that said, the door isn’t completely closed on this, and it’s a feature we may consider returning to in the future. For now, as others have shared in the thread, there are other apps you may be able to use to sync your mobile photos to a folder on your server that Plex can then scan and import. -
Performance issues, screens not loading
As I’m sure you’re all aware, this is a beta app, and we’re still working on optimising things in preparation for the full release. I’m currently working on a solution to the screen loading issue, and hope to have an update available soon that resolves this. There are a number of other performance fixes in the works that should make for a smoother and snappier experience coming soon. -
Video playback issues
Video playback in the current beta is quite rudimentary. For example, we’re currently not direct-playing, even where we should be able to. We’ll be incrementally improving video playback in future updates. -
Photo/Video orientation EXIF data
The server currently doesn’t make this data available to client apps to consume and respond to as necessary. There’s an open feature request here, and I’ve raised the issue internally with the server team for discussion.
With the above out of the way, I wanted to share a few of the upcoming features we’re actively working on right now (in addition to bug fixes and performance improvements) that should make it into a beta update soon:
- Timeline slider/jumpbar
- Image sharing via the platform share sheet
- More informative error handling
- Fixes to some landscape layout issues
- Internationalisation and translations
Thanks again to everybody who’s chimed in so far. Keep the feedback coming, and keep your eyes peeled for updates 
