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#PMChallenge - "Sort+" Advanced Photo Organizer Feature Feb 9, 2019

Venky61 , Feb 9, 2019 :

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Introduction​

Gone are those days when we had to keep a track of the storage space left on the phone. With the minimum storage space marching towards 128GB, we don't stress about how many pictures we are capturing and the gallery just gets piled up.

Finding set of photos from a particular party or trip or work is very difficult unless you have the patience to sit and sort out your pictures into different folders. Wouldn't it be great to see your pictures organized into folders? Obviously it can't do on its own as only we know how we want them to be organized.

SORT+ exactly addresses that issue and gives a smart way to organize photos according to your requirement and makes the gallery less messy.

Users​

Every user who takes many pictures with their mobile camera and wants the pictures to be better organized.

To be more specific

• A photographer who wants to keep the images taken during photo shoots/experiments separate from the regular pictures.
• A frequent traveler who likes to keep the travel pictures separate to the others.
• A party animal who loves to keep all those party pictures in a different folder.
• All OCD users like me who struggle to keep the gallery more clean and organized

Proposed function​

The proposed feature is to be able to move the captured images to specific folder by setting a simple rule based on date and time.

Logic Behind & Process Flow​

I will start with an Example:
We all know that @Ruby G. is enjoying her Holidays. What if she wants to have an easy access to the pictures taken during this holiday break in let's say July 2019 or later.

Let's list out the options available now to make this happen,

• After the holiday ends, create a new folder and select all the photos captured during the holiday and transfer. You can only select 4 pictures at a time. So if you have around 100 pictures- 25 clicks will do the job. (or)
• Upload all the pictures to Google Photos and go to the web version where you can select all the required pictures in 2-3 clicks, create an Album. Here if you have limited storage space then you would upload image of reduced image quality. (or)
• Scroll through all the images in the gallery and reach the images you are looking for. (or)
• Go to Places Tab in the gallery and select the location. This results in exactly those pictures only if, The Location tag was kept ON & All pictures are from one country . (or)
• Go to Google Photos and Type the Month and year, it will bring you all the pictures captured in that period.

Note: In the last two options, if you have captured pictures in the same location or same duration, then you would be shown other pictures too which might not be ideal during many situations.

Now what if she had an option to make these images moved to a specified folder on their own once the holiday ended ?

Spoiler: TLDR Version

There will be an Option in Gallery "SORT+".

• Click SORT+.
• Give a Folder Name (Ex: New Year 2019)
• Select Date & Time to Start and End.
• Check back gallery after the End time- All Photos captured between Start & End time would have been moved from Camera folder to New year 2019 Folder.

User has the option to either create New folder or select existing folders. Here's how the Gallery looks with and without Sort+.

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SORT+ is the solution I propose for that. Here's a side by side view of the present gallery design and with SORT+. It works on creating a Simple Rule based on Date and Time.

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Once the user clicks on the SORT+ option, they will be welcomed with a window to either create a new rule or modify an existing one.

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Once the user clicks on Create, either a New folder can be created or one existing in the Collections can be selected.

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Once the Folder is created or Selected, user needs to select the Start and End duration with date and time.

If the user opens the SORT+ feature on 11th Feb 10 PM, the default values set in Start and End will be 11th Feb 10 PM and 11th Feb 11 PM. This way user can just click confirm without even changing any values for creating a quick rule when in need. As the persistent notification option is available, they can extend from their if required.

Once the duration ends, the images will be transferred to the specified folder.

Note: The transfer happens only after the duration ends. If not quick access of last clicked images in camera app would be difficult.
Thanks to @grouperb's inputs for giving a quick option to create a rule.

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For modifying an existing Rule/Schedule Sort+, there will be following options

• "Extend" - To extend the end time by fixed duration. 1hr, 3hr, 5hr etc,
• "End Now" - To end the Rule instantly.
• "Delete" - To delete the Rule/ Scheduled Sort+ if you changed your mind or the plan is cancelled.
• "Edit Folder Name"
• "Change Folder" - To change the selected folder to another existing one.
• "Toggle Notification"

If "Show Notification" is selected, a persistent notification would be created at start time with the options to modify. If not the user can go from gallery and modify.

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Here's an overall view of the process flow and the view of gallery with and without Sort+

User value​

User can organize images by creating a schedule which is as simple as a reminder/calendar event, which gives him/her a faster way to access the images when required without the trouble of manually selecting hundreds of photos.
Also, user can share the phone with others to show some holiday pictures without the fear of accidentally showing other weird pictures in the Camera Roll.

Existing Comparable Feature​

There is no existing App or feature that provides similar features, at least to my knowledge.

Though there are few 3rd party gallery apps like A+ Gallery that give an option to sort based on the location, select all and transfer to a folder. But again for this to happen the location tagging should have been turned ON. With "Select All" it will also select the other pictures taken in that location.

Also ... I strongly feel there should be "Select All" option in the gallery app.

Update:
So, I realized that as the feature is something that's related to clicking pictures, the option should be accessible from the Camera App too. After all if the icon is visible while capturing the picture, user will has more probability of using it to organize in a better way. Integration between native apps should be easy too. There's anyway so much empty space lying around in the camera App
So here's the picture of camera app with the feature lying just beside the google lens icon. The process remains the same with just an additional shortcut for easy access.

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End Note:
Thanks for reading through the crazy Idea. Though the flow sheet makes its look like a hell of a task, but believe me, if you see its just similar to scheduling a calendar event.

I know many users might say that you cannot predict when you would be taking a picture. But unplanned pictures are normally few compared to hundreds of planned ones during trips, photo shoots or parties...at least in my experience.

All your views and suggestions are welcomed I once again thank @Ruby G. for bringing such interesting and brainstorming contests to the community. And apologies for using your holiday as example.

I have seen many great ideas. All the best to all the entries and though there will only be One winner, I would love to see Oneplus archiving all our ideas and implementing the useful & feasible ones in further updates That's like the actual win for everyone IMO.