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Apple Shares New 'The Archives' iPhone Ad Focusing on Memories Feature in Photos App

Apple today continued on with its line of iPhone 7 advertisements, introducing a new spot called "The Archives," which focuses on the Memories feature that's available in the Photos app.

In the video, available on YouTube, an archivist is shown working in a vast photo archive, carefully selecting and then pasting together physical versions of Live Photos and videos into a montage that's first shown on a projector and then transferred to the iPhone 7.


"Her Dreams" by Luca D'Alberto and "Unchained Melody" by Lykke Li accompany the video, as does the tagline that Apple's been using for all of its recent ads, "practically magic."

Apple has done several ads in this series that focus on the photographic capabilities of the iPhone 7, including "The City" and "Take Mine," but this is the first ad that has highlighted the Memories feature that's baked into iOS. Memories aggregates photos and videos around selected dates, locations, and people, turning them into slideshows accompanied by music.

Today's ad is also accompanied by a simple tutorial video that outlines how to use the Memories feature, which joins many other iPhone 7 photography tutorials that Apple has been producing since May.


Apple's Memories feature is set to see a major improvement in iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra, gaining support for a range of new categories including pets, babies, outdoor activities, performances, weddings, birthdays, and sporting events.

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Top Rated Comments

Nimoy Avatar
118 months ago
Brilliant ad! Amazing production for a relatively minor software feature.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
gsmornot Avatar
118 months ago
In the end and as you age you find this is all that really matters.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nutmac Avatar
118 months ago
I like the memories functionality.
Me too.

With iCloud now offering 2 TB for $9.99/month, and iOS 11 bringing Family Sharing, I recommend iCloud Photo Library highly to anyone with a sizable photo library. It brings entirely new level of enjoyment out of your photos and videos.

Now, if only Apple would bring Family Sharing to iCloud Photo Library (e.g., husband and wife using a single library).
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
keysofanxiety Avatar
118 months ago
Pretty feel-tastic advert. Good job.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
scrapesleon Avatar
118 months ago
song was actually heartbreaking
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
winglet69 Avatar
118 months ago
Does this mean that Photos will no longer scramble my entire library into random and duplicate albums of it's own choosing (including ones I curated myself and synced)? Other than using the main camera roll I've pretty much abandoned it completely for this reason.

Anything would be an improvement.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)