Queryable: Find Photo by Text 4+

Offline Semantic Album Search

楠 方

    • 4.6 • 5 Ratings
    • Free

Description

Queryable is an MacOS app that allows you to find a photo in albums use a text description, completely offline.
- Note: Currently, only photos in photo albums are available for search.

1. What's the highlights ?

- You can use any description you remember to find the photo. For example, a scenario described in your mind (e.g. "photos of our gathering"), a tone (e.g. "kite in blue sky"), an object (e.g. "a dog, a girl, flower"), or even an emotion depicted in that photo (e.g. "We fell in love").

- Queryable runs completely offline. This allows you not to worry about anyone invading your album privacy.


2. How to use Queryable ?

* Build index

The first time you run Queryable, it will build index for all your photos (remember to grant the app access to all your photos), which usually takes a few minutes (depending on the number of photos you have) and processes at a rate of about 2000 photos per minute.


This step is performed only once.


* Search as you like

Once that's done, you can start searching for anything you want.


* Manually update index

When you have new photos, manually updating the index will make them searchable.


3. Are there any privacy or security issues?

Rest assured, Queryable is designed as an offline app and will never request network access, thereby avoiding any privacy issues. (You can turn off its network permissions if you wish.)

- update: for version>=1.1.2, Queryable now gives users the option to choose whether to use wireless data to fetch photos from iCloud. This feature is not mandatory.


As a Chinese indie developer who values privacy, it is very difficult to promote product in English speaking regions. But luckily, when it comes to this app, you don't have to believe me, you can trust science.


4. Any requirements for the iPhone model?

Queryable runs CoreML locally, which means if your iPhone does not support CoreML, you can't use it.

The limitations are:

* MacOS 13.0 or above

* M1 chips or later models


5. Issues with iClould

Since it cannot connect to a network, Queryable can only use the cache of the low-definition versions of your local Photos albums. This does not affect search accuracy, except that you cannot view the original image in the search results.


It's a compromise between privacy and security and convenience. An app that has access to your Photos and the network is a disaster. I hope you can understand.


6. What if it crashes when building an index ?

Make sure you're MacOS 13.0, M1 chip or above. Turn off low battery mode and kill the memory-hungry app, then try building the index again.


If there are still problems, please contact: myfancoo@gmail.com




Preview page created with https://screenshots.pro/.

What’s New

Version 1.2.5

- adjust the UI to fit MacOS
- add search by photo feature

Ratings and Reviews

4.6 out of 5
5 Ratings

5 Ratings

Mustache Emperor ,

Way better than iOS search

The UI is very simple and will benefit from some polish, but this works perfectly on my 14 Pro. Make sure to let the index complete the first time you run the app.

The search quality is really impressive. I can find every Simpsons meme in my saved photos, every picture I’ve ever taken at an art museum, every picture I’ve taken of a neon sign, every selfie I took with my old roommate at a bar. This really feels like the future. Big thanks to the dev, I really appreciate having this.

Developer Response ,

Thanks for letting me know about it! The UI does need more polishing, and in the latest version (v1.2.0) the UI will be more flexible to fit the phone.

Plasmag ,

Extremely useful

I bought this because I was interested in the technology (read about it on HN) but this app has been surprisingly useful. I have a lot of photos on my phone, and it’s great to be able to find photos containing an object. I use it about once every two weeks. I wish the native Photos search was this good. I also appreciate that all of the machine learning is done on device in a privacy preserving way. Apple should buy this app.

Developer Response ,

Thanks for understanding.

Mjw285 ,

Really great local photo search

This app is exactly what I’ve been looking for to search through my 20,000-photo library. Often I have a specific photo I’ve taken in my mind, but I don’t remember when. This app lets me search for it even on the subway. With the recent support for image similarity search, this is a must-buy for anyone who wants good tools to sort through their photos.

Developer Response ,

This comment looks as if I conspired with you, lol. Thank you for liking it!

App Privacy

The developer, 楠 方, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy.

Data Not Collected

The developer does not collect any data from this app.

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

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