Questions, answered.

Annotyze™ is an iPhone and iPad app for marking areas of your photos and attaching information to them. You draw a shape — or let AutoDetect trace a subject — and pin metadata, tags and notes to that exact spot. Later you can Peek at it, refine it, see its history, and find it again with search.

An Annote™ is a marked area of a photo plus everything you've recorded about it:

• Metadata — specific details, up to 250 characters per entry
• Tags — short labels (up to 100 characters) that connect Annotes across photos
• Notes — longer observations, up to 1,000 characters

Each Annote also keeps a timeline of when it was created and when each detail was added.

Yes. Tap + and choose Take Photo — or press and hold the Annotyze icon on your Home Screen and choose Take Photo there. The photo is saved to your Photos library first — like any picture from the Camera app — and then opens in Annotyze, ready to mark. Annotyze refers to the photo in your library and keeps only a small thumbnail of its own. Choose from Library works as before.

Yes. Open a photo, tap ⋯ and choose Copy Annotes to… — or, while multi-selecting, Copy Selected Annotes to…. Pick another photo in Annotyze, choose one from your library or take a new one, then decide whether the copies keep their original dates or start today. Every Annote lands at the same spot with all its data, and the original photo isn't changed.

Two settings in Profile go further. Remove Original After Copying (off by default) removes the original from Annotyze — Home, albums and tags — but only when every Annote on it was copied; the photo you copied to takes its place in its albums, and the original always stays in your Photos library. Open Photo After Copying opens the photo you copied to either only when the original was removed (the default) or after every copy.

Yes. Open the album and tap the clock. The album timeline lists each photo as one Image Added row, dated when it joined the album, newest first. Tap a row to open that photo's own history — when each Annote was made and each detail added, with their original dates. Expand All opens every photo at once, and Album Created sits at the bottom.

Photos that were already in an album before this feature show the date they were added to Annotyze. Removing a photo from an album also removes it from the album's timeline.

Yes — for two Annotyze records of the same scene, each holding part of the work. Select both photos on Home and tap Combine, choose the photo to keep, and tap Combine again.

The Annotes move across with their original dates and the kept photo opens for review: tap the eye to lay the other photo over it, then move, resize or delete anything. Finish asks first, then passes the other photo's albums to the kept photo and removes the other photo from Annotyze — it always stays in your Photos library. Cancel takes the moved Annotes back off and leaves both photos as they were.

Five tools: ellipse, rectangle, polygon, freeform, and AutoDetect. Ellipses and rectangles have no handles to aim for — drag anywhere on the edge to stretch that side (or near a corner for two), using the four grips built into the border as a guide; polygon and freeform shapes are edited point by point. There's also a precise crosshair mode for exact placement.

AutoDetect uses Apple's Vision framework, running entirely on your device, to find the subjects in a photo. Choose the AD tool and tap a subject: its outline is traced and placed as a freeform Annote you can refine. Press and hold the photo at any time to see every subject it can detect glow.

An Annote is kept once it has at least one piece of data — a tag, metadata or a note. If you close a shape you never added anything to, it's discarded so your photos stay uncluttered.

In Profile, tap Contact Support or Suggest a Feature. Your Mail app opens with a message to [email protected], with your app version, build, device and iOS version already filled in — nothing is sent until you send it. Help & FAQ opens this page.

Moves, resizes and point edits wait for confirmation. Tap ✓ to keep the new shape — the Annote closes back to its marker. Tap ✕ or open another Annote, and the shape returns exactly to where it was. Until you choose, everything except ✓, ✕ and delete is paused — so a change is never left half-decided.

No. Your photos and everything you write stay on your device. Annotyze has no account system, makes no network requests, and contains no analytics, advertising or tracking SDKs. See the Privacy Policy.

Yes. Profile → Legal → Privacy Policy shows it right in the app, even offline. It is the same text as the app section of our Privacy Policy. Terms of Use, next to it, opens our Terms of Use.

Never. Annotyze stores only where you marked and what you wrote. If you delete a photo from your library, its Annotes remain readable in Annotyze instead of vanishing.

Yes. In the Profile tab you can export everything — Annotes, metadata, tags and notes — to a JSON file saved wherever you choose, such as Files or iCloud Drive. Importing it later merges safely and skips duplicates, so it's ideal for backups or moving to a new device.

Your annotation data is deleted with it, but your photos stay in your library. If you exported a backup first, you can import it after reinstalling and your Annotes are re-linked to the same photos.

Any iPhone or iPad running iOS 18.4 or later. Annotyze is a universal app and works in portrait and landscape, including iPad Split View. On iOS 26 it uses Liquid Glass throughout.

Yes. Annotyze is free — no ads, no in-app purchases, no subscriptions and no locked features.

Annotyze is in private beta and coming soon to the App Store. Email us to ask about early access.

Yes. Choose Light, Dark or System in the Profile tab — Dark is the default. The black-and-white outlines on your photos look the same in every mode.