Queryable - Photo Search App
Version added at: Jun 05, 2025
Size: 177.39 MB
Queryable is a powerful application designed to help you find photos in your albums using natural text descriptions, all while operating completely offline. Whether you remember a specific scenario, an object, a tone, or even an emotion depicted in a photo, Queryable enables you to effortlessly locate those precious memories with ease and privacy.
Currently, the app supports searching only within photos stored in your photo albums. This focused approach ensures an optimized, seamless experience for your photo retrieval needs.
Key Highlights of Queryable
- Search by Any Description: Queryable allows you to use any text description you recall to find your photos. Descriptions can be as varied as a scene you remember (e.g., "photos of our gathering"), a tone or color (e.g., "kite in blue sky"), specific objects (e.g., "a dog, a girl, flower"), or even emotions captured in the image (e.g., "We fell in love").
- Fully Offline Operation: The app functions completely without internet connection. This means your photos remain private and there is no risk of unauthorized access to your albums.
How to Use Queryable
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Build Index: When you launch Queryable for the first time, it will build an index for all your photos. Please ensure you grant access to all your photos. This indexing process typically takes a few minutes depending on the photo count — approximately 2000 photos per minute. This step is only necessary once.
Search Freely: After indexing is complete, you can immediately start searching for any photos using your descriptive queries.
Update Index Manually: Whenever you add new photos, updating the index manually will ensure the new content is searchable.
Privacy and Security
Queryable is engineered with privacy at its core. The app does not require or request network access, thus preventing any potential privacy concerns. Users may also choose to disable its network permissions if they prefer.
Starting from version 1.1.2, Queryable offers an option to decide whether to enable wireless data usage to fetch photos from iCloud. However, this feature is optional and not mandatory.
As an independent developer from China who prioritizes privacy, promoting this app in English-speaking regions is challenging. Nevertheless, you don’t have to take my word for it — you can trust the science behind the technology.
Limitations with iCloud Photos
Since Queryable operates offline, it can only utilize the cache of low-definition versions of photos from your local Photos albums. This limitation does not affect search accuracy but means original high-definition images cannot be viewed directly in search results.
This trade-off exists to maintain the balance between privacy, security, and convenience, as allowing app access to both your Photos and the network would risk your security.