Native iOS features

Build an iPhone app that uses your photo library

Borel builds iPhone apps that work with the photo library. People choose pictures with Apple's own photo picker, which needs no permission at all, and the app can save new pictures back to Photos. Describe what your app does with photos, and Borel writes it in Swift with SwiftUI's PhotosPicker for you.

Ideas

What you can build with photo library

A few apps people make with it. Describe yours in your own words.

  • A trip journal

    A page for each day of a trip, with the photos you choose for it.

  • A mood board

    Pictures gathered into boards by project, room or colour.

  • A family recipe book

    Every recipe with a photo of the dish from your library.

  • A club photo wall

    Members sign in, post a photo with a caption, and see everyone's.

Try it

A prompt to start from

Copy it, or start with it and change it to fit your idea.

The prompt
“A trip journal: one page per day with a title, a few lines and up to six photos I choose from my library.”

From words to your iPhone

Three steps, no code

  • 1

    Describe it

    Say what the app does in plain words, or start from the prompt above. No code, and no Mac.

  • 2

    Watch it build

    Borel writes the Swift, compiles it with Xcode on its own Mac and opens it in the iOS Simulator, streamed into your browser.

  • 3

    Put it on your iPhone

    Borel Companion installs it over a cable the first time, then over Wi-Fi, and while it runs it puts each new version on by itself.

How Borel handles it

Written in Swift, with Apple's own frameworks

What Borel takes care of for you, so the feature works the way iPhone owners expect.

  • Apple's photo picker

    People choose exactly the photos they want, and the app sees only those, so no permission prompt appears.

  • Saving back to Photos

    When the app makes a picture worth keeping, it saves it to the library, after iOS asks once with a sentence Borel writes.

  • Light uploads

    With sign-in, a chosen photo is shrunk to a light JPEG and uploaded to your app's cloud, so it shows on every device.

See it in the iOS Simulator in your browser while you build, then pick from your own library on your iPhone with Borel Companion.

Your Apple ID

Works with a free Apple ID

Yes. Borel Companion puts the app on your own iPhone with a free Apple ID, which keeps up to 3 of your apps there, and Companion renews them every 7 days for you.

Frequently asked questions

No. With Apple's photo picker, the app gets only the photos you choose, and nothing else.

Yes. Add Borel's cloud, and signed-in people upload photos that everyone in the app sees, like a club's photo wall.

Yes. iOS asks once, with a sentence Borel writes for your app, and the picture lands in the library.

Yes. Ask for both, and people choose between the camera and their library.

Yes. Ask in the chat, for example “let me add a photo to each entry”, and Borel adds Apple's photo picker to the app you have.

Build your app with photo library

Start from the prompt above, change it to fit your idea, and Borel builds it while you watch.