Immich

Immich is a self-hosted photo and video management platform focused on automatic backup from mobile devices and fast, modern browsing. It provides a Google Photos–like experience with timeline views, albums, sharing, and machine-learning features for search and organization.

Key Features

• Automatic photo/video backup from Android and iOS apps
• Web app for browsing by timeline, albums, and metadata
• On-device/server-side machine learning features such as face recognition and semantic/object search (via embeddings)
• Duplicate detection and media organization tools
• Sharing features for albums and individual assets
• Map/location browsing and EXIF/metadata viewing
• Background jobs for indexing, thumbnail generation, and ML processing
• Storage options including local filesystem and S3-compatible object storage

Use Cases

• Replace Google Photos/iCloud Photos for a household with private backups
• Centralize media from multiple phones/cameras into a searchable library
• Create shared family albums with controlled access

Limitations and Considerations

• Feature set and migrations can change quickly across releases; upgrades should follow release notes carefully
• Machine-learning features require additional compute and background processing, especially for large libraries

Immich is best suited for individuals or families who want a modern, fast photo experience while keeping their media under their own control. With strong mobile backup and ML-powered discovery, it works well as a primary personal photo library when deployed and maintained carefully.