iOS 9 to have special photo albums for screenshots and selfies

Instead of just clogging up your photo stream, they'll be stored away for easy access, sharing and deleting

Craig Federighi, Apple senior vice president of Software Engineering, speaks about iOS 9 during Apple WWDC on June 8, 2015 in San Francisco, California (Getty Images)

iOS 9 will have a special new place for storing selfies and screenshots.

Gone, it seems, are the days of your photo library being full of accidental screenshots and embarrassing selfies. Now, the phone will automatically detect pictures that fall into one of those two groups – filing them away in their own folder for easy sharing or deleting.

iPhones already store some kinds of photo away in their own folder – time-lapse, slo-mo, burst photos and videos all get their own album.

It seems that the phone decides what a screenshot or a selfie based on how they have been taken, rather than by using any special image recognition technology. Google Photos can also recognise screenshots, selfies and other kinds of pictures – but it does so by using complicated computer programs that recognise the content of the images, and so has to be turned off in Europe.

The new feature was found in the latest release of the iOS 9 beta, which was just sent out to developers. It also brings the Apple News app, lets people choose to stream at a higher quality in Apple Music and turns off the beep that Siri makes when phones are in silent mode.

A public beta of iOS is expected to be released soon, letting anyone that signs up get their hands on the software. iOS 9 is set to be released in September, alongside the next iPhone, which is rumoured to have a front-facing flash to let people take selfies in the dark.