This should be a #1 priority.

the photos folder should be like any folder

Very important feature for someone who wants to categorise, filter, sort, group, etc. their photos with an app on the pc, like digiKam. One thing to take into account in this, is the sync/backup semantics. What happens if I change some attributes of a picture (e.g. marking it as a favorite) on the phone after the backup/sync of these photos, changes will probably not pe propagated to the desktop; and what happens if I change some attibutes on the desktop. They won`t propagate back to the phone. I would prefer a sync of the photos between the cloud and the phone and the cloud and the desktop. Of course, this then is not a backup, so backup functionality should be realized by saving versions of the pictures with the possibility of going back in time for the whole foto repository. Of Course, then some other questions arise, e.g. how would I delete photos from the phone, e.g. to save space, without deleting them from the repository (the cloud and the desktop). It's not trivial at all. For now I would be happy with the possibiltiy of a sync of the fotos between proton cloud and desktop in both directions. Some clear statements would be necessary, whicht changes are propagated to which side and how this would influence the backup from the phone to the cloud (I miss these statements, or I at least haven't found them, about the current backup mechanism for the fotos backup anyway)

I was extremely surprized that I can not move my photos that were synced from android to an existing folder in Proton Drive. So basically when you take photos you usually want to sort them and it is not possible...

and syncing with mac OS desktop photos app library, too

I would die to understand why they made this design choice. It's impossible to find photos in the ****** web UI photo viewer. That thing only works if you have very little photos, which is not the case for anybody in the year 2024.

PLEASE make the photos available as files in a folder for Desktop clients. Maybe take a look at OneDrive to get a feel for the baseline level of quality.

Having a local desktop folder which syncs all the photos on Proton Drive (just like the other Drive files) would give me a reassuring feeling when the photos are backed up on two places.

This would be a game changer for storing my photos on mobile

Emailed them about it already, this was the response

"2) It would be nice if there is a dedicated folder on the windows sync to directly view photos, or some other integration so that you can view them locally without having to use the webapp

Kindly note that at the moment, the Photos section is not available on the Proton Drive desktop apps, however, this was already requested from our developers and we will add your vote towards this request."

Adding my vote for this.

Deal breaker

I would really like a way to get my photos synced to my computer because at the moment the files are getting uploaded at full resolution with no option for compression. This consumes a significant amount of drive space. If i can sync the photos to my computer I can choose if i want to compress them or leave them at full resolution.

Would love the ability to automatically upload from certain folders. For example, if I take a screenshot in Firefox and it saves to downloads, proton photos auto uploads that and I can show someone on my phone if I'm away from my computer.

And if possible, sync the date modified to the date that the images were taken, rather than the date of the sync.

This would be greatly appreciated. I think it could simply appear as another folder in the Proton Drive root folder which currently only has the "My Files" folder. That way you could also easily add photos from your computer by dragging them in. Although, I'm sure many people would rather choose the Photos folder location themselves.