Hmm, I can confirm that Signal does work the way you describe.
It looks like there is a separate API for "Private Access to Photos" that is less common than the UX I describe (WhatsApp, Reddit, Twitter, Discord).
Maybe one thing we can agree on is that if apps have to opt-in to the API that's better for users, then we can also blame Apple.
Seems you can just `get` the result?
Not sure what I’m missing that means so many apps don’t do this, vastly better UX.
https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-iOS/blob/0151cfdee27cb03...
You’re right! They’re all using the same API, there’s no other better “opt-in” API. Some developers just want to make the UX worse for their own nefarious purposes. Nothing to do with Apple.