Phone culling is best treated as portable triage. It can turn waiting time into a quick pick/reject pass, but the small display makes it a poor place for final focus, colour, or recovery decisions. Selekt’s mobile companion is in early development and not publicly available yet. Confirm device support and the desktop handoff before planning a production workflow around it.
Move photos without risking the originals
On supported iPhones and iPads, Apple documents importing from a camera or SD card through a compatible adapter. Android support depends on the phone, storage format, reader, and app. For either platform, keep the memory card and a separate backup until the mobile import and desktop handoff are verified. Cloud sync is convenient but can consume storage, bandwidth, and time; use a small trial collection before syncing a full event.
Current options
Lightroom on mobile runs on iOS and Android and supports star ratings plus Pick and Reject flags. Cross-device sync requires the appropriate Adobe membership; Lightroom Classic has specific catalogue and sync-direction limits, so confirm the exact workflow you use.
Apple Photos or Google Photos can make a lightweight personal shortlist with favourites or albums. They are useful for broad sorting but do not automatically reproduce a professional editor handoff.
Selekt should be evaluated for its current desktop workflow only. Its free plan includes unlimited local culling; optional cloud-analysis allowances are separate.
A defensible mobile first pass
Work in short batches. Reject only unmistakable failures and use an uncertain state for anything that needs zoom, comparison, or RAW latitude. Preserve required client coverage even when a frame is technically imperfect. Then review the survivors on the desktop, inspect critical focus at an appropriate zoom, and confirm every required person or moment before deleting anything.
Test the handoff
Use 50 to 100 representative images, including RAW+JPEG pairs and a burst. Rate them on the phone, work briefly offline, reconnect, and confirm that the same decisions appear in the desktop application. Check duplicates, filenames, metadata, and which originals are downloaded. Vendor performance depends on the network and library, so measure it rather than relying on universal time-saving claims.
