Product story · Naming
Why I renamed MetaPhoto to Metadata Engraver: Overlay
The app existed before Facebook became Meta. As the word took on a new everyday association, I chose a name that explains the product more clearly: Metadata Engraver: Overlay.
The app came first
I built a photo utility around a simple idea: make useful details in a photograph visible on the image itself. Capture time, location, camera settings, and other selected information can help a photo make sense when it is shared or revisited later. I originally called the app MetaPhoto. The name joined “meta,” meaning information about the photo, with “photo.” It felt concise and relevant when I chose it.
The app was already out in the world when Facebook announced that its parent company would become Meta. On October 28, 2021, the company introduced the new corporate name. That announcement gave the word “Meta” a much more prominent everyday association than it had when I named my app. The product had not changed, but the context around its name had.
This is the timeline behind the rename: MetaPhoto came first; the company’s name change came later. I did not want people to assume my independent photo app was made by, connected to, or endorsed by Meta. I also wanted a name that would tell a new user what the app actually does.
Why the old name became harder to use
A name is often the first explanation a product gets. “MetaPhoto” suggested a photo app, but it did not tell someone whether it edited pictures, organized a library, offered a social feed, or worked with photo metadata. After 2021, searches and conversations involving “Meta” could also bring the large technology company to mind before my much smaller app.
That shift matters in ordinary places: a search result, a recommendation from a friend, an App Store listing, or a short conversation about what I make. I wanted the name to distinguish the app and reduce the explanation required to understand it. The issue was practical clarity, not ownership of a common word.
The older name still matters as part of the product’s history. People who knew the app as MetaPhoto should be able to find it, understand that it is the same app, and recognize who makes it. That is why this page uses both names and states the relationship directly.
How I chose the replacement
I wanted the new name to describe the central action rather than depend on a broad association. “Metadata” identifies the information the app works with: details recorded alongside a digital photo, such as capture date, time, location, and camera settings. “Engraver” suggests placing selected details onto the image. “Overlay” makes the result more concrete and familiar.
Together, Metadata Engraver: Overlay says more than MetaPhoto did. It points to photo metadata, explains that the app renders information visibly, and gives people useful words to search for. It is a longer name, but its extra words do explanatory work. “Overlay” is part of the App Store name because it helps clarify the format of the result.
The name is not a technical promise that every metadata field is added to, or permanently embedded in, every image file. The app lets people choose details and create a visible overlay. That distinction matters: a visible label on an image and the file’s underlying EXIF metadata are related, but they are not the same thing. For a field-by-field explanation, see what EXIF data actually is.
What changed—and what did not
The product name changed from MetaPhoto to Metadata Engraver: Overlay. The developer is still Josh Wood, and the app remains the photo utility for creating visible metadata overlays on iPhone and iPad. The rename was a way to give the product a clearer, more independent identity as its original name became less useful.
If you are looking for MetaPhoto, you have found the right app. Its current name is Metadata Engraver: Overlay, and its purpose is still to make selected photo details visible on the image. You can find Metadata Engraver: Overlay on the App Store.
The broader lesson for me is that product names live in the world around them. A name can make sense on launch and become less clear as language and public associations change. Revisiting it is part of maintaining a product: keep the history discoverable, explain the transition, and choose words that help the next person understand what they are looking at.
Name change questions
What is MetaPhoto called now?
The app is now called Metadata Engraver: Overlay. It is the same photo metadata overlay app by Josh Wood.
Is Metadata Engraver: Overlay made by Meta?
No. It is an independent app made by Josh Wood. The app was originally named MetaPhoto before Facebook announced the Meta company name in October 2021.
Why did MetaPhoto change its name?
The word Meta became strongly associated with the technology company, while MetaPhoto did not clearly explain the app’s specific purpose. The new name describes its photo metadata overlay function more directly.