What's the little clock that comes up on the bottom right of my photos on my phone?

I experienced this too:

when flicking through photos I’ve noticed the pie chart timer appear, bottom right, and wonderd what might not happen if you don’t wait for it to complete?

currently uploading 4,000 photos to / from icloud so a bit curious.

c

The badges are defined in Photos Help

Photos can display the title you assign to photos in the Info window, metadata (other information about each photo, such as its file type), and badges that identify whether the photo has been edited, had keywords added, and more.

Set Photos to display titles, metadata, or badges: Choose View > Metadata > [Metadata name].

Badge	Meaning
	Photo has been edited.
	Photo has had keywords applied.
	Photo’s location has been identified on a map.
	Photo has been marked as a favorite.
	Item is a video clip.
	Item is a slo-mo clip.
	Item is a time-lapse clip.
	Original photo is stored in another location (not in the Photos library on your Mac).
	Original photo was taken as a High Dynamic Range (HDR) photo that combines three photos taken at different exposures.

LN

I meant this little clock-like badge. It indicates, that an item is currently being downloaded.

Is it a circle like a pie chart? That is indicating, that the original image file needs to be downloaded from iCloud, so you can edit it.

Are you sure, the badges in Photos on the iPhone are the same, Larry?

Apple forgot to add a similar help page for Photos iOS.