With iOS 18, Apple overhauled the Photos app, introducing a new, unified design that did away with the navigation bar and merged everything into a single screen. It marked the single biggest change to image management since the launch of the Photos app, and it’s been controversial with some users.
There’s no returning to what the Photos app used to be unless Apple decides to roll back the changes, but there are a few tweaks that can be made to make it easier to get used to the new layout.
First, if you haven’t done so already, scroll down to the bottom of the Photos app and tap on Edit. From there, make sure all your most used Photos features are at the top of the app. In this section, you’ll find Recent Days, Albums, People and Pets, Memories, and Pinned Collections.
Pinned Collections is a little confusing because it’s a second customizable interface that has many of the same options as the main app, but think of it as a folder in a folder. It can be useful to put up top and add your most accessed utilities to, such as screenshots or specific albums.
You can rearrange the sections of your Photos app by dragging and dropping to reorder, plus you can hide any of the collections. If you don’t want to see Featured Photos, Wallpaper Suggestions, or Trips, for example, you can uncheck those so they won’t be listed in the app. If you don’t like that redundant Pinned Collections section, you can hide that too.
If you haven’t spent a lot of time fussing with the Photos app, you might not know about the filters. In the full Library view, which you get to by swiping down, tapping on the arrows will show you the filters option. You can filter for photos, videos, edited images, screenshots, and favorites, or sort by recently added or date captured. There are also options to weed out screenshots and Shared With You images from your main photo library.
The new Photos app isn’t all bad. Search has improved quite a bit, and you can search for really specific parameters like “plants in Florida” or “Eric in a blue shirt.”
What do you think of the iOS 18 Photos app? Are you getting used to it? Let us know in the comments below.
