4 Essential Tips to Enhance Your iOS 18 Photos App Experience

I have some reservations about the redesign of the Photos app in iOS 18. However, since downgrading to iOS 17 isn’t a viable option, I’ve worked on adjusting the settings to enhance my experience. This guide shares tips I’ve implemented to optimize my Photos app, allowing you to do the same on your device.

1. Audit Your Current Albums in the Photos App

Prior to upgrading to iOS 18, I hadn’t looked at my Photos app albums since 2020, which was long overdue. I deleted almost every album that had become irrelevant. Currently, my albums consist of memorable past trips and collections of photos imported from Lightroom.

The first step in auditing your albums is to scroll down and tap the Albums tab.

Some of my albums were empty, as I had previously deleted the photos from my phone, and these were the first ones I removed. Simply tap the album cover, then select Delete Album.

Confirm your action by selecting Delete Album again.

Repeat this process for all albums with photos you want to remove.

2. Edit Your Pinned Collections

Pinned Collections are beneficial for quick access to the folders and features of the new Photos app that you utilize frequently. For instance, I prefer having quick access to my Favorites and the Map tools. After updating to iOS 18, I customized my Pinned Collections by tapping Modify.

The subsequent page displays all items you can pin. To minimize clutter, I retained only Favorites, Map, and Imports. The Imports section is particularly helpful for sharing my professional photos on platforms like Instagram (while also enhancing your iPhone photos with better composition and lighting).

Click the X button after customizing to apply your changes.

3. Remove Duplicate Photos

In addition to decluttering my albums, the new design of the iOS 18 Photos app was an excellent opportunity to organize my (quite messy) camera roll. It’s not uncommon for me to save the same picture more than once, and now was the perfect time to eliminate any duplicates on my iPhone.

Scroll down to Utilities and select the Duplicates tab.

Although I didn’t have many duplicates, removing them still helped tidy up my camera roll (and clarify my mind). To proceed, tap Select, and choose one of each duplicate to delete, then tap the Trash icon located in the bottom-right corner.

Confirm your deletion by selecting Delete [Number] Photos.

4. Personalize Your Home Screen

Initially, I found it frustrating to locate my desired features on the Photos app home screen. Thankfully, I discovered how to customize the display.

Start by tapping Customize & Reorder at the bottom of the screen.

Deselect nearly all options, retaining only the functions I utilize frequently. Additionally, I rearranged them according to their importance.

Once you’ve finalized your customizations, hit the X icon to apply your changes.

After organizing everything, I felt much more content (and less overwhelmed) with my Photos app’s layout; you can view the final result below.

Although it’s still early days, I may even come to appreciate the new design more than the previous version of the Photos app before iOS 18.

At the very least, getting used to the Photos app’s redesign will take some time. Nonetheless, I strongly recommend customizing it to suit your needs. Determine what changes you wish to make, then follow the steps outlined above to streamline the new layout. You might also be interested in exploring additional iOS 18 features, such as Distraction Control.

Image credit: Canva. All screenshots by Danny Maiorca.

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