Note: The steps below focus on iOS 18 and its later point updates. Menu names can vary slightly depending on your iPhone model, region, and software version, but the core customization tools remain centered around Collections, Pinned Collections, sorting, filtering, and layout controls.
Introduction: The Photos App Got a MakeoverWhether We Were Ready or Not
Apple’s Photos app in iOS 18 did not simply get a fresh coat of paint. It got the full home-renovation treatment: walls moved, rooms renamed, furniture rearranged, and your favorite “Albums” corner suddenly felt like it had been relocated behind a decorative plant. If you opened Photos after updating and thought, “Where did everything go?” you were not alone.
The iOS 18 Photos redesign was one of the biggest changes Apple made to the iPhone experience. Instead of the older tab-based layout that separated Library, For You, Albums, and Search, the app shifted toward a more unified browsing experience built around your main photo grid and automatically organized collections. Apple’s idea was simple: make your photo library easier to explore without forcing you to manually organize every screenshot, vacation photo, pet portrait, receipt, and accidental pocket picture.
The good news? You can customize much of the new Photos app so it feels less like a digital junk drawer and more like a personal gallery. The even better news? You do not need to be an iPhone wizard. You just need to know where Apple hid the customization buttonsbecause naturally, the most important one is waiting near the bottom like a shy intern at a staff meeting.
What Changed in the iOS 18 Photos App?
The biggest change in iOS 18 is the way Photos organizes your library. Instead of relying mainly on tabs, the app highlights sections such as Recent Days, People & Pets, Trips, Memories, Albums, Media Types, Utilities, and Pinned Collections. These collections use on-device intelligence to group photos and videos by time, subject, location, people, and media type.
For example, instead of digging through thousands of images to find your beach vacation, you may see a Trips collection. Instead of scrolling forever to find screenshots, you can jump into Media Types. Instead of hunting for your Favorites album like it joined witness protection, you can place it in Pinned Collections for quick access.
That is the heart of customizing the iOS 18 Photos app: deciding what deserves prime real estate and what should be politely removed from view.
Start With the Main Customization Menu
The most important control in the iOS 18 Photos app is the Customize & Reorder option. This lets you decide which sections appear and where they show up.
How to Find Customize & Reorder
- Open the Photos app on your iPhone.
- Go to the main Photos screen.
- Scroll all the way to the bottom.
- Tap Customize & Reorder or Reorder, depending on your iOS version.
- Drag sections into a new order or uncheck sections you do not want to see.
- Tap Done when finished.
This is where the app finally starts behaving like it belongs to you. If you never use Wallpaper Suggestions, move it down or hide it. If Albums are your comfort zone, move Albums higher. If Pinned Collections are the only thing keeping your sanity intact, place them near the top.
Customize Pinned Collections for Faster Access
Pinned Collections are one of the most useful features in the revamped Photos app. Think of them as shortcuts for the photo categories, albums, and tools you open most often. By default, Apple may include items such as Favorites, Recently Saved, Map, Videos, and Screenshots. But you can change that lineup.
How to Edit Pinned Collections
- Open Photos.
- Go to Collections or scroll to the Pinned Collections section.
- Tap Pinned or tap Edit near the Pinned area.
- Add collections, remove ones you do not use, or reorder them.
- Choose Any Collection or Album if you want to pin a custom album.
This is especially helpful if you have albums you use constantly. Maybe you have an album for work receipts, social media images, recipes, home renovation ideas, client screenshots, or every photo of your dog looking emotionally complicated. Pin it. Life is short. Scrolling is long.
Best Items to Pin
- Favorites: Great for your best photos and videos.
- Recently Saved: Helpful if you download images, memes, tickets, or documents often.
- Screenshots: Essential for anyone whose camera roll is 40% “I’ll need this later.”
- Videos: Useful if you shoot clips frequently.
- Receipts: Handy for budgeting, returns, and business expenses.
- Custom albums: Perfect for work, travel, family, pets, projects, or content planning.
Reorder Collections Based on How You Actually Use Photos
The default order is Apple’s best guess. Your custom order should reflect your real habits. If you mostly use Photos to find screenshots and recent downloads, put those near the top. If you use it for family albums, move People & Pets and Albums higher. If you travel often, Trips may deserve a better seat.
A practical layout might look like this:
- Pinned Collections
- Recent Days
- Albums
- People & Pets
- Media Types
- Utilities
- Trips
- Memories
This order works well because it puts daily-use tools first and discovery features later. In other words, it respects the difference between “I need that screenshot now” and “Let’s emotionally revisit 2018 at 11:47 p.m.”
Hide Sections You Do Not Use
One of the fastest ways to make the Photos app feel cleaner is to hide unnecessary sections. The iOS 18 Photos app can feel busy because it tries to surface many types of memories, albums, suggestions, and media groups at once. That is useful for some people and visual confetti for others.
Inside Customize & Reorder, remove sections that do not help you. For example, you may want to hide:
- Wallpaper Suggestions
- Featured Photos
- Trips
- Memories
- Shared Albums, if you rarely use them
You are not deleting your photos by hiding a section. You are simply removing that section from the main view. Your library remains intact, safe, and still full of screenshots you promised yourself you would organize someday.
Use Sort and Filter to Control the Photo Grid
Customization is not only about collections. The photo grid itself can also be adjusted. The Sort and Filter button helps you control how your library appears. Depending on your iOS version, you may be able to sort by recently added or date captured, filter what appears, and adjust view options.
When to Sort by Recently Added
Use Recently Added if you often save images from Messages, Safari, Mail, AirDrop, or social apps. This makes your newest saved items easier to find, even if the original photo was taken months or years ago.
For example, if someone sends you an old vacation picture today, sorting by date captured may bury it in the year it was taken. Sorting by recently added helps you find what entered your library most recently.
When to Sort by Date Captured
Use Date Captured if you think chronologically. This is better for browsing life events, vacations, birthdays, concerts, and family milestones. It keeps photos organized by when they happened, not when they landed on your phone.
Adjust View Options for a Cleaner Library
The Photos app also includes view options that can make your library easier on the eyes. Pinch to zoom in or out on the photo grid, or use available view controls to change what appears. A tighter grid is useful when scanning many images. A larger grid is better when you want to identify details without opening every photo like you are conducting a tiny investigation.
If screenshots clutter your library, use filters or Media Types to separate them. Screenshots are useful, but they have a special talent for making a beautiful camera roll look like a filing cabinet had a panic attack.
Make Albums Easier to Reach
If you loved the old Albums tab, the iOS 18 redesign may feel inconvenient at first. The fix is simple: bring Albums closer to the top of your layout and add important albums to Pinned Collections.
For example, if you run a small business, you might create and pin albums like:
- Product Photos
- Customer Reviews
- Receipts
- Website Images
- Social Media Posts
If you use Photos mostly for personal memories, you might pin:
- Family
- Pets
- Travel
- Home Projects
- Favorite Videos
The goal is to reduce the number of taps between you and the photos you actually need.
Use Media Types Like a Shortcut Menu
Media Types is one of the most underrated parts of the iPhone Photos app. It automatically groups content such as Videos, Selfies, Live Photos, Portraits, Screenshots, Screen Recordings, Panoramas, and more. If you frequently search for a specific format, move Media Types higher or pin the exact media type you use most.
This is especially useful for creators. Need to find a vertical video for TikTok or Instagram Reels? Go to Videos. Looking for a screen recording of an app bug? Open Screen Recordings. Trying to find the one selfie where your hair cooperated with civilization? Selfies is waiting.
Do Not Ignore Utilities
Utilities is where the practical tools live. Depending on your library and iOS version, you may see options such as Hidden, Recently Deleted, Duplicates, Imports, Receipts, Documents, and Handwriting. This section is not glamorous, but it is extremely useful.
Move Utilities higher if you regularly clean your library, recover deleted images, manage duplicate photos, or search for document-like images. It is also where you may access Hidden and Recently Deleted albums, which are protected by Face ID, Touch ID, or passcode by default on modern iOS versions.
Improve Search Instead of Scrolling Forever
The iOS 18 Photos app is designed to make search more powerful. Instead of only searching dates or places, try natural phrases and combinations. You can search for people, locations, objects, text in images, events, and media types.
Helpful Search Examples
- “beach sunset”
- “dog snow”
- “receipt coffee”
- “John birthday”
- “screenshots May 2025”
- “red car video”
If you name people and pets in Photos, search becomes even more useful. The app can group familiar faces and help you find images faster. It is not perfectsometimes it may confuse similar faces or identify a decorative pillow as a pet with dreamsbut it is often faster than manual scrolling.
Customize for Privacy
Customizing the Photos app is not only about convenience. It is also about privacy. If you hand your phone to someone to show one photo, you probably do not want them wandering into every album, screenshot, and “why did I save this?” moment.
Start by reviewing your Hidden album, Recently Deleted album, and app-level privacy settings. You can also go to Settings, then Apps, then Photos to review related options. If Enhanced Visual Search is available on your device, review whether you want it enabled. Privacy preferences are personal, and Photos is one of the most personal apps on any iPhone.
Use Apple Intelligence Features If Your iPhone Supports Them
Some iOS 18 Photos features depend on Apple Intelligence and device compatibility. On supported iPhones, tools like Clean Up can remove distractions from images, and memory creation can become more flexible. These features are useful, but they should be treated as enhancements rather than the foundation of your organization system.
In other words, do not wait for artificial intelligence to rescue your photo library from chaos. Pin your favorite albums. Hide what you do not use. Reorder the app. Then let the smart features add polish.
Best Setup for Most iPhone Users
If you want a simple, low-stress setup, try this configuration:
- Move Pinned Collections near the top.
- Pin Favorites, Recently Saved, Screenshots, Videos, and your most-used custom album.
- Move Albums higher if you use manual organization.
- Keep Media Types visible for quick format-based browsing.
- Keep Utilities visible for Hidden, Recently Deleted, Duplicates, and Documents.
- Hide sections that feel distracting, such as Wallpaper Suggestions or Featured Photos.
This setup gives you a cleaner Photos app without removing the useful parts of Apple’s redesign.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Hiding Too Much
If you hide nearly every collection, you may accidentally make Photos harder to navigate. Keep at least Albums, Media Types, Utilities, and Pinned Collections visible.
Forgetting to Pin Custom Albums
Many people customize the main layout but forget that Pinned Collections can include custom albums. This is the secret sauce. Use it.
Using Search Too Literally
Search works best when you try different terms. If “car” does not work, try “vehicle,” “parking,” the location, or the person who was with you.
Assuming the Old Layout Is Coming Back in iOS 18
iOS 18 does not fully restore the old Photos app layout. The better strategy is to customize the new design until it feels familiar enough to stop annoying you before coffee.
Extra Experience: What It Actually Feels Like to Customize the iOS 18 Photos App
Customizing the iOS 18 Photos app feels a little strange at first because Apple changed the mental map. For years, many iPhone users knew exactly where to tap: Library for everything, Albums for organized folders, Search when desperation arrived, and For You when they felt emotionally prepared for a surprise memory slideshow. iOS 18 asks users to think differently. Instead of tabs, it encourages browsing by collections and shortcuts.
My first recommendation is to spend ten quiet minutes in the app without trying to find anything urgent. Do not attempt this while standing at an airport gate trying to pull up a passport screenshot. That is how villains are made. Open Photos when you are calm, scroll through the sections, and notice which ones feel useful. The goal is not to accept Apple’s default layout. The goal is to build your own.
For everyday use, Pinned Collections makes the biggest difference. After adding Favorites, Recently Saved, Screenshots, Videos, and one or two personal albums, the app starts feeling less chaotic. Recently Saved is especially helpful because modern life involves saving images from everywhere: receipts from email, QR codes from websites, memes from group chats, travel confirmations, parking locations, and screenshots of things you swear you will remember but absolutely will not.
Moving Albums higher also helps people who already have a strong album system. If you have years of organized albums, do not abandon them just because the redesign promotes collections. Bring Albums closer to the top and pin your most-used albums. That way, you get the benefit of the new layout without losing your existing organization.
Another practical experience is learning when not to scroll. The new Photos app can tempt you into endless vertical browsing, especially because it surfaces attractive memories and themed sections. But if you need something specific, search is usually faster. Searching “receipt,” “passport,” “beach,” “wedding,” “dog,” or a person’s name can save a lot of time. Combine search with Media Types and your library becomes much easier to control.
The biggest emotional adjustment is accepting that the Photos app is now more customizable, but also more demanding. The old design made decisions for you. The iOS 18 design gives you more control, but you have to take five or ten minutes to set it up. Once you do, it becomes far more usable. It may never feel exactly like the old Photos app, but it can feel organized, personal, and fast. And honestly, any app that helps you find a screenshot before the cashier starts silently judging you deserves at least a little appreciation.
Conclusion
The revamped iOS 18 Photos app can feel overwhelming at first, but it becomes much better once you customize it. The key is to stop treating Apple’s default layout as permanent. Reorder your collections, hide sections you do not use, pin your favorite albums, adjust sorting, and use Media Types and Utilities as shortcuts. With the right setup, the Photos app becomes less cluttered, more personal, and much faster to navigate.
Whether you use your iPhone library for family memories, work documents, creative projects, travel photos, or a heroic number of screenshots, customization helps the app match your real habits. The redesign may have arrived with a learning curve, but once you make it yours, iOS 18 Photos can become a cleaner and smarter place to manage your visual life.
