With the release of iOS 18, Apple has completely redesigned the Photos app. It introduces a more unified and simplified approach to managing and organizing our image collections more efficiently. The main Library view now consolidates all sections into a single interface, making navigation easier. And the best part? We can fully customize the Photos app by rearranging, enabling, and disabling each of the sections.
A Photos app tailored to our preferences and tastes where we can find information easily and quickly. Let’s delve into one of the most interesting new features of iOS 18. Let's see how to customize the Photos app.
What are Collections in iOS 18?
Before learning how to reorder or disable them, let’s discuss what the collections are. Collections in the iOS 18 Photos app refer to any grouping of photos that isn't part of the main image grid.
These Collections allow us to view and organize our photos in different ways, from automatic filters by media types to automatic albums created by artificial intelligence. Here are all the collections we have available:
- Recent Days: A chronological view of our latest photos, similar to the "Days" view in iOS 17. It allows us to navigate through the library sorted by date.
- Albums: Here we find all the albums we've created manually, plus those we share with others.
- People and Pets: Using Apple Intelligence, this section groups photos of people and animals that frequently appear in our gallery. With the new "Groups" feature, iOS automatically creates albums of the people we interact with the most, although we can also do it manually.
- Memories: Automatic videos of special occasions generated by the Photos app from our photos and videos.
- Travels: This collection organizes our photos according to the places we have visited, creating groupings based on our travels, viewed by year.
- Shared Albums: All our collaborative albums, which we can share with others.
- Pinned Collections: Allows us quick access to our most important albums or collections, simply by pinning them at the top of the list.
- Featured Photos: Displays a selection of our best photos. It updates regularly.
- Media Types: Here we can filter our photos by capture mode (e.g., Live Photos, Portrait, Panoramas) or file type (screenshots, RAW, etc.).
- Utilities: Includes smart filters for practical image types, like photos of handwritten notes, photos with QR codes, or receipts.
- Wallpaper Suggestions: An interesting section where artificial intelligence selects photos optimized for use as wallpaper.
How to customize and reorder collections in iOS 18
Having seen the collections available to us, let’s see how to customize and reorder them. The steps are extremely simple, and with them, we can have our Photos app exactly to our liking. We’ll do it like this:
- Open the Photos app on our iPhone.
- Scroll down to the bottom of the main view.
- Tap the "Customize and Reorder" option found at the bottom of the screen.
- In the customization menu, we'll see a list of all the available Collections. We uncheck those we do not want to see in the main view.
- To reorder the Collections, we hold down the three bars next to each collection and drag them up or down to change their position.
- Once we've finished adjusting the Collections, we tap the "X" in the top right corner to save our preferences and return to the main Library view.
It’s worth highlighting the pinned collection of collections. Once positioned where we want, we can modify it at will. We just need to tap the Modify button to choose which sections we want to pin and in what position.
If at any moment we feel that the changes are too extensive and we want to revert, all we have to do is follow the steps up to the third point and then tap Reset at the top right to retrieve the customized option.
The new Photos app in iOS 18 has done much more than improve its design. Thanks to the complete customization it offers, we can decide exactly how we want to access our photos. Whatever our preference, the Photos app adapts to it.
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