What Happened to the Edit Button in the Photos App on IPhone?
iOS 18 brought a radical redesign to the Photos app, and I was a little confused by the change. This morning I wanted to apply some quick edits to some photos and annotate my screenshots, but I noticed that the Edit button in the Photos app was missing. This was a little frustrating until I noticed that the nicely labeled “Edit” button had been moved and replaced with a weird icon that didn’t immediately scream “edit” to me. If you’re facing a similar issue, here’s where the Edit button is in the updated Photos app on your iPhone.
Where is the Edit button in the Photos app in iOS 18?
In the iOS 18 Photos app, the Edit button has been moved to the bottom of the screen, between the i and Trash buttons. To see this button, open any photo in the Photos app and look for the icon that looks like an abacus. It took me a while to find this button, and even longer to associate it with photo editing (I assume it’s meant to represent sliders?). While I understand Apple’s desire to ditch text, I was still used to the iOS 17 version of Photos, which had an Edit button in the top right corner above each photo. It was hard to miss and when you saw the button you knew exactly what it did. Hopefully future updates can bring some clarity back.
The updated Photos app isn’t intuitive.
My problems with the new Photos app go beyond the edit button. Apple has also started putting photos you’ve shared via iMessage into the main Photos feed, which can add a lot of unnecessary clutter. I’m also not a fan of grid being the default view now. In the old Photos app, you placed photos as your default page, allowing you to quickly view favorite memories or slideshows Apple automatically generated, such as those of your cat, dog, or specific contacts. Now those memories and all the photos are combined into one view, making it difficult to find certain types of photos unless you scroll down a bit first.
I really hope someone at Apple gives this design another try and makes the Photos app easier to use again. In its current state in iOS 18, Photos looks nice, but it’s not necessarily an upgrade over the old version.