How Apple Fixed the Photos App in IOS 26
The Photos app has gotten a lot of attention from Apple lately. Most notably, it received a polarizing redesign in last year’s iOS 18 that made the Edit button harder to find . The app was still usable, but you really had to customize the Photos app to get the most out of it. Even then, the bottom tab bar was removed and replaced with a single view, and I still haven’t gotten used to that change. With iOS 26, Apple tried to course-correct a bit, and it made Photos the best app for most people I showed it to. Here are all the new features in the iOS 26 Photos app on your iPhone.
The bottom tab bar is back (sort of)
Two years ago, when iOS 17 was getting its start, Photos had a simple bottom tab bar with four buttons: Library, For You, Albums, and Search. Apple removed this entirely in iOS 18, but decided to bring some of it back in iOS 26. You can now see three buttons at the bottom of the screen in Photos: Library, Collections, and Search. It’s another example of UI design that prioritizes one-handed use on larger phones , and I’m glad to see it.
With these buttons, I can easily switch from my photo library to my favorite albums and even search for photos much faster.
Transform your photos into spatial scenes
Borrowing a feature from visionOS, Apple now lets you transform any iPhone photo into a spatial scene. This adds depth to your photo, and you’ll be able to see the difference when you pan around. The effect is much more natural and pronounced when you’re viewing photos on Apple’s Vision Pro, but it’s obvious even on your iPhone. Open any photo in the Photos app and tap the small hexagon icon in the top-right corner. This will transform the image into a spatial scene. I only really notice this effect when I set spatial scene photos as my lock screen wallpaper. You can do this by tapping the Share button on any photo, setting it as your wallpaper, and tapping the Spatial Scene (Hexagon) button on the wallpaper preview page. As you move your phone, the preview will show the wallpaper moving.
Filters to help you focus on the image you want
The Library tab in the Photos app in iOS 26 has a button with three dots at the top. Tap it and you’ll see a bunch of useful search filters to help you find the photos you’re looking for. I have thousands of photos in my library, and it’s become a chore to wade through them all when I’m looking for something specific, since the Library view defaults to photos, videos, and screenshots. As a tech journalist, I’m guilty of taking more screenshots than most people, which also means that quickly scrolling through my library rarely helps me find the photos I’m looking for.
With the new search filters, I can simply tap the View Options button under the three-dot menu, then hide screenshots and photos that other people have shared with me. This reduces the number of photos I see to a much more manageable number. I then recommend tapping the Filter button and using the available filters to narrow it down even further. In iOS 26, the photo search filters are All Items, Favorites, Edited, Photos, Videos, and Not in Album. You can select one or more of these to quickly find what you’re looking for when searching in the Library tab.
Improved Collections tab layout
You can also use the Collections tab to quickly rearrange your photos to your liking. Tap the three-dot button at the top, then tap one of the three layout icons to change the layout. I like the compact view (the middle icon) best, but you can also choose larger thumbnails or a mix of large and small thumbnails. You can also scroll to the bottom of the page and tap Reorder to rearrange that page to your liking, but that feature was in iOS 18, too.
The Photos app isn’t alone in these improvements. While the Photos app has received some much-needed UI tweaks, the Camera app has also received many significant improvements in iOS 26 .