iOS 18 will give the Photos app a new look. Gone are the multiple tabs of the current version of the app for navigating between photo libraries, albums, and search tools. iOS 18 moves everything to a single unified screen, where swiping and scrolling seem to be the order of the day.

Apple says there is a motive behind these changes: both in its WWDC 2024 keynote introducing iOS 18's new features and on the company's own iOS 18 preview page, Apple touts the new design as making it easier to find the photo you are looking for. Or, as Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, said in his keynote, Apple believes the redesign will help photo users "get to the good stuff."

Whether that is true or not will have to wait until more people get a chance to use the iOS 18 beta. (As of this writing, the public beta is a few weeks away.) In the meantime, let's take a closer look at the photos of iOS 18, which Apple is calling the biggest redesign in app history.

Apple's unveiled Photos app occupies a single screen divided into two areas. iOS 17's main view of Photos, the Photo Library, is placed above a group of photos that Apple calls a Collection. (More on collections later.)

To dive into the library, swipe down. You will then see a grid of all the photos in the library, but the toolbar at the bottom of the screen allows you to view the photos by year or month.

Apple also provides buttons to further filter the photo library; according to a demonstration at the WWDC keynote, the filter tool can be used to select the type of image to view, such as photos, videos, or favorites. According to Apple, you can also set up filters to remove things like screenshots.

When you launch Photos, the Photo Library takes up the top half of the screen, but that's not all you can view in that area. iOS 18's Photos has a carousel feature at the top, where you can swipe right from the library to see Featured Photos and Favorites. (A small visual icon appears to indicate that there are photos outside of the Photo Library - a bunch of dots separating the library from the collection below it indicate additional images that can be swiped to view.)

On its preview page, Apple describes the carousel as "a beautiful poster-like view that highlights your best content." This is similar to the "Memories" and "Featured Photos" highlights included in the "For You" tab of the current version of Photos.

According to Apple, the images displayed in the carousel change daily. It is also possible to customize the images that appear in the carousel.

Apple intends for the collection area of the Photos app in iOS 18 to be a useful place to find specific photos or discover old favorites from an album. This is done by listing photos by both time and topic.

The time component includes a "recently taken date" section, where photos taken in the last while are organized. It starts with today's photos, but you can swipe back through the days to find more recent photos. At the top of each day, a slideshow automatically plays highlighting the photos taken.

Just below the Recent Day section is a collection of photos organized by topic. These include sections such as "Travel," "People and Pets," and "Favorite Memories."

A quick look at the "People and Pets" screen in Apple's iOS 18 preview showed a grid of faces using the photo's built-in facial recognition feature.

Collections also has a Pinned Collections section, where you can prepare groups of your favorite photos. And like much of iOS 18, there is a customization feature that allows you to choose which topics appear in the Collections section.

When Apple Intelligence arrives later this year, only iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max users may see it, but "Photos" will benefit greatly. cleanup tool, which can remove unwanted objects from the background of a photo with a simple tap. This is very similar to the Magic Eraser feature on Google Pixel phones with Tensor.

Apple Intelligence also allows the Photos app to create new content; in the WWDC demo, it was a fishing trip - you enter a description of what you want, and Apple Intelligence will select photos and videos that match your description, organize them in chapters, and then create the content. and organize them by chapters, and even add background music. Similarly, if you select a person in the photo library, Image Playground will create a new image featuring that person. Photos of people are also converted by Apple Intelligence into Genmoji, which can then be used in messages.

Finally, Apple Intelligence makes it easy to find images in your photo library by simply describing the specific photo or video you are looking for.

Aside from the Apple Intelligence feature, Apple has not revealed anything about the editing and sharing tools coming to Photos in iOS 18. However, that may be intentional. This version of Photos will likely focus on new ways for apps to organize and display your favorite photos and videos; we'll know more once we get a chance to use Photos in the public beta of iOS 18.

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