Apple is finally fixing one of the most annoying design changes it ever made to the Photos app.
Apple announced that iOS 26 will reintroduce a proper menu structure to the Photos app.
The move comes after months of user frustration, social media rants, and likely more than a few strongly worded emails from photo hoarders everywhere.
Break out the champagne — we have won, all of us — because, Apple is finally fixing one of the most annoying design changes it ever made to the Photos app. At its WWDC 2025 keynote on Monday, Apple announced that iOS 26 (yes, we’re skipping all the way to 26 now…don’t ask!) will reintroduce a proper menu structure to the Photos app. And, the announcement was received with claps and cheers, showing how badly it was needed.
The move comes after months of user frustration, social media rants, and likely more than a few strongly worded emails from photo hoarders everywhere. If you were among the millions quietly cursing your iPhone every time you had to scroll endlessly past selfies, screenshots and mysterious pet photos just to get to your albums — well, this update is definitely going to make life easier or at least, bring it back to the normal.
Also read: Apple unveils iPadOS 26, watchOS 26, tvOS 26, and visionOS 26 at WWDC 2025: Here’s what’s new
So, last year with iOS 18, Apple decided to ‘simplify’ the Photos app by giving it a single-scroll design. Now, that pushed your manually created folders to the very bottom and instead started highlighting curated ‘People & Pets’ collections. Apple meant well, but users — especially those with thousands of images — weren’t exactly thrilled about turning their photo library into a digital treasure hunt.
Many around me found this very annoying. Others were vocal on social media. And, seems like Apple has been taking note as well.
“Many of you missed using tabs in the Photos app,” admitted Craig Federighi, Senior Vice President for Software Engineering at Apple during the keynote. As part of the redesign, Photos will now feature two main tabs: Library and Collections. That’s right! Your albums and favorites are once again just a tap away.
Is it a complete return to the old, beloved menu? Not quite. We’re still only getting two main options upfront, and while the search icon has been thoughtfully lowered (thumbs up for thumb ergonomics), we’re not seeing the full menu from the glory days just yet.
But here’s the twist: it’s also been given the shiny new “Liquid Glass” treatment which is Apple’s latest design aesthetic. A big part of that experience is that menus are now expandable, collapsible and delightfully translucent, offering hope that even more functionality is just a tap away even within the Photos app.
So no, we didn’t get everything back. But we got enough to feel vindicated. Sometimes, complaining really does work. iOS 26 drops later this year. Stay tuned as we use and bring more updates on it!
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Manas Tiwari
Manas has spent a decade in media, juggling between Broadcast, Online, Radio and Print journalism. Currently, he leads the Technology coverage across Times Now Tech and Digit for the Times Network. He has previously worked for India Today where he launched Fiiber for the group, Zee Business and Financial Express. He spends his week following the latest tech trends, policy changes and exploring gadgets. On other days, you can find him watching Premier League and Formula 1. View Full Profile
