Apple’s Photos app got a primary overhaul in iOS 18 and all the tweaks were well done. Fortunately, Apple listened to the feedback and made five key adjustments to Photos in iOS 18. 2.
A debatable update to videos in iOS 18 is that, first, they would play with borders and would have to be tapped to appear full screen.
Now in iOS 18. 2, videos appear full screen by default. No need to touch or apply strange zoom in and out effects.
You can still tap to hide interface elements for a clearer view, but it’s much closer to how videos worked before iOS 18.
Not a fan of automatically looping your videos? Apple now gives you a choice.
Inside Settings ⇾ Photos there’s a new toggle: Loop Videos.
It’s still enabled by default, but if you hate the looping behavior, a quick flick of the transfer will replace it.
When browsing the other collections presented through the Photos app in iOS 18, you previously had to tap the Back button in the upper-left corner to return. This was especially painful on larger iPhones.
In iOS 18.2, a swipe gesture has been added for navigating out of a Collection view. This works just like in every other Apple app, where you swipe right from the left side of the screen to go back to your previous view.
Sometimes you need to get very accurate videos, and that is now possible in iOS 18. 2.
Support for frame-by-frame scrubbing has been added, accompanied by a new millisecond reading for the timestamp as you scrub.
The number of utilities in the Photos app has become long in iOS 18 and there are some features you don’t know about:
These two albums provide the recent history of their activity. They allow you to temporarily view what you’ve recently viewed, as well as pieces you’ve shared with others.
I’m really glad they added the looping video, but yeah, that’s been a scenario. Okay, it’s fixed.
In iOS 18. 2, for the first time, you can clear the history of those two albums.
To delete an individual item, you can long press it and remove it from the context menu. Or there is also a “Delete All” option in the three-dot album menu in the most sensitive right corner.
iOS 18 is a basic overhaul of one of Apple’s most popular apps, so it’s no surprise that users have had trouble adjusting to some of the changes. It’s smart to see Apple responding to user feedback and implementing quality of life updates in iOS 18. 2 that make Photos work better than before.
What do you think of the settings in Photos? Let us know in the comments.
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Ryan started in journalism as an editor at MacStories, where he worked for 4 years covering Apple news, writing app reviews, and more. For two years he co-hosted the Adapt podcast on Relay FM, aimed exclusively at the iPad. As a result, it’s no surprise that your favorite Apple device is the iPad Pro.