{"id":143390,"date":"2025-08-13T21:34:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T21:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/143390\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T21:34:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T21:34:13","slug":"heres-everything-new-for-apples-photos-app-in-ios-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/143390\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s everything new for Apple\u2019s Photos app in iOS 26"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t<img width=\"1600\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/apple-Photos-app-ios-26.jpg\" class=\"skip-lazy wp-post-image\" alt=\"Apple\u2019s Photos app iOS 26\"  decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Apple\u2019s Photos app received a <a href=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/2024\/07\/22\/ios-18-photos-hands-on-get-ready-for-major-changes\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">major overhaul last year<\/a>, and iOS 26 brings a handful of new changes. Here\u2019s everything new coming to the Photos app in iOS 26.<\/p>\n<p>New Liquid Glass design<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2384\" height=\"1332\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/wwdc-2025-13.12.50.jpg\" alt=\"Designers speak out about Apple's Liquid Glass design language\" class=\"wp-image-1004611\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>One of the biggest changes impacting all Apple apps this year is iOS 26\u2019s new \u2018Liquid Glass\u2019 design.<\/p>\n<p>In the Photos app specifically, you\u2019ll see Liquid Glass UI elements everywhere from the buttons and navigation tabs to popup menus and more.<\/p>\n<p>Since your photos and videos remain the visual focus of the app, Photos\u2019 use of Liquid Glass isn\u2019t as extensive as some other apps\u2014but it\u2019s nonetheless a nice refresh that\u2019s hard to miss.<\/p>\n<p>Tab bar navigation returns<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/apple-photos-tab-bar-ios-26.jpg\" alt=\"Apple Photos app iOS 26 tab bar\" class=\"wp-image-1005306\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Last year when Apple overhauled the Photos app in iOS 18, the single biggest change involved navigation. Gone was the tried-and-true tab bar. Instead, Apple went with a single-screen UI.<\/p>\n<p>After facing plenty of unhappy feedback from users, Apple has <a href=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/2025\/06\/09\/ios-26s-photos-app-re-adds-the-tab-bar-a-major-design-reversal\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">brought tab bar navigation back<\/a> to Photos in iOS 26.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not a full reversal to the exact setup pre-iOS 18, but Photos navigation now is much closer to what it was before with three tabs:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Library<\/li>\n<li>Collections<\/li>\n<li>Search<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Library works similarly to older versions of the app, while Collections pulls together all of the new, customizable sections introduced in iOS 18.<\/p>\n<p>Spatialize photos<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2384\" height=\"1332\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/wwdc-2025-13.16.00.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1004644\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>One of the standout features of visionOS 2 last year was the ability to <a href=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/2024\/09\/16\/visionos-2-now-available-for-apple-vision-pro-heres-whats-new\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cspatialize\u201d your photos<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Now, iOS 26 brings that capability to the iPhone via the Photos app.<\/p>\n<p>When viewing a photo, there\u2019s a new button in the top-right corner that lets you view a \u2018Spatial Scene\u2019 version of the image. Essentially, it gives your photo depth so you can pan around to see different dimensions.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a fun trick inside the Photos app, but where this feature shines most is in using Spatial Scenes as <a href=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/2025\/06\/10\/psa-spatial-scenes-will-work-on-any-iphone-running-ios-26\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">your Lock Screen wallpaper<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>New customization settings<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/apple-photos-app-collections-ios-26.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1008247\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Inside the new Collections tab, Apple is giving users even more customization options than before.<\/p>\n<p>You could already fully customize and reorder which sections appear in your Photos app, but iOS 26 adds:<\/p>\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>New view settings for your collections<\/li>\n<li>The option to collapse and expand individual collections<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>For the former, tapping the three dots at the top of the Collections tab offers three view options. <\/p>\n<p>You can make all collections uniform in size, either all small or all large, or you can stick with the default which makes certain collections more visually prominent than others.<\/p>\n<p>The ability to collapse certain sections temporarily should make your Collections view easier to navigate too.<\/p>\n<p>Photos in iOS 26: wrap-up<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s Photos update shows Apple pushing the app forward while also using iOS 26 to bring back some familiarity users lost in iOS 18. It isn\u2019t as feature-packed as last year, but after the shock of that major overhaul, a year of stability might be what Photos users want most.<\/p>\n<p>What do you think of iOS 26\u2019s Photos changes? Let us know in the comments.<\/p>\n<p>Best iPhone accessories<\/p>\n<p class=\"disclaimer-affiliate\">FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. <a href=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/about\/#affiliate\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">More.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/bmx\/solidsafe-safer-solid-state-battery-for-iphone-wireless-usb?ref=gka71h\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1012938\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/BMX-Mac-925-banner-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"750\" height=\"150\"\/><\/a>\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apple\u2019s Photos app received a major overhaul last year, and iOS 26 brings a handful of new changes.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":31269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[611,158,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-143390","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-mobile","9":"tag-technology","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115023607946627731","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}