Apple has responded to criticism surrounding the Photos app redesign from iOS 18 by implementing notable changes in iOS 26, which debuted during Monday’s presentation at the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference.
The announcement came as part of the keynote address, where Apple revealed it was reinstating a tab-based navigation system for Photos, though with modifications from the previous version. Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering, acknowledged user sentiment by stating “Many of you missed using tabs in the Photos app” — representing one of Apple’s rare public acknowledgments of design missteps.
“Photos now features separate tabs for Library and for Collections,” Federighi explained during the demonstration of the updated interface.
The Collections section houses user favorites, albums, and library search capabilities, while the Library tab simplifies browsing through recent photographs — an interface approach that evidently resonated more strongly with users. The iOS 18 Photos redesign had consolidated all photo interaction and organization tools onto a single screen, which triggered user complaints. The negative reception was significant enough that some app developers launched alternative photo applications, charging users for interfaces that mimicked the older design.
iOS 26’s Photos app also gains the ability to convert standard 2D photographs into 3D spatial images. This functionality appears both within the Photos application and on the iPhone’s updated Lock Screen interface, taking cues from Apple’s Vision Pro spatial computing device.
The Camera app received updates as well, with Apple redesigning the interface to highlight the two most commonly used shooting modes — photo and video — directly on the main screen. Users can access additional modes by swiping horizontally to reveal options like Portrait Mode and Cinematic Mode. Camera settings including flash, timer, and aperture adjustments are now accessible by swiping upward from the bottom of the display.
