Apple’s Photos app received a major overhaul in iOS 18, and not all of the changes have been well-received. Fortunately, Apple listened to the feedback and made five key changes to Photos in iOS 18.2.
#1: Video Interface Changes
One controversial change to videos in iOS 18 is that they would initially play with borders and you would have to tap to make them full screen.
Now in iOS 18.2, videos are automatically full screen by default. There’s no need for tapping, nor any weird zooming in and out effects.
You can still tap to hide interface elements and get a cleaner view, but it’s basically similar to how videos worked before iOS 18.
#2: Disable Auto-Loop Videos
Not a fan of auto-looping your videos? Apple now offers choice.
In Settings ⇾ Photos, there is a new option: Loop Videos.
It’s still enabled by default, but if you hate the looping behavior, a simple flick of the switch will change that.
#3: Swipe to go back
When browsing the different collections offered by iOS 18’s Photos app, you previously had to tap the back button in the upper left corner to go back. This was especially painful on larger iPhones.
In iOS 18.2, a swipe gesture was added to exit a Collection view. It works like any other Apple app, where you swipe right from the left side of the screen to return to your previous view.
#4: Frame-by-frame video cleanup
Sometimes you want to get very precise video, and that’s now possible in iOS 18.2.
Support for frame-by-frame cleaning has been added, along with a new millisecond reading for the timestamp during cleaning.
#5: Clear History
The number of utilities in the Photos app has gotten long in iOS 18, and there are a few options you might not know about:
- Recently viewed
- Recently shared
These two albums provide recent history of your activity. They allow you to quickly see what you’ve recently viewed as well as items you’ve shared with others.
In iOS 18.2, for the first time, you can clear the history of these two albums.
To remove an individual item, you can long press on it and remove it from the context menu. There is also a “Delete All” option in the album’s three-dot menu in the upper right corner.
iOS 18.2 Photo Changes: Recap
iOS 18 was a major overhaul for one of Apple’s most popular apps, so it’s no surprise that users had trouble adjusting to some of the changes. It’s good to see Apple responding to user feedback and implementing quality-of-life upgrades in iOS 18.2 that make Photos work better than before.
What do you think of the changes to Photos? Let us know in the comments.
