Apple’s Photos app received a major overhaul last year, and iOS 26 brings a handful of new changes. Here’s everything new in the Photos app in iOS 26.
New liquid glass design
One of the biggest changes impacting all Apple apps this year is iOS 26’s new “Liquid Glass” design.
In the Photos app in particular, you’ll see Liquid Glass UI elements everywhere, from navigation buttons and tabs to context menus and more.
Since your photos and videos remain the visual center of the app, Photos’ use of Liquid Glass isn’t as extensive as some other apps, but it’s nonetheless a nice refresh that’s hard to miss.
Tab bar navigation returns
Last year, when Apple overhauled the Photos app in iOS 18, the biggest change was to navigation. Gone is the tried and tested tab bar. Instead, Apple opted for a single-screen user interface.
After facing many unhappy comments from users, Apple brought back tab bar navigation in Photos in iOS 26.
It’s not a complete reversal of the exact setup before iOS 18, but navigation in Photos is now much closer to what it was before with three tabs:
- Library
- Collections
- Research
The library works the same as older versions of the application. Collections, on the other hand, brings together all the new customizable sections introduced in iOS 18 in a separate dedicated screen.
Spatialize the photos
Last year, Apple Vision Pro gained a new ability to “spatialize” your photos.
Now, iOS 26 has brought similar functionality to the iPhone through the Photos app.
When viewing a photo, there is a new button in the upper right corner that allows you to view a “Space Scene” version of the image. Essentially, this gives depth to your photo so you can move around to see different dimensions.
It’s a fun trick in the Photos app, but where this feature shines the most is in using space scenes as your lock screen wallpaper.
New personalization settings
In the new Collections tab, Apple offers users even more customization options than before.
You can already fully customize and rearrange the sections that appear in your Photos app, but iOS 26 adds:
- New display settings for your collections
- The ability to shrink and expand individual collections
For the first, tapping the three dots at the top of the Collections tab provides three view options.
You can make all collections uniform in size, whether they are all small or all large, or you can stick to the default which makes some collections more visible than others.
The ability to temporarily collapse certain sections should also make your Collections view easier to navigate.
Event details screen
Photos also has a new feature designed to show you details about major events you’ve attended.
When viewing moments from events like concerts or sports games, you can swipe up to find a link with more details about the event.
For sports, you will see the location, final score and associated upcoming events. With concerts you will be able to access the best songs from the artist’s tour and much more.
It’s unclear exactly how “major” an event needs to be to benefit from this special details screen, but hopefully Apple will make this feature fairly global for both large and small events.
Photos in iOS 26: recap
This year’s Photos update shows Apple moving the app forward while using iOS 26 to bring back some user familiarity lost in iOS 18. It’s not as feature-rich as last year, but after the shock of that major overhaul, a year of stability might be what Photos users want most.
What do you think of the new Photos features in iOS 26? Let us know in the comments.
