Browsing Photos Explained on the iPhone (iOS 18)

How Do You View and Enjoy Your Photos on the iPhone?

Have you ever wondered about the best way to look through your photos and videos on your iPhone? Most of us use the Camera app out of habit, but there’s actually a better option that gives you more control, better organization, and a more enjoyable experience. Let’s take a look at how the Photos app works in iOS 18 and how it helps you relive your favorite memories with ease.

Choosing Between the Camera App and the Photos App

Many people use the Camera app to check their latest photos. It’s fast and convenient, especially since it’s where we take pictures in the first place. But once you want to look back more than a few days—or find something specific—it’s time to use the Photos app. This app gives you a clearer, more organized view of everything you’ve captured on your iPhone.

Opening the Photos App to a Combined View

When you open the Photos app, you don’t go straight into just your Photo Library. Instead, you see a combined view. The screen is divided into two sections. Everything above a certain point is your full Photo Library. Everything below it is made up of Collections.

You can swipe up to view your entire library, or swipe down to explore your Collections. This layout gives you the freedom to choose how you want to interact with your photos, depending on what you’re looking for.

Browsing Your Full Photo Library

In the Library section, all your photos and videos are grouped by when they were taken. You can switch between views like Days, Months, and Years. The Days view shows every photo from each day. The Months view gives you highlights from each month. The Years view provides a simple way to scroll through your history and find older memories faster.

You can zoom in or out by pinching your fingers together or apart. Zooming in shows larger thumbnails and fewer photos. Zooming out gives you a broader look at more pictures at once. This makes it easier to scan through time and find what you’re after.

Playing Videos and Zooming In

If you tap on a video in the Photos app, it starts playing right away. There’s no need to press a play button. You can tap again for video controls like scrubbing forward or back. Photos can also be zoomed in, even while you’re browsing through the Library. This is helpful for getting a closer look at faces or small details in a picture.

When you’re done looking at a photo or video, just swipe down to return to where you were.

Understanding Collections

Below the Photo Library, you’ll find your Collections. A collection is a group of photos that have something in common. For example, all the photos you took on a certain date are shown as one collection. You might also see collections based on locations—such as all the pictures taken on a trip or while visiting a landmark. There can even be collections based on people, using face recognition to group similar faces together.

These are created automatically by the Photos app, so you don’t need to set anything up. They’re there to help you relive specific memories—without having to scroll through everything.

Customizing What Collections You See

You’re not stuck with the default view. In iOS 18, you can customize what collections appear in this lower section of the Photos app. This means if there’s a type of collection you don’t use or want to hide, you can do that. You can choose whether to show collections by date, location, trips, or people.

This allows you to tailor the Photos app to your needs. For example, if you only want to see collections based on trips and people, you can set it that way. If you don’t want to see collections based on maps or locations, you can turn those off.

Exploring and Navigating Collections

To open a collection, just tap on it. You can swipe left or right through the photos inside, just like in the Library. Everything works the same—it’s just already grouped for you. When you’re finished, swipe down to return to the collections view.

This makes it easy to enjoy all the photos from a specific event or place without needing to do any searching.

Why the Photos App Is the Better Choice

The Camera app is great for quick checks. But the Photos app gives you the tools to really explore your photo history. With the combined view of your full Library and customized Collections, you can easily find what you’re looking for—or just enjoy memories from the past. Whether you want to browse by time, place, or person, the Photos app is the best way to view and manage your photos on the iPhone.