iOS 18.4 is currently being beta tested, and it packs a ton of new features and changes. Among those updates are some easy-to-miss changes to Apple’s Photos app that give users more flexibility and options than before. Here are the details on iOS 18.4’s Photos enhancements.
#1: New filtering options
Whenever you’re viewing a collection of photos and/or videos, you may have noticed that the Photos app shows an icon in the lower-left corner with two vertical arrows.
Behind this arrow icon you’ll find various sort, filter, and view options.
In iOS 18.4, there are two new additions to the Filter menu. You can now filter by:
- Shared With You
- Not in an Album
Filters make it easy to find all photos or videos that fit a specific description. So in this case, you can filter to only see items that others have shared with you, or ones that aren’t yet sorted into an album.
Additionally, if you tap the Albums button then the three-dot icon in the top-right corner, you’ll see new filter options there too. These additions let you filter to only show Albums or only show Folders.
#2: New album sorting option
Speaking of the Albums screen, iOS 18.4 now lets you sort that view in a new way too.
Joining the existing Sort by Name and Sort by Custom Order options, there’s a third sorting method available for your Albums screen:
This will rearrange your albums and folders to bump the most recently changed ones to the top.
The Albums screen has another change worth noting briefly: Grid and List have been renamed to List View and Key Photo. This change doesn’t make a functional difference, and to me it reads as more confusing, so it’s unclear why Apple’s changing things.
#3: Disabling albums for privacy
There are a couple albums included by default in the Photos app that you may or may not want visible for privacy reasons.
No, I’m not talking about the ‘Hidden’ album. Though that album certainly has its own privacy implications, I’m referring to two others:
- Recently Viewed
- Recently Shared
Like their names imply, these albums collect all the photos and videos that you last looked at, or last shared with someone else.
I’d guess that for most users, they won’t have a problem keeping these albums visible in the Photos app.
But for anyone who—for privacy reasons or otherwise—want to disable them, iOS 18.4 adds a new Settings toggle to do just that.
You can find this toggle by visiting Settings ⇾ Apps ⇾ Photos ⇾ then scrolling down to find ‘Show Recently Viewed & Shared.’ It’s right below where you can also disable the ‘Hidden’ album.
#4: Bulk recover or delete photos
If you’ve ever wanted to quickly, easily remove all your deleted photos and videos permanently, iOS 18.4 now provides that option.
Open the Recently Deleted album and you’ll find a new trash can button that will remove all items permanently.
On the flip side, you can also use the new Recover All button if you want to quickly add all deleted items back into your Photos library.
Were any of these iOS 18.4 Photos updates on your wish list? What other changes do you hope to see? Let us know in the comments.
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