There are three inevitable reasons for life. Death, taxes and tech platforms are making design changes that are universally disliked. The latest victim of this phenomenon was the Apple Mail app, which undergoes a major redesign on iOS 18. This update is also available on iPads and MacBooks.
The new Apple Mail Design separates email into categories such as primary, transaction, updates, promotions and more. We also provide contact photos to each sender. This coincides with the company's new branding capabilities for businesses across the iOS ecosystem.
While some users find it a redesign that is not visually appealing and difficult to navigate, others find it more likely that they will miss important messages, which is no surprise.
Acrossing social media, iOS users have described the update as “completely unreliable”, “unreadable” and “very ugly”. Some have gone so far as to want the app's UX designer to “poop the hedgehog.”
Thankfully there is a way to turn off these updates without manifesting this unthinkable rectal pain in the world.
First, open the Mail app on iOS 18. Locate the 3-dot menu in the top right corner of the screen. From there, select List View instead of Categories as the display.
This will at least return your inbox to any setup you've had before, but there's still a lot of visual confusion as the contact photos are still visible in the app. This is useful if you are sending text messages via message, as there are probably photos of contacts for your friends and family. But in your email inbox it doesn't help you see the little yellow shopping bag next to all the emails from the retailer. It's a different business on the surface, especially as multiple tech blogs and newsletters subscribe to flag them with the same icons as H&M and Antropologie.
To remove contact photos from the iOS Mail app, follow these steps:
Open the Settings app on your iPhone. Scroll to the bottom of the screen to see a section called Apps. From the Apps menu, scroll to find the Mail app (or simply enter your email into the search bar for a solid 5-second save – it has a short lifespan). Under the section labeled “Message List”, toggle the option to read photos of your show contacts.
Finally, there is no confusion in the email app. Well, it's not open anyway, except for the promotional emails from H&M and Anthropologie. Maybe it's time to unsubscribe from many mailing lists? You are yourself for that.