There are three inevitabilities in life: death, taxes, and tech platforms making design changes that are universally disliked. The latest victim to this phenomenon is the Apple Mail app, which got a major redesign in iOS 18. This update is also rolling out on iPads and MacBooks.
The new Apple Mail design separates emails into categories, like Primary, Transactions, Updates, and Promotions. It also gives contact photos to each sender, which aligns with the company’s new branding features for businesses across the iOS ecosystem.
While some users find the redesign visually unappealing and difficult to navigate, others find that they are more likely to miss important messages, which is understandably not ideal.
Across social media, beleaguered iOS users have described this update as “completely unreliable,” “indecipherable,” and “so ugly.” Some have gone as far as to wish the app’s UX designers would “poop hedgehogs.”
Thankfully, there is a way to turn off these updates without manifesting this unthinkable rectal pain into the world.
- First, open your Mail app on iOS 18.
- Locate the three-dot menu in the upper right corner of your screen.
- From there, select “List View” instead of “Categories” as your display.
While this at least returns your inbox to whatever setup you had before, there’s still a lot of visual clutter, since contact photos still appear in the app. This may be convenient when you’re texting via Messages because you probably have contact photos for your friends and family. But in your mail inbox, it doesn’t really help to see a little yellow shopping bag next to every single email from a retailer — especially since multiple tech blogs and newsletters I subscribe to get flagged with the same icon as H&M or Anthropologie, which are ostensibly a different kind of business.
To get rid of the contact photos on your iOS Mail app, follow these steps:
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- Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Scroll to the bottom of the screen, where you will see a section called Apps.
- From the Apps menu, scroll until you find the Mail app (or just type Mail into the search bar to save yourself a solid five seconds — life is short).
- Under the section labeled Message List, toggle off the option that reads Show Contact Photos.
At last, your Mail app is free from clutter — well, except for those promotional emails from H&M and Anthropologie that you don’t really open anyway. Maybe it’s time to unsubscribe from a bunch of mailing lists? You’re on your own for that one.
