Our first look at iOS 18.5 is finally here and it’s making it easier than ever to return to the old look that Apple’s Mail app used to sport. So, if you’ve been annoyed by all the AI categorization, and the addition of contact photos in Mail, you’ll finally have an option to disable them.
iOS 18.2 Changed Mail for the Worse
Thefuture of Apple Intelligence was exciting when iOS 18.2 first dropped.The update brought a lot of new functionality to Apple’s AI-driven suite, but it also introduced some unwanted features.
The Mail app’s design changes were one of the biggest complaints I and many others had with iOS 18.2. These changes included new AI-driven categorization, as well as the introduction of contact photos and more.
Overall, it made the Mail app look more like the Gmail app. This largely removed the reason for me using the Mail app in the first place, as the way Gmail categorized my emails was one of thereasons I stuck with the Mail app on my Macand iPhone. Apple touted the changes as making it easier to organize your email, but it really just made the app more annoying to use.
Thankfully, you could always undo some of the changes by pressing the three-dot menu in the top-right and changing the view back to List View from the options there. You could also disable Apple’s AI-driven Priority inbox settings. This feature lets Apple Intelligence move emails it deems important to the top of your inbox.
However, you couldn’t undo one of the other big changes that Apple made—the appearance of contact photos to the Mail list. It was one of the most annoying and least helpful features, as many emails just have a blank photo with a letter as the image.
iOS 18.5 Beta 1 Lets You Undo Apple’s Annoying Mail Changes
Now, Apple will finally let us remove those pesky contact photos with an additional option in the dropdown menu. The change is currently only available in iOS 18.5 beta 1, but the feature is expected to hit everyone’s iPhones when 18.5 releases later this year.
If you aren’t running iOS 18.5 yet, you can still undo a good bit of Apple’s changes. Launch Mail, then press the three-dot menu at the top right. From the dropdown, selectList Viewto remove the categories. Then, uncheckShow Priorityto turn off AI sorting. Alternatively, you could justdisable Apple Intelligencealtogether and save yourself some battery life in the process.
If you have updated to iOS 18.5 beta 1—or if you’re reading this after the update is officially out—you can follow the steps above and then also uncheckShow Contact Photosto take Mail back to the way it used to look before the 18.2 update.
As someone who uses the Mail app because it doesn’t do the same nonsense that Gmail’s app does, the new features are a deviation from what I wanted out of the app. So, I’m happy that Apple has given me more ways to return to the comfortability of Mail’s old design.
