Here’s how you can sort the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 Photos app to show recent images and videos instead of date captured.
The iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 Photos App Does Let You Switch to ‘Recently Added’ View for Images and Videos
The new Photos app in iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 is extremely polarizing. Either you love it, or you want to downgrade back to iOS 17 because of it.
For someone who is used to the good old Photos app from yesteryear, the changes are definitely overwhelming – I’m puzzled how some things work to this very minute. But hey, let’s work together and sort it out one feature at a time, okay?
By default, the Photos app shows you images and videos by the date they were captured. What this means is, if someone sends you a photo or video that was captured yesterday and you save it to your iPhone or iPad, it will appear in that order too and not as a recent image or video.
However, you have the option to set the Photos app to show recent images and videos instead of sort them by capture date which is the default setting. What this means is, new images and videos appear in chronological order as you add them.
Here’s what you have to do:
Step 1. Launch the ‘Photos’ app.
Step 2. On the main view of the Photos app, slightly scroll up and you’ll see a bunch of controls at the bottom. Tap on the ‘bi-directional’ icon at the bottom left corner.
Step 3. Now simply tap on ‘Sort by Recently Added.’
Once you do this, all images and videos will appear one after the other regardless of when they were captured as you save them to your device, exactly the way you like them.
A few days ago I saved a few images from the Messages app and I couldn’t find them in Photos at all. Turns out, the images required a couple of billion scrolls before I could reach them because the default sorting order was ‘Date Captured.’ But, with things now sorted by recently added images and videos, the scrolling days are long gone.
Some people go as far as saying Apple should simply bring back the old Photos app. I disagree. Sometimes, change can be a good thing and make things fresh. Sure, I had some frustrations with the app, but with time, I’m starting to enjoy it. The iOS 17 Photos app now looks ancient when you look at it.
