How can I disable icons in the Mail app on iOS 18.3?

Hey there,

I understand your concern regarding the new icons in the Mail app on iOS 18.3, which are affecting your email preview visibility. To revert to a cleaner, more traditional list view without these icons, please follow these steps:

To Disable Contact Photos in Mail:

• Go to Settings > Mail > In the Message List section, toggle off Show Contact Photos.

This action will remove the icons next to each email, providing a more streamlined list view.

Note: this user to user forum not official Apple support , In case you want to provide feedback to Apple tap here ☞ Product Feedback - Apple

You have the option to make the mail look exactly as it did before the update.

• For sorting, open the Mail app, tap the circle with three dots in it and tap List View
• For the icons, open the Settings App, scan all the way down the page to Apps, tap that then look for Mail and tap that. Turn off Show Contact Photos.

Your mail will now look exactly as it did.

Thanks for the answer.

This option is not there when the system language is set to French. Switch to English, then the option to turn off the Contact Photos appears and can be toggled. :)

Don’t worry! I worked it out. I had to open at least one message after the updated and then it reverted.

Apple please stop forcing these updates on us. You just ruined my whole morning trying to work this out. Where is your UX focus??

Plshelptheoldies wrote:

Don’t worry! I worked it out. I had to open at least one message after the updated and then it reverted.

Apple please stop forcing these updates on us. You just ruined my whole morning trying to work this out. Where is your UX focus??

I'm glad you got it sorted, but just so you know, you aren't speaking with anyone from Apple here. This is a user to user only forum, and I along with anyone else is a user like you. We just volunteer our time to try to help people. We certainly didn't ruin your morning 😉

A couple words of advice, since you own an iPhone.

1. When an update is available, on the update page are release notes. Read them before you do the update, which lets you know the new features.
2. If you come across a feature which changes things a lot, look around the internet at sources like 9to5 Mac, which always posts useful articles about the new features and the things you can do with them.

Before I updated my iPhone, I was well aware of the new Mail App features and how to get things back to list view if I wanted to not use the Categories.

Sksksksksksksksk wrote:

Appreciate your Google search but from someone who has 4 email addresses that feed into the Mail app, I’ve never had dots next to my emails. They appeared after this latest update and they are tiny gnats on my feed.

OK. I too have 4 email accounts and I've ALWAYS had them. The answer, however, won't change. They are baked into the Mail app and you can't change them.

That's hard coded into the message and it can't be removed. I have to be honest with you. I hadn't even noticed they were there initially as it's next to the sender and at least to me, is pretty innocuous as to be hardly noticeable. So, you can't get rid of them, but everything else brings your mail back to how it was before.

I was able to turn off the contact photos so that, looking at my Inbox no longer shows these category icons next to each email. But when I click to open an email, the icon is there at the top of the opened email.

Don’t want it, and again, my “Show Contact Photos” is toggled off. Now what?

Sadly, while the second part of this tip works on iPadOS 18.4, it appears to fail in iOS 18.4, where I had successfully turned off the icons in an earlier version of iOS 18. Powering down and powering on again, cycling the Apps -> Mail -> "Show Contact Photos" unfortunately does nothing, and I still see the useless (to me), space wasting icons.

gurman42 wrote:

Yes, and to no avail.

Sorry, but that doesn't make sense. You are singularly the only person I've seen say it didn't work for them. I'd recommend contacting Apple Support for direct help. If you're in the US, you can call them at: 800-MY-APPLE. You can visit your Apple Store Genius bar for in-person help.

MrsGeordie wrote:

I don’t mind the icons but they aren’t necessarily correct! Anyone know how to change them! All my work bookings coming through with a flight icon (although travel related!!) so super annoying! Thx

I don't believe you can if the message is coming from someone who is not in your contacts. If you see a contact poster next to a mail message and they re in your contacts, you can change it in their contact card in Contacts.

Or you can turn them off as I've posted in this thread.

SCBiker7 wrote:

Same here- I am a senior that needs to see my screen. With these icons all the email is truncated! Made mail functionally difficult to read and use. Switch it back, please!!!!

We are all users here on this user to user only forum. See my post which is the Top Ranked post and follow the I provided on how you can change it back.

r4lf wrote:

I think Apple needs to ensure that new design concepts like the iOS 18.2 Mail app changes, which affect millions of users, can be completely switched off in some way. Thank you Apple! 🙏

It can be turned off. Read my post right at the top of this thread marked Top Ranked.

I turned off Show Contact Photos and my mail inbox looks nice and clean like it used to, thank you!…But when I open one individual mail item, I still have those annoying icons next to the sender at the top of each email! Any idea how to make those go away? I hate them, they are visually annoying! (See example in this screen shot)

nottechnologicallygifted wrote:

I FULLY AGREE WITH THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT OF ANOTHER USER.

Apple should show you what an update would look like and then you select if you want update to the look of the new version or stay with the old.

I IMPLORE APPLE TO NOT CHANGE SCREENS. MOST OF US ARE NOT AS NEARLY AS EXCITED TO SEE VISUAL CHANGES AS APPLE IS.

Thank you for the fix!

This is a user to user ONLY forum, not Apple Support. Asking Apple to do anything here will get you nothing. Change in technology is inevitable. It will change with updates every year. Some changes people like, some not so much, but change is never going to stop.

If you want to implore Apple, you can do so here --> Feedback - iPhone - Apple