How to remove Category icons in iOS 18.2 Mail?

Thank you, Rose, for the simple method to turn off icons. Count me in the dozens (thousands?) of Apple customers who do not want these icons. I wish Apple understood that one of the reasons we use Apple Mail is because we liked the clean, uncluttered look.

This thankfully does turns off the category icons, but why does it say CONTACT PHOTOS? That's just confusing. The icons are annoying as is the new tiny menu bar at the top. I turned that off, too. Simple is most useful.

Lord help us…whatever happened to less is more? A simple, intuitive mail setup has been replaced with a jumbled, multifunction mess. Please give us back the old mail look and feel. I don’t need a shopping cart or any of that other stuff. Who has sent me mail, have I read it already or not? That’s all folks. Thanks.

Thank goodness for the clear advice in this thread. Upvotes for those asking WTH Apple was thinking of when they introduced this feature. It’s the sort of nonsensical, useless feature that I’d associate with Microsoft (think Clutter in Outlook) than from a company that purportedly prioritises UX/UI.

I’m NOT a fan of the new category icons. I did like having my contacts photos/avatars in my correspondence; it’s a shame Apple had to go and mess this all up. Maybe they will fix it in the next update? Doubt it, but we can hope.

On 25 December 2024, Mark_007 showed how to remove those annoying icon that suddenly appeared by every email post update. Unlike other suggestions Mark's works! I thought updates were to fix bugs. Clearly Apple have nothing better to do. Thank you Mark_007 for the best Christmas present ever.

Apparently they don’t do any Beta testing anymore. I was in an Apple Store a couple years ago asking about a bug introduced in a new update. The employee told me that Apple doesn’t do much testing before updates are sent out. The new strategy is to let the users/us do the testing and find the bugs. Sadly Apple isn’t the company it used to be.

2tattered wrote:

Thank you so much! I hated those stupid icons.

Oh, the Irony! Users have complained for years that Apple dictates how everything should work, and doesn’t give users the option of customization. So with iOS 18 Apple added customization options to a bunch of apps, and now people complain that options are bad. You just can’t win.

2tattered wrote:

99% don’t read release notes….where do you fit in here?

I’m the 1%, I guess. It did take about 3 minutes, but that’s how I knew about new features in Mail, Photos, Control Center, and many other features, and how to how to configure the apps to work the way I wanted them to.

Is there anyway I can get those little icons out of my mail? I don’t mean just going over to “list” which continues to clutter eye space. If not, on your next OS upgrade, please provide an option to permit the user to have the choice of quiet & EMPTY SPACE !

I was commenting on a post where the writer wondered if any beta testing was being done. I’m very happy to hear that what the Apple employee told me is nonsense!! Thank you for setting the record straight. 

Back to the matter at hand… I also see no point in the annoying icons in the list view and less of a reason for the icons to be in the individual emails. And maybe in the small print somewhere it says that Apple has the right to dig around in my email, but I’m feeling like my privacy has been violated since an AI agent/program had to dig around in my emails in order to decide what stupid icon to attach to each email. 

csrosenblum wrote:

Is there anyway I can get those little icons out of my mail? I don’t mean just going over to “list” which continues to clutter eye space. If not, on your next OS upgrade, please provide an option to permit the user to have the choice of quiet & EMPTY SPACE !

The answer is in the Top Ranking Reply at the top of this page that you somehow missed, that has gotten over 400 upvotes.

jeanne-sf wrote:

No way this was beta tested. It is irritating as ****.

Beta testing looks for bugs. The changes to Mail add NEW FEATURES. If you don’t want to use those new features just turn them off, as explained dozens of times in the thread that you just posted to.

Have you filed the same complaints with gmail, which has had these features for several years? But with gmail you can’t turn them off.

KTB26July24 wrote:

Thank you - it’s SO irritating when Apple dictate preferences.

Apple hasn’t dictated anything. Apple added new features, and if you don’t like them then turn them off.

They frequently default to turning on new features initially, because unless you are the 1% who read the update notes you would never know they were there.

I agree, Apple is spending too much time adding cute little features like this. I'm sure some people love it but it would be so much better if they offered it and if poeple wanted to change it then send those people down this rabbit hole so they can see the little icon. It's similar to the change to photos - I still can't find some of the photos I used to have before they made that non value add change.

I understand Apple has been gutted from a talent perspective - they dump autonomous driving, they AR headset - well that thing speaks for itself especially that pack you have to wear on your side (seriously), they are way behind in AI large language and if you are behind now there is no catching up - the last thing they did well was the iPhone. The watch is doing ok but nothing like the the products they had in the past.

Even connectivity from one Apple device to another is nothing like what the first iPod. It was seemless and that's how they got the industry to change the name of the device from an mp3 player to an iPod.

Even the latest phone - ooooohhhh can you imagine being able to pull your phone out of your pocket and start taking photos without opening the system - how awesome. Tim should have been embarrassed introducing that.

Now back to the matter at hand, trying to find "message list" - more time wasted and more time to think about other brands.