How to remove Category icons in iOS 18.2 Mail?

Redfethor wrote:

This doesn’t solve the problem, it just replaces it with a different issue. I want to keep the contact photos and get rid of the Apple generated icons for categories. If I get a message from a trusted contact it was much easier to identify previously, now it’s grouped in a category with a badly designed graphic in ugly colors.

That doesn't appear to be possible at this time. Let Apple know what you'd like to see here:

Product Feedback - Apple

Meanwhile, consider one of the many, many other email programs available in the App Store. It's possible that one of them will better suit you.

Ok I found a way around it. My iPhone was set to German language then you will not see the above explained option. You have to set your phone to English toggle off “show contact photos” and then back to German and those icons will disappear.

To remove the little icons images on each email: Go to Settings → Apps → Mail → Toggle off Show Contact Photos

Turned off "show contact photos", which worked, and now I obviously see no icons which unexpectedly became an issue for me. I liked icons! But keep it small please. Ended up installing Gmail on my phone and it's been a better solution for now. Goodbye Apple Mail, I'm kinda shocked that Apple rolled this out.

Remove Top Category:- Three More Button > List View.

Remove icons next to Each Email:- Settings app > Apps > Mail > Disable "Show Contact List"

I found the solution online from this source.

This no longer works, now when you open the inbox tap the three dots in the upper right hand corner and choose list view. Unfortunately, if you have a half a dozen or more email accounts, like I do, you have to do it for each one, but once you do it the changes not one single Apple customer likely asked for have been reverted.

Louise178 wrote:

I do not have anything that says message list under Mail

• Open the Mail app
• Tap on Inbox
• Tap the “more” icon (⋯⃝) in the upper right
• Tap “List View"
• If you have more than one email account do it for each one.

There are 2 different new features in Mail: Category icons, and message categories.

To disable icons, see this post in this thread:How to remove Category icons in iOS 18.2 … - Apple Community

To turn off message categories, on any inbox tap the ⋯⃝ in the upper right, then tap List View.

Disable “Show contact photos” ( rather than show contact list) worked for me as there was no option to disable “show contact list” for me. Regardless, your solution is the clearest and easiest to manage another what-were-they-thinking “improvement”.

Try this too: To turn off message categories, on any inbox tap the ⋯⃝ in the upper right, then tap List View.

No. They only test with programmers who are trying to look busy, but don't know real people.

Hello, _leefy!

With 18.2 introduction of category inboxes in apple mail, even when selecting list view (top three dots in mail app) to return it to the old format, you still have the annoying new icons representing the categories in front of each email. I'm selecting 'list view' because I don't want to use 'categories' at all. Can the icons be removed from list view so that I can just see a normal/clean email inbox?

If you are referring to categories, you can turn them off by going to the Inbox view in Mail, then tapping the button on the top right of the screen:

Then, choose List View.

Reference: Use categories in Mail on iPhone - Apple Support

If you are referring to the contact photos, you can do what rosefromulster said and go to Settings > Apps > Mail and go to Message List, then switch Show Contact Photos off.

I hope this helps!

EJH04 wrote:

Hate category inboxes on Apple Mail! How to get rid of it permanently or do I have find another mail service?

You don't have to choose a different email provider, just a different email app. I've never liked the Apple Mail app. I've been using Spark by Readdle for years. I suspect it wouldn't be the one for you, though, as you don't like categories. But there are lots out there. Lots of people like Outlook.

If you take a few minutes to read the thread you posted to you can learn how to customize the Mail app. A feature that has been requested for a very long time. Or just read the release notes→What’s new in iOS 18 - Apple Support

Mountain_Woman wrote:

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. 

Apple is not “digging around in your email”. The icons that appear are avatars of the contacts that sent you email or are derived by interpreting words in the subject of the message.

And, if you read the top-rated post at the top of this very page you will see how to turn off the avatars if you don’t want them.