Among the less-publicized features introduced late last year in iOS 18.2 is a massive change to the Mail app. For longtime users of the Mail app, it was a shock to the system and definitely takes some getting used to. But if that hasn’t happened, there’s good news—you can change it back to the old way.
The new Mail app breaks the Inbox into several categories: Primary, Transactions, Updates, and Promotions. The categories are fairly self-explanatory:
- Primary: Personal and other time-sensitive messages.
- Transactions: Purchases, receipts, and shipping messages.
- Updates: Newsletters, mailing lists, and social updates.
- Promotions: Coupons, sales announcements, and spam that doesn’t land in junk.
Once you start using iOS 18.2, the new Mail will be on by default and messages will automatically begin routing to their respective categories. Any folders will remain, of course, but your Mail experience is definitely different.
For one, your Mail badge will only show the count for messages in the Primary category, which means dozens of messages could go unread for hours or even days. And since everything is done automatically, some important messages might get routed to the wrong category. However, all time-sensitive messages will appear in the Primary view even if they’ve been routed to other categories.
If you don’t trust it or just plain don’t like it, the good news is you can change it back to the old way with very little trouble. In your inbox, tap the three-dot menu at the top-right and you’ll see an option for List View. Tap it and you’ll return to the old way of doing things with a chronological inbox.
For now, the new Mail is only for the iPhone and iPad, but it’s coming soon to the Mac in macOS 15.4.
