How to remove Category icons in iOS 18.2 Mail?

Thank you so much for this! I am so sick and tired of Apple forcing what they think I want on my phone down my throat. Give users a chance to opt in, but don’t force it on them. It is my phone, not theirs!

Just-a-dude-saying-thanks wrote:

Thank you. Why complicate something that’s easy by adding an icon.

Because a lot of people LIKE the icons so they quickly identify the more important messages. It is Apple actually catching up with gmail and Outlook, which have had icons for several years. Your opinion isn’t shared by everyone.

DrBevP wrote:

My iPhone has divided my emails into categories. I am loosing important info as a result. How do I get back my emails without categories?

Tap the three dots in the upper right corner and select List view.

jacki259 wrote:

Agree- horrible. Please return to how it was before. This update is horrendous. Who likes it?

I do, though it really doesn't go far enough. Google's Inbox, which was unfortunately discontinued a few years back, did some additional cool things such as bundling email from specific senders (user-configured) and showing them at predetermined times.

If you don't like the mail being displayed by categories, why don't you just turn it off?

Martha124 wrote:

I hate having an entity other than myself categorizing my emails. I seem not to be able to turn it off as I do not have a message list under mail,apps,settings. How can I get rid of them?

It's not in settings. It is accessed, as has been explained a few times in this thread, by tapping the three dots in the upper right corner of the main Mail screen.

Thanks for the useful info. That has fixed the icon issue next to each email in my inbox list.

However, when I open an email the category icons still appear next to the From: To: and Reply To: fields, do you happen to know how to disable that as well?

haghop wrote:

Thanks for the useful info. That has fixed the icon issue next to each email in my inbox list.

However, when I open an email the category icons still appear next to the From: To: and Reply To: fields, do you happen to know how to disable that as well?

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

Yes, as per my message I’ve already done that and while it removes the icons from my list of messages in my inbox, it does not remove the icon inside my messages after I’ve opened them. How do I get rid of the icon next the From: To: fields inside an email????

thanks all—this worked to fix emails.

But how do I remove the stupid circle icon from my phone app??

it's taking up too much space—and I can't figure out what else to do here?

ideas?

or did I miss that in the responses above?

Please get rid of the categories and category icons. If I wanted that I would use Gmail. I do NOT like this at all as it doesn’t let me see the messages. Please remove or allow us to remove also you aren’t categorizing by as I would.

mozzastryl wrote:

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

What? How about the million invited and public beta testers who have it 3 months before the release, that you could have been if you wanted to? Or are you just trolling?

AghIHateThis wrote:

THANK YOU! All those stupid little squares of color were driving nuts. Who thinks of all these irritating "upgrades"?

Well, Google started it a couple of years ago for gmail (where you actually can’t turn it off). Then Microsoft got on the bandwagon, and Yahoo, and AOL, and pretty much all the major players in the email domain. Apple is actually late to the game.

Mgdeuce wrote:

April 25, 2025 update

Oh my gosh, thank you! Those new icons , contacts photos were obnoxious. Thank you so much. What is wrong with a clean, adult, simple presentation

Absolutely nothing is wrong with a clean and simple presentation and actually I agree with you. Unfortunately you see many others that see a feature on another platform or service and always ask why Apple cannot do that too. If Apple does not provide updates that include these features, then they are viewed as being stagnant or not listening to users requests. We see those types of posts here daily.

Fortunately Apple does give you the option to turn off these features as you have done, which is a huge advantage over the other services such as Google Mail where users do not have that option.

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”.

I agree. I like the contacts icon. Just hate categories. I am missing important mail because Apple thinks my Dr is a “promotion”. Just give me back my normail mail list. I’ll decide whats a promotion or not and block it!!!