Apple’s iOS 18, the operating system that powers the iPhone, is one of the company’s best software updates in years. A big reason is that iOS 18 integrates Apple Intelligence across the iPhone, allowing for all kinds of new productivity features.
iOS 18 also includes a host of privacy and security enhancements, which keep your data safer than ever, as well as the powerful new password management app Passwords. But that’s just the beginning. The longer I use iOS 18, the more I discover hidden features that make my work life more manageable. The latest discovery? A hidden Photos app feature that makes filing expense reports easier than ever.
The iPhone Photos app becomes your personal receipts organizer
The Photos app on the iPhone has long had a “Utilities” category, which you can find near the bottom of the app., This category automatically groups your photos into collections such as Imports, Recently Deleted, Duplicates, and Hidden, to make them easier to find.
But in iOS 18, the Photos app gained additional Utilities collections, which are arguably more useful than the existing ones. These collections include Documents, Handwriting, Illustrations, QR codes, and Receipts. Photos will now automatically sort pictures or screenshots you’ve taken containing any of the above elements into their respective collections.
For example, if you use your iPhone to take a photograph of a sketch in a museum, Photos will automatically add the photo to the Illustrations collection. Likewise, if you take a photograph of a letter you received, you’ll be able to find that photo under the Documents collection.
But it’s that last collection—Receipts—that can make filing expense reports easier than ever.
Photos makes finding the receipt you need a breeze
Thanks to the Photos app’s new ability to recognize that a receipt appears in a photograph you took, the app can easily sort pics of all of your receipts into one collection, meaning that when you are looking for a receipt in the future, you no longer You have to scroll through your entire Photos library to find it.
