Appel has had a People & Pets category in the Photos app for a very long time; that's not what is new with the redesign the app has undergone in iOS 18. But there's something new for People & Pets that I, for one, am really happy about. It's now easier to find the option to change the Key Photo for anyone in the People & Pets section.

The People & Pets section has some sort of special talent to always curate the worst photos and set them as Key Photos. Earlier, many people couldn't find the option to change the Key Photo without external help as it wasn't present where it logically should have been, causing them to remain stuck with the iPhone's special talents. But with iOS 18, it's now easier to find the option.

To change the Key Photo for someone, follow these steps.

  1. Open the Photos app on your iPhone.
  2. Scroll down and tap the 'People & Pets' option.
  3. Then, tap the photo of the person (or the pet) you want to change the Key Photo for.
  1. Tap the 'three-dot menu' in the upper-right corner.
  2. Select 'Edit Name and Photos' from the menu.
  3. Then, tap on 'Edit Key Photo'.
  1. Their photos will appear. You can even use the 'Search' option to narrow the search using different options like location, other people, year, text, objects in photos, etc.
  2. There are also other filtering options available; tap the 'Filter' option in the bottom-right corner.
  3. Next, you can choose to show only favorites or sort items by date added or date created. For further options, tap on 'Filter by'.
  1. You can then choose filtering options like 'Edited', 'Screenshots', 'Videos', etc.
  2. Finally, tap the photo you want to use and tap on 'Done' to close the editing screen.

You can also still choose a key photo using the previous flow from iOS 17.

  1. Open the photos of the person for whom you want to change the key photo.
  2. To get an idea of which photo would look good as the Key Photo, tap on the 'three-dot menu' and select 'Show Faces' from the options. Now, some photos won't look as good (the quality will be degraded severely) as they'll have to be cropped more when chosen as the Key Photo. But this step is completely optional.
  3. Then, tap and hold the photo you want to use as the Key Photo and select 'Make Key Photo' from the menu.

With iOS 18, finding and changing the key photo for someone is easy. So, if your iPhone too has been serving you the most atrocious photos of you and your loved ones as the Key Photos in People & Pet thumbnails, you can easily rectify the situation.