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Apple Just Made an Important Change to Your iPhone — Here’s How to Change It Back

The change comes with iOS 26, but not everybody will like it.

A hand holding a smartphone displaying a screenshot of a webpage about Apple Watches, showing images of three Apple Watches with different bands on a wooden surface. The phone screen shows options for capturing the screen or full page, with buttons for "Ask," "Highlight to Search," and "Search" visible at the bottom. The background is a tiled floor with blue and gray tones.Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

By Tucker Bowe

Published

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Updated

With iOS 26, Apple brings a pretty significant change to something you likely do a lot of: taking iPhone screenshots.

It still works the same — simultaneously press and release the Side button and the Volume Up button — but once you take an iPhone screenshot, you’re greeted with a new Preview experience … which you may or may not like.

If you don’t like this new Preview experience, the good news is that you can change it back quite easily.

iPhone screen showing the "Screen Capture" settings menu with options for Full-Screen Previews (enabled), Automatic Visual Look Up (disabled), CarPlay Screenshots (disabled), and Format set to SDR (Most Compatible). The phone is in a dark case and placed on a textured gray surface.
With iOS 26, Full-Screen Previews are on by default for screenshots.
Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

Turn off screen shot previews

Before iOS 26, your screenshot’s preview appeared as a little preview window at the bottom of the screen. It remained there for a few seconds and, if selected, you can further edit (crop or mark up) your screenshot and then choose where to save it or just “copy and delete.” If you didn’t select your screenshot, it would disappear and save to your Photos app.

With iOS 26, taking a screenshot automatically triggers a full-screen Preview page that gives you access to similar editing features as well as Apple Intelligence features (if your iPhone supports them) for looking up related images or asking ChatGPT about what the screenshot is of.

A hand holding a smartphone displaying the Gear Patrol website with the "Top Stories" section visible. The main story headline reads "The 2025 Gear Patrol Outdoor Awards: Our Favorite Bags, Camp Accessories, Trail Shoes and More." The phone screen shows a dark-themed interface with a search icon at the top right.
With Full-Screen Previews toggled off, your screenshots revert back to how they were before the iOS 26 update.
Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

And the kicker is that this new full-screen Preview doesn’t disappear after a few seconds. You have to physically exit out of it, which, again, you might find annoying.

Once your iPhone is running iOS 26, turning off these screenshot previews is as simple as toggling off a setting. Here’s what to do:

  1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
  2. Select General.
  3. Select Screen Capture.
  4. Toggle off Full-Screen Previews.
Screen Capture settings on a smartphone showing options for Full-Screen Previews (enabled), Automatic Visual Look Up (disabled), and CarPlay Screenshots (partially visible, disabled). The Full-Screen Previews option is toggled on with a green switch.
If toggled on, your iPhone will have the new Full-Screen Previews after taking a screenshot.
Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

Once toggled off, the screenshot Preview experience will revert to how it once was prior to iOS 26. The one difference is that if you click the little preview of your screenshot, it’ll then take you to the full-screen Preview experience.

iOS 26 is supported by iPhones that are iPhone 11 or newer.

About the Author:

Tucker Bowe has been on Gear Patrol’s editorial team since 2014. As a Tech Staff Writer, he tracks everything in the consumer tech space, from headphones to smartphones, wearables to home theater systems. If it lights up or makes noise, he probably covers it.

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