This yr’s iPadOS 26 replace brings the cell expertise nearer than ever to macOS, with a windowed multitasking system and a richer set of file administration instruments — and provides the Mac’s venerable Preview app to the iPad. The iPhone will get it too in iOS 26.
Whereas Preview is a really useful addition for iPad customers, introducing a richer and extra accessible choice of markup and modifying instruments, together with Apple Pencil assist, it feels a bit extra misplaced on the iPhone, the place not everybody has a use for extra subtle PDF options.
That’s to not say that Preview isn’t helpful on the iPhone — it’s simply that it goes past what plenty of of us really need, particularly since all of the built-in markup instruments are nonetheless baked into the working system, and work simply in addition to they did in earlier iOS variations.
The issue is that many iPhone customers have discovered a draw back to Preview: it introduces friction by requiring the opening of each PDF and picture file. Earlier than iOS 26, tapping on a photograph or a PDF would preview it straight in Recordsdata; now, it sends you over to the Preview app and opens it there as an alternative.
That’s not so unhealthy once you wish to open a selected doc, nevertheless it’s a nuisance once you wish to sift by way of a folder filled with photographs. Earlier than iOS 26, you can faucet on a single picture within the Recordsdata app to open it full-screen, after which swipe left or proper to maneuver by way of the remainder of the photographs and different recordsdata within the folder. This isn’t potential in Preview, because it’s a separate app that solely hundreds the one file that you simply’ve chosen.
Go Again to Previewing Recordsdata within the Recordsdata App
The excellent news is that there’s a solution to revert to the older habits. The truth is, there’s a couple of resolution.
In the event you favor to make use of Preview by default once you faucet on a file, however sometimes wish to convey up previews straight within the Recordsdata app, you possibly can nonetheless entry Fast Look from the menu that seems once you long-press on a file. This may open that specific file straight within the Recordsdata app, and when you’re there, you need to use the Fast Look viewer to swipe left and proper similar to you can earlier than iOS 26.
Nonetheless, if you wish to return to the pre-iOS 26 habits by default, the simplest manner is to easily delete the Preview app completely. The Recordsdata app is wise sufficient to revert to its built-in Fast Look characteristic when Preview isn’t accessible to open PDFs or photographs.
After all, that’s additionally a little bit of a brute power strategy. When you can all the time reinstall Preview from the App Retailer, if you wish to preserve it round for different causes — like autofilling kinds, scanning paperwork, and changing photographs — there’s nonetheless a reasonably straightforward solution to get Recordsdata to bypass it. Right here’s how:
- Open the Recordsdata app in your iPhone or iPad.
- Find any picture file and press and maintain on it.
- From the menu that seems, choose Open With.
- Scroll to the underside and select Preview with Fast Look.
This setting will apply to all recordsdata of the identical normal kind because the one you’ve chosen, so when you’ve enabled it for a JPG file, it can apply to all JPGs you open from the Recordsdata app, and even PNG and different picture codecs. Nonetheless, it received’t apply to PDFs until you repeat the steps above with a PDF file.
Notice that you could nonetheless open photographs and PDFs straight in Preview through the use of the identical Open With menu possibility; the Fast Look setting acts as a toggle, as indicated by the checkmark that seems beside it when enabled; it stays energetic till you toggle it off by repeating the above steps.
When viewing a PDF in Fast Look, you’ll additionally see a button on the backside to open it in Preview, providing you with the perfect of each worlds: a fast manner of peeking inside whereas staying within the Recordsdata app with a brief path to the total Preview app for these instances you wish to do extra subtle modifying or markup.
Whereas Apple’s push to unify its platforms typically complicates acquainted workflows, no less than iOS 26 permits you to resolve whether or not you’d quite edit in Preview or simply peek at your recordsdata with Fast Look.