If you recently purchased a iPhone 16 or iPhone 16 Proyou might have missed the newer hardware button that’s on the right side – or maybe you turned on the camera by accident. Camera control is more than just a physical trigger for taking photos and in the upcoming iOS 18.2, now available public betathis will enable one of Apple Intelligence’s newest features.

More than just a click button, the Camera Control is also a capacitive touch control surface that responds to pressure and also detects finger movement like a small, narrow trackpad.

Use a physical button to trigger the camera shutter this is not a new concept. You can take a photo by pressing the volume control button in the Camera app. So if the new Camera Control was just another button – even if it was better placed when you hold the phone in its wide orientation – it would have seemed like a disappointment. Rather, it is a feature exclusive to the iPhone16iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max.

How the camera control button works

The iPhone’s camera control is a physical button that depresses when you press it, but it’s also accented by haptic feedback like the MacBook’s trackpads (which seem indistinguishable from a physical mechanism even though the trackpad is just a solid piece of glass).

The surface of the button is a smooth capacitive surface that responds to the movement of your fingertip. (THE MacBook Pro Touch Bar technology endures!)

When you press the button lightly – putting some pressure on the surface but not enough to press the switch – an on-screen overlay appears. Have you noticed how iOS 18 introduced a subtle animation in the UI that shows a black indent where a physical button press occurs? The Camera Control button expands this area to an overlay where the camera control options reside.

Open the Camera app with the Camera Control button

One of the notable new features in iOS 18 is the ability to remove the default camera icon from the lock screen and replace it with something else. Personally, I’ve never used this shortcut, preferring to swipe from the right edge to open the app.

Now, pressing the camera control button quickly launches the built-in Camera app, which is arguably faster because it’s positioned near where your thumb or finger rests when you hold the iPhone .

If you accidentally launch the app when you don’t want to, you can require a double tap: Go to Settings > Camera > Camera Control and under Launch the camera select Double click.

Capture a photo or video the “traditional” way

Camera ergonomics are often overlooked, but they can mean the difference between comfortably composing a photo and twisting your fingers into pretzels to press the on-screen shutter button.

To take a photo, press the camera control button. To start video recording, hold down the button. (Hopefully a future update will add a setting that lets you change the hold behavior, allowing it to capture bursts of images instead of video. You can already do this by pressing the increase button volume, but only after enabling the option under Settings > Camera > Use volume up to Bursting.)

Light pressure also temporarily hides most interface elements for a clean look at your subject. If you don’t mind the information, go to Settings > Camera > Camera Control and turned off Clean preview.

In iOS 18.2 – currently in public beta and expected in December — you will be able to lock auto exposure and autofocus (AE/AF) by lightly pressing and holding the button, as you can by half-pressing the shutter button on most cameras. In the meantime, you can touch and hold the screen you want to focus on and the app will lock the focus and exposure at that point, even if you recompose the photo.

Zoom and switch between cameras

Perhaps the biggest advantage of Camera Control is having so many functions available without having to move your fingers all over the screen.

To zoom in and out, tap lightly to reveal a slider and drag to adjust the focal length.

A light double press of the camera control button brings up a sliding overlay of other camera options.

The Cameras option – represented by an icon that looks like a shutter – allows you to switch between cameras and their focal lengths, for example by selecting the Ultra Wide camera (0.5x zoom) or the Telephoto camera (5x zoom).

Quickly adjust exposure and depth

The overlay that appears when you lightly double-tap the camera control button also includes exposure and depth compensation options. The latter is how the iPhone changes the aperture (it even uses an ƒ icon to indicate f-values), but like all iPhone cameras include fixed physical apertures (the aperture through which light passes through the lens to the image sensor), the control adjusts the simulated depth in Portrait mode; If the camera detects a subject in the scene, it automatically records the depth information.

Choose photographic styles

Apple has reorganized its Photographic styles feature on the new iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro models, replacing the stock filters and making styles more editable. They are also selectable via Camera Control. (iPhone 13, 14 and 15 models still use the Photo Styles feature introduced in 2021which works differently.)

Lightly double-tap the control to display the capture overlay and drag to select the Photographic Styles option. Then swipe to preview the styles in real time and choose one.

Camera Control also works to capture videos

These camera control options also apply when recording video. In Apple’s event video, a demo suggested that it was possible to switch between resolutions and frame rates, such as 4K 120 FPS, using the control, but this functionality did not appear Again. You can zoom, choose cameras and adjust exposure.

Apple also demonstrated how it can be applied in third-party photo and video applications by highlighting the Grid Composer functionality in Lux Software. Kino video appwhich alternates between visible guide types.

What about non-photography features of Camera Control?

The button is reserved for photographic uses, including features that third-party developers include in their photo and video capture applications. If you don’t want to take photos using the command, you can also use it as a second action button to scan QR codes or launch the Magnifier Control Center tool. Go to Settings > Camera > Camera Control and choose Code scanner Or Magnifying glass in the list of applications.

But Apple is also sneaking in a Apple Intelligence feature called visual intelligence that uses the camera. It’s not yet available to most people, but if you install the iOS 18.2 public betait works like this:

With iPhone locked, press and hold the camera control button to display the camera. When you take a photo in this mode, Apple Intelligence searches for what you’re pointing at. You can then visually search anything in front of the camera or press an Ask button to send the query to ChatGPT. In Apple’s examples, a person took a photo of a restaurant to get more information and check its hours of operation, then searched for the breed of a passing dog.

Camera Control is exclusive to iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro. To learn more about what’s new with iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods, check out our full coverage of Apple’s September event.

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