The Camera Control button, or what we presumed was going to be called the Capture Button, is a new physical control on the side of the entire iPhone 16 lineup. Here's everything you need to know, and how to get the most out of it.

Apple's Camera Control buttin is both physical and touch sensitive. With a firm press it will click like a real button, but a light-press gives you Taptic feedback like with Apple's Mac trackpads.

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Using Camera Control on iPhone 16

The Camera Control button starts with that first press. Once you press it, by default, the Camera app opens.

The Camera Control button on the side of the ultramarine iPhone 16

Both iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro lines get the Camera Control

With a second press, it will take a photo or video — depending on the camera mode you have selected.

It's very fast and easy to do. It's similar to how you could program the Action Button, but more feature-rich and dedicated solely to the camera.

Pressing the Camera Control button in the Camera app

While in the Camera app, you can press and hold on it to start recording a video. If you release, the capture will end unless you hit the record button on-screen.

If you light-press the button, you'll see the screen flex in and a new UI appear. Zoom is default but you can change the control by double light-pressing.

The depth setting pulled up in the Camera app in the Camera Control button menu

There are several controls to pick from when using the Camera Control button

On our iPhone 16 Pro, the controls are exposure, depth, zoom, cameras, styles, and tone. Double light-press to open the menu, swipe left and right to choose from, then light-press again to select.

Sliding your finger on the screen to zoom when you press the Camera Control button

With any control selected, you can again swipe left and right to make adjustments. Like zooming in and out, adjusting the look of the photo, or applying more background bokeh.

Sometimes, swiping the button repeatedly is annoying and slow. Like zooming in all the way.

The new Camera Control button on the side of the white iPhone 16 Pro

Fortunately, you can slide your finger on-screen too and adjust that Camera Control menu from there without the size limitation of the button.

Customizing the Camera Control button

By default, the Camera Control button opens Apple's own stock camera app. Fortunately, Apple has opened this up to developers via a new set of APIs.

Settings menu on the iPhone with other camera apps you can use for the Camera Control button

You can choose which camera app the new Camera Control button launches

Third-party devs can start building this into their own apps and several excellent ones have been updated so far to add support.

We've tested out Halide, ProCamera, Obscura, Moment Pro Camera, and Instagram. All of which were quickly to adopt it and have varying degrees of features outside of just launching their apps.

You can adjust this by:

Choose another of the available apps from the list

From this Settings menu you can also assign the button to other camera-related titles, like the QR code scanner or magnifier. Of course, setting it to "nothing" is also an option.

Settings menu to adjust the firmness of the Camera Control button

You can adjust the firmness of the light-press within accessibility

One last setting you may want to tweak is the pressure sensitivity. This is found in the Accessibility settings.

Adjust the Camera Control pressure sensitivity by:

Choose lighter, firmer, or default

Cases

In a bit of a deja vu moment to last year's Action Button, many case manufacturers were caught flat-footed in how to design around the Camera Control button.

Since the button is touch-sensitive, they can't cover it the same way they can the other four buttons. Some got info ahead of time from Apple, others gambled on a solution, while others are still reacting.

Apple's ultramarine blue iPhone 16 Pro case with the sapphire Camera Control button the side

Apple's silicone cases have a sapphire Camera Control button cover

Apple, of course, managed to design a cover for its first-party clear and silicone cases. They use a piece of color-matched sapphire on top of a conductive layer to cover the button.

Spigen's case also has a Camera Control cover on the side of its clear case

Spigen was one of the few that added a Camera Control cover

Long-time Apple partner OtterBox has a button cover on some of its cases while Spigen and Supcase guessed right this year. Many of these third-party cases use copper, rather than sapphire like Apple.

A clear and black iPhone 16 Pro case with a cutout on the side for the Camera Control button

Many opted to play it safe and leave a bit cutout on the side to remain compatible.

Most though have cutouts or holes on the sides of their cases. Depending on the case, this can make the button hard to use, especially on particularly thick cases.

10 Comments

jas99 12 Years · 174 comments

About 3 months ago

I think this is really innovative and I like it.

2 Likes · 0 Dislikes

mike1 11 Years · 3438 comments

About 3 months ago

Love this. Already making my life easier and I am sure I will use some more of the features and adjustments as I get more familiar.

Waiting to see how the leather case manufacturers handle this before changing out the clear case I got with the phone.

1 Like · 0 Dislikes

charlesn 12 Years · 1226 comments

About 3 months ago

Some quick thoughts after experimenting with Camera Control for a couple of hours this morning:

The Good:

Very intuitive: just plunging in with no guide, it took me all of 2 minutes to figure out how to access, scroll through and select the various functions.
Not fussy or fidgety! This was a surprise after reading reports to the contrary. YMMV, of course, but using the default pressure setting, I had no problem with the single or double light presses, or the slider at the top of the button.
Love having a screen cleared of the usual control icons so I can focus on just the image I'm trying to capture.
Good to have another way to immediately access the camera app.
Fantastic that third party camera apps like Halide and ProCamera are already supporting Camera Control. New interfaces like this from Apple have often died out from a dearth of third party support. (I'm looking at you 3D Touch and Touch Bar.) Seems like this one will be different.

The Not-So-Good

Why can't I decide which camera functions get assigned to Camera Control? I often toggle between 4:3 and 1:1 Aspect Ratios, so I'd love to have that at my fingertip for switching, but no-can-do. At least for now, you're stuck with the ones Apple has assigned to it, and there are a couple I will never use, so a partial waste of this feature for me. Likewise, why can't Apple give us three app choices to be called up by the Action Button, based on whether it's a single, double or triple press? I know I can use Short Cuts, but this functionality belongs in the Action Button settings and shouldn't be a kludge using Short Cuts.

The Bad

So... the bad is pretty bad. At least I think so. Using Camera Control for shutter release isn't a haptic press, it's actually pressing down on the physical button which requires more force than you would expect. Definitely more force than using the volume button for shutter release. The problem is that phone cameras are very light weight, so when I pressed with enough force to release the shutter, I inevitably pushed the right side of the phone down a bit, too, which causes camera shake and your image to be slightly askew. I had to really focus my concentration on not allowing the phone to move, which isn't where I want my concentration to be when capturing an image. You can adjust the force for haptic presses, but not for the physical button that releases the shutter. My workaround was to use my left thumb, which was positioned under the phone and resting on the volume button anyway--as mentioned, shutter release with the volume button is a light press that doesn't move the camera. The other workaround is to just use the screen. But as it stands, I find Camera Control unusable for shutter release.

2 Likes · 0 Dislikes

SxyGayjust 9 Years · 35 comments

About 3 months ago

charlesn said:
So... the bad is pretty bad. At least I think so. Using Camera Control for shutter release isn't a haptic press, it's actually pressing down on the physical button which requires more force than you would expect. Definitely more force than using the volume button for shutter release. The problem is that phone cameras are very light weight, so when I pressed with enough force to release the shutter, I inevitably pushed the right side of the phone down a bit, too, which causes camera shake and your image to be slightly askew. I had to really focus my concentration on not allowing the phone to move, which isn't where I want my concentration to be when capturing an image. You can adjust the force for haptic presses, but not for the physical button that releases the shutter. My workaround was to use my left thumb, which was positioned under the phone and resting on the volume button anyway--as mentioned, shutter release with the volume button is a light press that doesn't move the camera. The other workaround is to just use the screen. But as it stands, I find Camera Control unusable for shutter release.

You've got to be doing something wrong if the phone is actually moving when pressing the Camera Control button. I have a SupCase on mine which covers the Camera Control, and even with that, it does not take must effort to depress activate the shutter or start a video, certainly not enough to cause camera shake.

1 Like · 0 Dislikes

charlesn 12 Years · 1226 comments

About 3 months ago

SxyGayjust said:

charlesn said:
So... the bad is pretty bad. At least I think so. Using Camera Control for shutter release isn't a haptic press, it's actually pressing down on the physical button which requires more force than you would expect. Definitely more force than using the volume button for shutter release. The problem is that phone cameras are very light weight, so when I pressed with enough force to release the shutter, I inevitably pushed the right side of the phone down a bit, too, which causes camera shake and your image to be slightly askew. I had to really focus my concentration on not allowing the phone to move, which isn't where I want my concentration to be when capturing an image. You can adjust the force for haptic presses, but not for the physical button that releases the shutter. My workaround was to use my left thumb, which was positioned under the phone and resting on the volume button anyway--as mentioned, shutter release with the volume button is a light press that doesn't move the camera. The other workaround is to just use the screen. But as it stands, I find Camera Control unusable for shutter release.

You've got to be doing something wrong if the phone is actually moving when pressing the Camera Control button. I have a SupCase on mine which covers the Camera Control, and even with that, it does not take must effort to depress activate the shutter or start a video, certainly not enough to cause camera shake.

After decades in photography, I know my way around a shutter button. PetaPixel did an in-depth, 25 minute review of the 16 Pro/Pro Max camera system from a camera professional's perspective and had the same critique of excessive pressure needed for shutter release, causing the same issues. But hey, if it works for you, have at it.