I tell my friends that the new iPhone 16 is coming and they all say the same thing: “What’s so new?” I heard one editor wonder if the new phone was even worth the iPhone 15sa reference to the iPhone 6s days when Apple would update internals twice a year without changing the look of the iPhone. My only reaction is: can’t you see the new button? What more could you want?!
Think it’s just a button? Sure, the camera hasn’t changed much. It can’t take infrared photos or X-ray images through walls. It doesn’t record holograms for you to play as R2-D2 when you find Ben Kenobi. What’s more, Apple’s camera software options are pretty basic compared to those of Samsung and Google, and the new button can’t match the pro-level controls of the competition.
I still resent saying “just a button.” A button is a big deal! How many buttons does a phone have? Three? Four? My iPhone 15 Pro Max has four: volume up, volume down, Siri (wait, where is the power button?), and the action button. One of those was a brand new button when I got that phone, I’m sure, but my iPhone 13 Pro Max also has four buttons, so I could be wrong.
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is the most feature-packed phone I own, and it only has five buttons – and two of them are on the S Pen! In fact, I count the S Pen ejector click as a button, but it doesn’t do anything, it’s just for fun. Why doesn’t Apple just give us buttons that don’t do anything!? The iPhone 16 camera control button looks nice, but it actually does stuff.
What the camera control button does and doesn’t do
The camera button opens the camera… I think? Right now my Action Button opens the camera on my iPhone 15 Pro Max, but I’ll be switching my iPhone 16 Pro (desert titanium, of course) Camera Control for that. I hope so.
I’m pretty sure the camera button not only opens the camera, but also AI – that’s Apple IntelligenceHolding down the Camera Control button takes a photo that’s sent directly to Apple’s AI for analysis.
There’s a good chance I’ll forget how to open the camera and accidentally feed Apple’s AI… over and over again. I tend to use my iPhone buttons to accidentally take screenshots, so this will be an improvement. At least there will be some intelligence involved.
Anyway, with the Camera Control button I finally get the two-stage shutter button I was hoping for. I can press the button halfway to focus the camera, then press the rest of the way to take the shot.
I get so many puzzled looks when I explain a two-step camera button, I bet half of you have no idea what I’m talking about. This is how standard cameras work, and has been since autofocus was invented, but I bet most people had no idea a camera could do this. Most people just press the camera button all the way down to take a picture.
The two-step button makes photos better. It is easier to focus a camera and hold the camera steady when taking the photo. That means photos are much clearer.
I honestly think this is the biggest improvement to iPhone photography since Apple added a second camera lens. It’s the biggest hardware improvement I’ve wanted to see in smartphones, aside from the return of the 3.5mm headphone jack.
More than just an iPhone 16 button, it’s the start of something
…all Android phone manufacturers will add a two-step camera button within two years…
The new button is more than just a button. The camera controls are touch-sensitive. You can swipe across them. Okay, that’s cool. I can imagine that would be useful for changing settings, and maybe even fun! I can also imagine that accidental swipes would change camera lenses. That would be a disaster.
If Apple had just given us two-stage focus, I would have been grateful for that alone. But Apple didn’t stop at an autofocus swipe button. Apple took AI even further. By tying the Camera Control button directly to Apple Intelligence, it brings AI to the forefront in a way that Google and Samsung have avoided.
You can find a lot of cool AI tools on the best samsung phones. You can talk to Google Gemini by pressing a button on your Pixel9 phone. Neither of these make it so easy for the AI to see what you see, with the push of a button. We don’t even know what this is going to be useful for, we just know that you can show the AI things and then you can, umm…
Back to the button. A button is a big deal! We need more buttons. This isn’t the first new button I’ve seen recently (hello Action Button!) and it won’t be the last. Okay. I’m getting tired of touchscreens.
First, I expect all Android phone makers to add a two-stage camera button within two years. It will take a few months for existing buyers to get jealous and demand a button on their next Android, and then it will take about 18 months to design a new phone. So two years – I’d put money on it.
Second, a camera button is just the beginning. There may be more buttons. AI buttons. Buttons we haven’t thought of yet. There will be more buttons. The zombie ghost of phone buttons has awakened and is hungry for new ideas.
Finally, touchscreens are terrible, at least on their own. A touchscreen is a bad tap waiting to happen. It’s a million wrong buttons I could be hitting while trying to hit the right one. It’s an Escape Room without an Esc key. We need more buttons to control our phones.
Touchscreens are good for people with certain skills – a level of dexterity, or fine motor skills. It was always a mistake to make touch the only paradigm for operating our smartphones (and don’t get me started on cars). I want more buttons, and if you can’t see why the new button is a big deal, you’re probably still trying to unlock your phone screen with your fingers.