First of all, please stop calling the new iPhone 16 Camera Control a button… Just kidding. You can call it a button, but it’s more than that. It’s a multifunction control that accepts full presses, light presses, and gestures. And now I know it works perfectly with on-screen controls.
As you may know from our extensive reviews of the iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, the new Camera Control—located on the right side of the latest phones, just below the power button—gives you direct access to your iPhone’s Camera app.
When you press it, a small control window appears on the Super Retina XDR display, right next to the physical button. It’s a flexible black window that grows and shrinks based on your control, so the camera selection is a bit smaller than if you’re scrolling through the main menu of exposure, depth zoom, cameras, styles, and tones.
In my experience, it’s fairly easy to access all of these controls when holding the phone in landscape mode, making the Camera Control feel more or less like the shutter button on a traditional camera. Using it when the phone is in portrait mode, which I often do, is a bit trickier.
It turns out there is another way to use Camera Control: you can touch the screen.
I know that seems obvious, but once you start using Camera Control, you’re essentially training yourself to use a combination of single and double button presses and slide gestures to control the camera. You almost never even think about touching the screen, even though I think it should.
Because what’s the point of having something appear on the touchscreen if you can’t touch it anyway?
How do you do that?
Here’s how it works. You can still open the camera app by fully pressing the camera button. Then, lightly press it again (you’ll feel the haptic vibration under the sapphire blue surface of the button) once or twice to access the camera function you want. Then, instead of sliding your finger over the camera control button, you slide your finger up and down the screen.
This is handy in one-handed vertical mode, as you can quickly select different modes with your thumb. And yes, you can tap some options on the screen, like “Camera,” to open the list of cameras and then slide across the screen to a different lens.
On-screen controls are also useful in landscape mode. When I start with the Camera Control button, my index finger naturally descends to the bottom of the screen to slide back and forth and select options in the small black Camera Control area.
If you thought camera controls weren’t for you because they’re physical controls for things you normally do on a screen, this is one way to give it your best shot: a winning combination of physical and touchscreen controls.