iPhone users rejoice as long-awaited camera feature finally arrives after years of demand

APPLE iPhone owners have rejoiced after the smartphone giant rolled out a must-have camera feature that people had been requesting for years.

Users who have upgraded their devices to iOS 18, released earlier this month, are able to access the new feature that provides a different way to record audio.

The new feature provides the option to record videos while audio is playing out of the device. This way, if you have music playing through your iPhone’s speaker, you can easily add it as a soundtrack to your video without having to use editing software. However, the audio quality does suffer as a result.

Previously, in older versions of iOS, opening the iPhone’s camera app and switching to video mode would cause any audio playing to quickly fade out, even if it was playing through wireless headphones.

Users on X rushed to celebrate the good news. One said: “This is what I’ve been waiting for.” Another added: “Damn finally.”

To access the new feature, follow these instructions below:

• Open your iPhone’s settings
• Navigate to the Camera section
• Tap on ‘Record Sound’
• Turn on the ‘Allow Audio Playback’ toggle

With that activated, audio will continue to play when you’re recording video in the camera app. If the audio is being played through the speaker, it will be picked up by the iPhone’s microphone and recorded in mono along with the video. If the audio is playing through headphones, it won’t be recorded.

Some people were quick to point out that this function did exist in older versions of iOS with the camera app’s QuickTake feature. QuickTake allowed videos to be captured in photo mode by holding down on the shutter button. However, the resulting video quality was limited to a 1440p resolution, instead of the 4K offered through video mode.

Using a video editing app is still the best way to add music or narration to a clip, but this update will make it much easier to record videos with dance moves or lip movements that sync to a specific song.

iOS 18 was rolled out this month alongside the brand new iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max.

iPhone tricks to try today:

• Typing cursor – When typing, hold down the space bar to turn your keyboard into a trackpad, letting you move around words and sentences more easily.
• Close all Safari tabs – To do this in one go, simply hold the overlapped squares in the bottom right-hand corner, and press close all tabs.
• Delete lots of photos quickly – Hold down on a photo and then drag your finger diagonally in Photos to select lots of images at once, then hit delete.
• Convert currency quickly – Swipe down from the top of your Home screen (or swipe left to right on an iPhone X or later model), then tap in the bar and type a currency (like $200) and it will automatically convert to your local currency.
• Check if you’re due a battery upgrade – Batteries inside smartphones degrade over time. Just go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health, and check out the Maximum Capacity reading. Generally, a battery is considered worn when you’re down to 80% capacity. If you’re below, you can buy a battery swap from Apple.
• Move apps around faster – Hold an app until it starts wiggling, then (while still holding) tap other apps, causing them to stack so you can move them around easier.