I've tested iPhone 16's new Camera Control button - and discovered two surprisingly useful hidden features Apple overlooked

I’VE been secretly trying out the iPhone 16 for days – and much of the time has been spent poking and prodding its new button. The Camera Control button is a new addition to all four 2024 iPhone models, which came out today – Friday, September 20.

The new Camera Control button is seen here on the iPhone 16 Pro Max – but it’s on all four new iPhone 16 models too. It’s never appeared on an iPhone before, but it’s a handy addition. The idea is that you press it to take photos, and swipe it to change camera settings. But there are two hidden tricks that you might have missed.

WHAT IS THE IPHONE 16 CAMERA CONTROL BUTTON?

The new button is on the right edge of the iPhone 16, about an inch from the bottom. Click it once and the camera launches. Click it a second time and it’ll take a photo. Great. But the button is also a capacitive pad that can sense when you’re rubbing your finger along it.

If you lightly press on the pad, it’ll pull up your current camera setting – like zoom. And you can then scroll with the button to move between zoom levels. Or you can lightly press twice in a row to pull up camera settings, scroll between them, and then press again to choose one. Think focus levels or photographic styles.

It’s pretty useful, and it’s in a good position whether you’re holding your iPhone 16 in portrait or landscape. And you can also go into Settings > Accessibility > Camera Control to adjust how sensitive the pad is.

CAMERA CONTROL’S HIDDEN PERKS

There are two main advantages of the Camera Control button – beyond just using it to scroll through photo settings and snap pics.

The first is that iOS 18 now lets you swap those quick-action icons at the bottom of your Lock Screen. Normally they’re set to a torch or flashlight and the camera. Now the Camera Control button exists, you can swap the camera icon for something else more useful.

I’ve got it set to Reminders because I firmly believe that app is one of the only things keeping me sane. But you can set it to do basically anything in iOS 18 – and use the Camera Control button to quickly snap photos instead.

IPHONE 16 PRICES – HOW MUCH ARE YOU PAYING?

Here’s what you need to know:

• iPhone 16:
  • 128GB: £799 (UK) / $799 (US)
  • 256GB: £899 (UK) / $899 (US)
  • 512GB: £1,099 (UK) / $1,099 (US)
• iPhone 16 Plus:
  • 128GB: £899 (UK) / $899 (US)
  • 256GB: £999 (UK) / $999 (US)
  • 512GB: £1,199 (UK) / $1,199 (US)
• iPhone 16 Pro:
  • 128GB: £999 (UK) / $999 (US)
  • 256GB: £1,099 (UK) / $1,099 (US)
  • 512GB: £1,299 (UK) / $1,299 (US)
  • 1TB: £1,499 (UK) / $1,499 (US)
• iPhone 16 Pro Max:
  • 256GB: £1,199 (UK) / $1,199 (US)
  • 512GB: £1,399 (UK) / $1,399 (US)
  • 1TB: £1,599 (UK) / $1,599 (US)

The second is that you don’t have to use the Camera Control button for launching the camera at all. If you go into Settings > Camera > Camera Control, you can change it to open other apps. It’s not a limitless list, but mine lets me choose Apple’s Code Scanner (for QR codes), the Halide app for taking photos, the Magnifier app for zooming in on content, as well as Instagram. The obvious catch here is that they’re all camera-related, but it’s a nice hidden way to customise your button.

THAT’S NOT ALL!

There’s actually a third use for the Camera Control button that Apple has talked about – but hasn’t released yet. Eventually, Apple plans to add something to the iPhone called visual intelligence. The idea is that you’ll hold down the Camera Control button to scan an object in front of you. For instance, point it at a dog and it’ll tell you the breed – or snap a landmark to find out more about it. But that AI-powered feature isn’t available yet – it’s coming in a future Apple Intelligence update. So stay tuned.