I’m a longtime iPhone user, and I’ve been dying to get my hands on Apple’s newest hardware innovation: the Camera Control button. After over a month with the iPhone 16 Plus, I can safely say I was wrong to think it would be a significant upgrade.
The Camera Control button is exciting, yes. It helps me take photos faster, but I barely use it, and it’s not because I forgot it’s there. It’s the opposite, actually. I’ve come to resent not being able to really use it.
It all has to do with the way I hold the iPhone 16 Plus and its overall size. I’m always holding the iPhone in my left hand, and most of my photos are in portrait mode. The Camera Control button is on the phone’s right side. It’s uncomfortable to invoke the camera with a single hand. And forget about trying to snap any pics with your ring or pinkie finger.
The protective case I chose for the iPhone doesn’t help either. It features a cutout whose edges cut into my fingers to the point where I dread pressing the Camera Control button.
Add the fact that Apple Intelligence isn’t available in the EU, and the iPhone 16’s unique Visual Intelligence feature isn’t available anywhere, and I have little reason to press the button I was so excited about some two months ago.
But a brand-new discovery makes me hopeful that Apple will deliver a big button change to future iPhones. In turn, this could fix my Camera Control problems.
A recent rumor said that Apple might combine the Action button and Volume keys into a single button as soon as next year. The iPhone 17 would be the first iPhone to feature such button tech, assuming the rumor is accurate. The claim is far from verified, and other sources haven’t mentioned this purported design change.
But this isn’t the first time we have heard of Apple plans to change the iPhone button design. In recent years, we have seen rumors about Apple designing iPhones with a unified volume button. Reports also claimed that Apple wanted to replace physical buttons with haptic feedback buttons for the iPhone 15 series.
None of that happened. Instead, we got the Camera Control button, which doesn’t replace the Volume keys. It’s a physical button that also features capacitive elements and offers haptic feedback.
It turns out Apple has done extensive research and testing for new button designs. The clip you’ll see below from YouTuber Apple Demo features an iPhone with Volume and Power buttons unseen anywhere else.
The phone is a mix of iPhone 13 and iPhone 14 parts. It’s not a functional device, and it doesn’t feature an Apple logo. Instead, it has a “Vesica Piscis” logo on the bag that Apple might have used to conceal the prototype’s identity.
The handset has a unified Volume button under the Mute switch and a Power button on the other side. Both of them are haptic feedback buttons rather than physical ones.
How does this innovation benefit the Camera Control button? Call it wishful thinking, but I hope Apple unifies the Volume buttons soon. I’d also love it if the resulting button was as big as the Camera Control button and worked identically.
The final piece of the puzzle would come from iOS. Apple would let users like me choose which of the two buttons handles Camera Control and which gets Volume control duties.
If that were to happen, I’d move the Camera Control functionality to the left side, where the Volume buttons currently sit. That way, I’d be able to use my thumb to start the camera and take pictures. The Volume control buttons would sit on the right, and I’d rarely use them. You can control the volume from the Control Center. I’m hoping to use Apple Intelligence in the future to manage iPhone settings by voice.
In such a scenario, the Action button would remain separate, ready to act as a shortcut to other iPhone features.
Again, it’s wishful thinking. However, the prototype in the following video shows that Apple is very serious about changing the design and functionality of the iPhone buttons. Whatever went wrong during testing might be corrected for future generations. And I can’t be the only left-handed iPhone 16 user struggling with the Camera Control button.
