Seven months after Apple unveiled the iPhone 16 and its all-new Camera Control functionality, I still had mixed feelings about it. Mostly, the way it’s positioned on the iPhone 16 models makes it feel too low to take photos comfortably.
As I previously wrote, there are a few things that make the iPhone 16 Camera Control feature an issue for me:
- Taking photos with it is uncomfortable because of where the button is positioned, and I think it’s hard to use it in both Portrait and Landscape modes (also, I took so many shaking photos that it’s just not worth it)
- Selecting camera settings with it is slower than just tapping the screen (and with time, it has become more difficult, not the opposite)
However, something changed from iOS 18.2 to iOS 18.5 beta. Apple fixed some annoying Camera Control bugs, such as a major one that forced the iPhone to reboot when the Camera Control button was pressed with the iPhone locked. Apple also fixed an issue that caused the camera not to work in some instances when launched with the Camera Control.
Without these problems, I slowly started reusing the Camera Control functionality on my iPhone 16 Pro Max. While I still think some of the issues I first mentioned are still here, including the button being too low and selecting camera settings being challenging, it has become the easiest way to quickly activate the camera after taking the iPhone from my pocket.
With that in mind, this feature has become far more useful. While it’s not as good as the Action Button, I still hope Apple makes some tweaks for the upcoming iPhone 17 lineup. The bad news is that leaked dummy units don’t seem to show any change, which means Apple might be satisfied with how it’s implemented this functionality.
