“The Return of the Physical Button” iPhone 16 Camera Controls Are a Success

For the second year in a row, Apple has added buttons to the iPhone. New iPhone buyers will have to get used to two hardware buttons: the action button (introduced on the iPhone 15 Pro and now on all iPhone 16 models) and the camera controls, which are being added this year.

For those who remember the days when Apple was trying to eliminate buttons and ports from all of its products (which reached its lowest point with the iPod Shuffle, which completely removed buttons), this is a surprising twist. I’ve used the camera controls myself, and while I’m not sure everyone will like them, I think there are a lot of benefits to the iPhone that make it a better camera.

Let’s start with the most important part of camera control: hardware. You can control what’s happening on your iPhone by simply pressing a physical button. It may seem obvious, but the iPhone was born with the philosophy that the more you can do on a touchscreen, the better. That’s why everyone uses touchscreens now, and Blackberries have been banished to the land of wind and ghosts.

But there are advantages to physical controls, as well as the original iPhone design. You can find functions by touch, something you can’t do with a touchscreen. You can move around and get tactile feedback. Put it all together and you have an interface that satisfies our brain’s innate need to store physical movements as muscle memory.

The camera control button is a winner in terms of tactility. When you press all the way down to launch the camera app or take a photo, there’s a satisfying tactile bump in your fingers. You can take your phone out of your pocket, touch the camera control button, and take a photo. This is the interface that has been the solution for real cameras for years, and now it’s on the iPhone. Apple even ditched the old-school camera interface where you press halfway to focus and then press all the way down to take a photo.

The iPhone’s touchscreen interface is amazing in that it lets you do literally anything you want. But I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen users swiping and tapping and trying to find the right mode to take a picture with the camera app, or handing their phone to someone to take a picture. When you’re trying to capture a moment before it’s lost in bright sunlight and you can’t see what’s in front of you, you don’t want to fight a software interface. There’s a reason camera interfaces are a Platonic ideal of “point and shoot.” All that pointing, swiping, and tapping just isn’t very good.

And many users have long known that they can take photos using the volume buttons, or swipe the lock screen or long-tap the camera icon to go to the camera app. But that’s not really how it’s used. Apple knows people don’t do that, and they will continue to do so, and they’re committed to providing a safe, dedicated space for all their photos.

Camera controls can be as complex as you want them to be. The key is point-and-shoot: press the button all the way down to take a photo. (The Camera app opens first if it isn’t already open, and you can replace Apple’s Camera app with a third-party camera app if you wish.)

Press halfway down and things change a bit. Most of the chrome of the camera app disappears, giving you a simpler preview of the photo you just took. You’ll also notice a small horizontal interface popping up on the screen just below the camera control buttons. This interface is a series of controls that you can adjust by swiping your finger left or right, like you would with a digital camera with a control dial in addition to the shutter button. For example, you can adjust the zoom level.

If you want more control, you can add more complex features. Double-tap halfway down without lifting your finger, and the interface will go up a level to reveal a set of controls that you can use by sliding your finger. Users won’t switch between these controls very often, but you can set them to appear when using the camera, for example, to switch to a different photo style rather than zoom.

I am a power user. I like optional complexity. But it should be optional. Basic functionality should be simple enough for the average user, and I think the camera control buttons meet that need. It gets complicated if you want to learn how to access it, but the bottom line is that it is a button you press to take a picture.

Last year, Apple introduced the Action Button, suggesting that it could also be used as a camera shutter button, and many people probably did. However, the camera control is dedicated to taking pictures, and it’s on all four new iPhone 16 models, so I think it has a better chance of success.

Action buttons can be repurposed for other purposes, but camera controls should focus on the camera function. Focus on the camera function, keep improving the related software, and don’t try to make it too complicated. It will only be successful if it is easy to use like the shutter button on a traditional camera.
editor@itworld.co.kr