I wasn’t a big fan of the Camera Control button on my iPhone 16 when I upgraded to the 2024 model, but regular usage over the last few months has changed my mind and trained my muscle memory. Now I’m convinced.

I Avoided the Camera Control Button for Two Months

I upgraded from an iPhone 13 to the iPhone 16 in late September (a few weeks after its launch). Everything about the phone, from its looks to performance, camera quality, and battery life, felt worthy of the upgrade. However, I couldn’t understand the point of Camera Control.

Given that it is one of the few physical aspects that set the iPhone 16 apart from its predecessor, it should have a definitive use case. My outlook on the Camera Control button changed in December (in the third month of ownership) when I attended a three-day Indian wedding.

Many of my relatives and I have good camera phones, like the mid-range OnePlus and Vivo handsets, the Samsung Galaxy S series, and a couple of iPhones. However, since I had the newest phone, everyone kept asking me to take pictures (and being the youngest, I couldn’t deny any of them).

By the end of the first day, I regretted telling everyone about my new phone as I had to shoot almost two hundred pictures. Every time someone asked me for a picture (dozens of them so that they could use the best one), I had to take out my phone, wake up the screen if the Raise to Wake gesture failed (which it still does sometimes), and swipe right to open the camera.

But it was when one of my tech-enthusiast cousins asked about the Camera Control button that I had an epiphany.

Camera Control Makes Capturing Photos Faster

From the second day, I started using the Camera Control button, and boy, did it make things easier for me. Before I get into the details, you should know that pressing the button while your iPhone’s screen isn’t awake simply wakes it up; it doesn’t open the Camera app. To do that, you have to press it a second time.

However, combined with the Raise to Wake feature, the Camera Control button helped me access the camera much, much quicker.

Here’s how I made the most of the Camera Control button. When I took my iPhone 16 out of my right pocket, I pressed the button right when the Raise to Wake feature kicked in, waking up the screen to the Camera app.

By the end of the day, I had mastered clicking the button at just the right moment, making the entire process seamless. Eventually, it became an instinctive action for me. To compensate for the jerk of pressing the shutter button, I started holding my iPhone with both hands, and the results were fantastic.

Tweaking Camera Settings Makes Sense Now

As I got used to resting my thumb on the Camera Control button (in portrait orientation), I also started using the slide gesture to adjust the zoom levels. The iPhone 16’s camera allows you to take pictures at multiple zoom levels, including 0.5x (with the ultrawide sensor), 1x (using the primary sensor), and 2x (lossless zoom).

Now that I am accustomed to the Camera Control button, it feels natural to switch between them using the capacitive touch sensor. I also used Camera Control to adjust the exposure in several shots, especially when I held something in the other hand. To do this, you must double-press the button, use the slide gesture, and then press it once on the required setting.

Only when I flipped my iPhone horizontally did I take my thumb off the Camera Control button and use the on-screen controls. However, even then, one can use their index finger to use the button.

Months of Muscle Memory Helps

I’ve come to believe that the utility of the Camera Control button isn’t in what it does but in how it does it. It makes the process more efficient. It might have saved two seconds every time I captured a photo, but multiply that with the hundreds of photos I took, and it makes a world of difference.

Now that I’ve spent a lot of time with the button, I’ve developed muscle memory for it.

Visual Intelligence Gives the Button Another Purpose

With iOS 18.2, Apple launched Visual Intelligence and gave the Camera Control button another purpose. The feature combines Google Lens’s visual search capabilities with ChatGPT’s vast database and reasoning, which can be a tedious process otherwise.

To use Visual Intelligence, press and hold the Camera Control button, point the camera toward an object or landmark, and take a picture (using the button or the on-screen shutter). You can also use the button’s slide gesture to zoom in on the subject. Then, you can either perform a visual search on Google Lens or analyze it with the help of ChatGPT.

The feature is especially handy if you’re trying to find a product online or gathering information about a landmark. So far, I’ve used it 10 to 15 times, mostly to look up products, identify companies from their logos, and find reviews of new restaurants or cafes.

Just like Camera Control’s photographic abilities, I’m sure my muscle memory for looking things up will develop over the coming months too.

Camera Control was a big change for the iPhone in 2024. Wondering what 2025 might bring? Check out what’s rumored for the iPhone 17 and everything Apple could launch in 2025.