How to Customize Camera Control on Your iPhone

Do you get everything you can from the bottom right button on your iPhone 16, 17 and 18 series? The button is the phone’s camera control, which can be customized to support your mobile photography workflow.

To clear up any confusion, Camera Control refers to the capacitive button on the right side of your iPhone, which includes a range of gestures, including single and double clicks and swipe gestures. You use it to open the camera, take photos, record videos, and work with your iPhone’s advanced photography settings.

Perfect for one-handed photography, Camera Control’s default inputs are:

• Click the button once to launch the camera.
• Swipe to use different photography tools like exposure or zoom in the app
• Click again to take the image.
• Long press to capture video.
• Double-click to launch Visual Intelligence, which lets you use the camera to ask Siri questions about your surroundings.

You can change the default behaviors in Settings > Camera > Camera Control. This brings you to a pane of many options, including two important sections that you should explore first: Launch the camera And Controlsas well as several small adjustments.

For Launch the camerafaucet Camera to choose which supported app to open when you press the Camera Control button. The camera is enabled by default, but you will find other options if the corresponding application is installed. These can include Instagram, which turns your iPhone into an instant story creation tool, Code Scanner for scanning QR codes, or Magnifier, which turns your iPhone into a high-powered digital magnifying glass. You may also see other third-party apps, some of which may be grayed out pending full support.

THE Controls The section includes a range of settings you should explore, including Camera adjustments. When enabled, it makes camera control even more useful. When your Camera app is active, light taps or swipes of the button will allow you to explore camera options and settings.

Personalize lets you decide which gestures Camera Control supports in this mode, including support for light taps and swipes. It also lets you enable and disable the six settings potentially supported by Camera Control, including:

• Zoom
• Exposure
• Depth
• Cameras
• Styles
• Tone

Tap to toggle the checkmark next to the feature on and off, or tap and hold the hamburger icon (three horizontal lines) next to each item to move it into your preferred order. In the future, when you take a photo, you’ll be able to drag the camera control to cycle through these different settings in the order you set.

In addition to the features referenced above, Camera Control also allows:

• Single click or double click: Double-clicking may be preferable to avoid accidental camera activations.
• Require the screen to be on: When enabled, this toggle control will prevent accidental activation of the camera when your iPhone is locked.
• Lock focus and exposure: When this option is active, Camera Control will maintain focus and exposure for as long as you continue to touch it.
• Launch visual intelligence: When active, press and hold the Camera button to open Visual Intelligence, which lets you ask Siri about your surroundings.

Several additional customizations are available in Settings > Accessibility > Camera Control. Here you can disable the button completely and set the force and speed needed for the button to respond to a press, choosing between Default, Slow And Slow down.

I found the button behaviors configuration for Slow helps me stop accidentally opening the camera when handling my device, and adjusting the camera settings to zoom, exposure, and styles helps me focus on the image, not the controls I don’t use frequently.

That’s really what Camera Control is all about: configure it to support your workflow while making it much easier to take photos, videos, and use visual intelligence with one hand.