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As a lifelong Apple fan, I was excited to finally upgrade to a newer iPhone after the death of my beloved but dated iPhone 11. There’s a lot to like about the newer models, including iPhone 16with one major exception. One feature was constantly bothering me and making it difficult to use my phone. Disabling this feature has made a huge difference for me to enjoy using my phone again, and it can for you too.
Coming from an older iPhone model, I was surprised to see two new buttons on the 16: the motion control and camera buttons. The action button is a small button located above the volume adjusters. It was introduced with the iPhone 15 Pro models Customizable A button that can do anything from playing the ringtone to turning it on Order coffee From Dunkin’ to go. She is young and demure and minds her own business. It’s the camera control button that caused all this chaos.
Camera control It’s a new button in the iPhone 16 lineup that does exactly what the name suggests: it controls the camera. It should help you take photos quickly and act as a shortcut to launch the camera app. You can swipe your finger over the mini settings menu to adjust the camera zoom, among other settings. But there is one real reason for its existence: artificial intelligence. All iPhone 17 models have this button as well.
Like any other technology company, Apple is investing heavily in artificial intelligence. Apple intelligence He’s been the driving force behind a lot of the company’s innovations, with plenty of AI updates in the new iOS 26 operating system. But there’s no greater sign of Apple’s deep dive into AI than a camera control button. It’s the physical way to do it Visual intelligencea new AI-powered feature that lets you use your camera to scan real-world objects to get more information about them. It sounds neat, but it makes absolutely no sense to me, and it’s a feature I’ve never been tempted to use.
there Other use cases For camera control button, including customization methods Button settingsas my colleagues discovered through their tests. But that doesn’t change the fact that the camera control button is quite annoying.
It’s a long button, roughly the size of the power button, located on the bottom right side of the device. It is very easy to click on it by accident. I’ve had the camera open while my phone was in my pocket, while I was driving and using navigation apps, and once when I had my phone turned off overnight, which left the camera app open all night and drained my phone’s battery.
And if that wasn’t annoying enough, every time I intended to open the camera via the camera control, it required multiple taps to do so. Go figure. With camera control enabled, my camera roll included amazing shots like these:
I couldn’t tell you when or where these photos were accidentally taken.
My question: What’s the point of a button that works when you don’t need it and doesn’t work when you do? There are actually three different ways to access your iPhone camera from the lock screen that only take seconds to use. Camera control is an expensive and not very reliable addition to newer iPhones, and it’s all for the sake of… Artificial intelligence features Which not many people need or use. Not a single moment had passed since I turned off the camera control that I missed it.
I realize my issues with the camera control are minor complaints among what has been an overall positive experience with a new phone. But as an AI reporter, I can’t help but see this as a worrying sign. Many tech companies have overhauled their software and hardware to be AI-friendly, whether it’s spamming Google with Gemini pop-ups in every Google app, the new Copilot button on Microsoft Windows laptops or Apple’s camera control button.
Tech companies are too eager to jump on the AI train and haven’t given enough thought to whether these features enhance or hinder our experience using their products. And there aren’t enough unsubscribe options. Fortunately for me and my camera roll, Apple does. But I hope such drastic measures won’t be necessary in the future, as companies become more intentional with their AI-enabled features.
If you want to join me in making the camera control obsolete, go to your iPhone’s settings and choose camera. Then press Camera control. Under Camera control, select accessibilitythen Toggle camera control. If you’re also squeamish, you can adjust the number of clicks (and pressure required) to trigger the button on the same Accessibility page under Light compressive strength.
For more, check out our hands-on experience with iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max.