iOS 18.2 Makes Camera Controls the Killer Feature They Were Always Meant to Be

The iPhone 16's camera control feature has received mixed reviews, including from me. But iOS 18.2 updates the feature in a few key ways, making it the way it was always intended.

Visual Intelligence Unlocks a New Camera Superpower

The biggest change to camera controls in iOS 18.2 is visual intelligence.

When you long-press the camera controls, your iPhone's camera can launch into a special mode that provides key information about the world around you and shortcuts for taking action on that information.

Here's how Apple describes it:

Users can press and hold Camera Control to check the opening hours or ratings of a restaurant they’re driving past, add an event from a flyer to their calendar, quickly identify a dog’s breed, and more. Camera Control will also serve as a gateway to third-party tools with specific domain expertise, such as when users want to search Google to find where they can buy an item or use ChatGPT’s problem-solving skills.

My colleague Fernando made a video outlining 10 different use cases for visual intelligence. I highly recommend watching it to see what your iPhone 16 can do on iOS 18.2.

Faster Camera Launch

Another key update in iOS 18.2 is that you can use Camera Control to launch the Camera app faster than ever before.

By heading to Settings ⇾ Display & Brightness, you’ll find a new toggle for Camera Control: ‘Require Screen To Be On’

iOS 18.2 turns this toggle on by default, allowing Camera Control to work as it always has. But if you turn it off, you’ll be able to launch the camera even when your iPhone’s display is off.

Basically, this eliminates one step and lets you take photos faster. No more pressing the camera control button once to wake the device and a second time to launch the camera (or pressing the display first to wake it).

Just grab your iPhone, press the camera control button, and your camera will be ready to go.

More New Features and Settings

iOS 18.2 also introduces the two-stage shutter feature that Apple showed off back in September.

There's a new AE/AF lock toggle under Settings ⇾ Camera ⇾ Camera Controls.

Top comment from Krugler

7 people liked it

It's nice that they're already adding improvements and listening to feedback, but it still feels too limiting to only have access to the camera features. This should have been announced as Action Button 2.0 with support for custom actions. You should be able to use it to scroll up and down on web pages, swipe through videos, maybe even assign it to control volume and use the two existing volume buttons as two more action buttons!

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Enabling this means that a light press on Camera Control will lock both focus and exposure, so you can press lightly to capture those details, then press harder to actually take the photo.

There's also a new option in Settings ⇾ Accessibility ⇾ Camera Control to control the speed of the double-click action. You can choose from three options: Default, Slow, and Slower.

iOS 18.2 Camera Controls Overview

iOS 18.2 camera controls are a feature that Apple clearly wanted to add to the iPhone 16 but couldn't. It makes the new dedicated button much more useful than before, so it actually becomes the killer feature it was meant to be.

Have you used the camera controls in iOS 18.2? What do you think of the changes? Let us know in the comments.