The iPhone 16 fashions will look lots like their predecessors. We’re nonetheless getting all-screen designs with Dynamic Island on the prime and more and more slimmer bezels, no less than for the iPhone 16 Pro fashions. The Pros can be barely bigger than earlier than, a design change supposedly ensuing from Apple’s want to place a tetraprism zoom camera on the smaller Pro.
But the iPhone 16 will get a particular design change, a model new {hardware} button reportedly referred to as the Capture button. It’ll supposedly sit on the handset’s proper facet, beneath the standby/energy button, and deal with camera-specific duties.
The Capture button may be very interesting to this longtime iPhone consumer, and along with Apple Intelligence, it’s a good purpose to purchase an iPhone 16 variant later this 12 months.
I’m much more assured that the Capture button is actual now that iOS 18 is official. The iPhone working system brings a function that many people have been ready for: the power to change Lock Screen apps. And that’s an indicator that the Capture button is actual.
iOS 18 brings an enormous redesign to the Control Center, which helps you to place an more and more bigger variety of controls a finger swipe away, all organized in a multi-page setup. When demoing the brand new Control Center expertise in iOS 18, Apple additionally informed us that the Lock Screen apps, can be customizable. You can do it for those who’ve been dying to eliminate the Flashlight and Camera shortcuts on the Lock Screen.
I already put in iOS 18 beta 1 on my iPhone 14 Pro, and I can verify that’s attainable. Not solely that, however you may have many apps and shortcuts at your disposal for the 2 spots in your Lock Screen. You can place completely different apps/shortcuts on completely different Lock Screens and take away them fully if you want.
Apple’s willingness to supply this change is a sign to me that the Capture button is going on. If all 4 iPhone 16 fashions let customers begin the camera app with a push of a button, there’s no level in having a shortcut on the Lock Screen. Not when the Capture button could have different camera-related options.
It is sensible to take away the Camera shortcut and let customers exchange it with one thing else. Otherwise, the iPhone 16 would have as much as 5 methods of beginning the camera from the Lock Screen. That’s the brand new Capture button, the Lock Screen shortcut, the swipe-to-left gesture, Control Center (for those who set camera controls in it), and the Action button (for those who customise it that approach).
The wise factor is to let iPhone 16 house owners eliminate the Lock Screen Camera shortcut. But this could’t be simply an iPhone 16 function. It’s the sort of iOS 18 performance most iPhone customers will wish to have out there.
iPhone customers not upgrading their {hardware} this 12 months can nonetheless take away the Lock Screen Camera app with out worrying about quick camera entry. You can swipe the Lock Screen to the left to entry the camera, and you may add camera shortcuts within the Control Center. If you may have an iPhone 15 Pro, the Action button provides you a technique to entry the camera, too.
I’ll additionally remind you that Apple launched a brand new button animation in iOS 18 that may trace at {hardware} modifications coming to iPhones, presumably as quickly as this 12 months. When you press a {hardware} button, the iPhone bezel strikes. That may trace at future capacitive powers in iPhone 16 buttons, the Capture button included.
Of course, all of that is hypothesis. We’ll have to attend till September to see the iPhone 16’s Capture button confirmed. Until then, you may all the time attempt iOS 18 whereas in beta and experiment with the Lock Screen apps.
