IOS 26 Fixes These IPhone Camera App Issues
The Camera app has received some useful updates in iOS 26. From a brand new app icon to a more user-friendly layout, there’s a lot to take note of . I’ve been using the new app for a couple of weeks now, and here are all the useful changes I’ve discovered so far.
User-friendly interface
I like the user interface updates to Apple’s Camera app. It’s cleaner and much less confusing when you open the app. At first, there are only two options – Photo and Video – to choose from, making it easy to jump into action. Once you’ve chosen how you want to use your camera, you can access additional options on the same screen, and Apple has reduced the number of times you have to go into your iPhone’s Settings page for camera-related settings, like choosing the video save format. You also have the option to swipe on the Photo or Video buttons to reveal more camera modes. My favorite feature, however, is that long-pressing the name of the current camera mode reveals even more options, like adjusting exposure, switching to Night mode, adjusting focus, and more.
Adjust video settings in the Camera app
Before iOS 18, shooting video could get boring pretty quickly. Most of the time, I was still fine because I only needed to shoot in standard 1080p at 30 fps. But when I wanted to shoot a video at 60 fps, I had to dig into the Settings app. That changed in iOS 26. When you open the Camera app in iOS 26 and select Video mode, you’ll see the video format details in the top left corner of the screen. Tap on it to quickly change the resolution and frame rate. This is a great feature for anyone who regularly uses their iPhone to shoot video.
Control your camera with AirPods
If you have an iPhone with iOS 26 paired with a pair of AirPods 4 or AirPods Pro 2, you can use the earbuds as a camera remote . Open the Camera app on your iPhone and press the stem of the AirPods to take a photo or start/stop recording a video. This is very handy when you need to take a photo from an awkward angle or when you want to take a nice photo of yourself from afar.
Turn on the camera setting using the camera control button
Many of us now have an iPhone with a camera button (iPhone 16, 16 Plus, 16 Pro, and 16 Pro Max). In iOS 26, the camera button launches the camera by default and lets you switch between camera modes. But if you want to change other settings while taking a photo, you can now go to Settings > Camera > Camera Settings and turn on Camera Settings . From this page, you can also select the controls you want to access. These include Exposure, Depth, Zoom, Styles, and Tone.
Get a reminder to clean your camera
With iOS 26, your iPhone can also remind you to clean your camera lens when it gets dirty . The feature is called Lens Cleaning Hints and is available on the iPhone 15 Pro and later (which suggests it may be AI-powered, since those phones are compatible with Apple Intelligence). When your lens gets dirty, your iPhone will display a small pop-up notification at the top of the viewfinder reminding you to clean it. After that, the pop-up notification will disappear.
Luckily, if this annoys you, you can turn the feature on or off by going to Settings > Camera > Lens Cleaning Tips .