5 Things You Didn’t Realize Your iPhone Camera App Could Do
Much of the iPhone’s default Camera app features are pretty easy to figure out — especially when you’re not bothered by things like exposure, frame rates, and the like. However it does havemore than a few secretstucked away. Or sometimes they’re hidden in plain sight.
Well, maybe these are not so much “secrets” as features Apple, and by extension the Camera app itself, doesn’t make quite as obvious as swiping between camera modes or flipping between the rear and front-facing cameras. Regardless, if you’ve just been using your iPhone’s camera to snap photos, you might not have realized some of these other options and features were there.
That being said, please be aware that not all of the features below are available on every model of iPhone or all versions of iOS. Requirements will be noted as they come up, but unless you’re using an iPhone 15 with the latest version of iOS 17 installed, there’s a chance you might not be able to access at least a couple of them. However,making sure iOS is up to dateis still a good idea, regardless.
Switching between taking photos and recording videos in the Camera app is fairly simple — just swipe the screen from left to right when you’re on the Photo option, or tap Video manually — but you can change it up even faster than that with QuickTake. Here’s what you need to do:
Please note that QuickTake is available for the iPhone XS or XR and newer, so long as you’re using iOS 16 and up. Videos recorded with QuickTake will appear in your Photos app just like any other image or video you capture, and can be shared, edited, duplicated, or deleted in the same way.
Semi-hidden camera options
You also can quickly reach a number of small access and editing options that you might not realize are present within the Camera app itself.
Be aware that any settings you change through this method will remain after you close the app.
Change video quality with a tap
There are a lot of options you can play around with toadjust video quality and compression, but you don’t have to go digging through the Settings app to make some of those adjustments.
Keep in mind that going up to 4K or 60 FPS (or both) won’t just increase the quality or fluidity (or both) of the video you’re recording. Higher resolutions and higher frame rates also increase the overall size of the video file itself, which may make it more difficult to share or transfer. Additionally, more nuanced video settings like HDR are still only accessible through Settings.
Cinematic Mode
Cinematic Mode requires an iPhone 13 or newer with iOS 15 or above installed, and the effect can be used to add a slight (or more intense) blurring effect to the background while keeping video subjects in focus.
You can turn the Cinematic Mode effect on or off in iOS 15 via the Photos app by selecting the video and tapping Edit, then tapping Cinematic in the top-center to toggle the effect off or back on. In iOS 16 and later you can adjust the effect with a slider instead of toggling it.
Action Mode
Action Mode is available for the iPhone 14 and newer, running iOS 17 and up, providing you with a way to capture less shaky-looking videos when walking, running, etc.
Be aware that videos recorded with Action Mode will be cropped a little differently than what you might be used to, due to the nature of the feature. It also works best in an environment with plenty of light, so you might have issues if you attempt to use it at night or in a dimly lit indoor space.
