The iPhone 17 is expected to feature Apple’s Camera Control key, but that could be the last we see of it as we’re hearing that the iPhone 18 may not feature Apple’s touch-sensitive button.
The Camera Control was introduced on the iPhone 16 last year, and was a major part of the marketing for all four phones in the lineup. But according to leaker Baby Sauce OvO on Weibo, due to low usage and the cost of adding the control to iPhones, Apple has told suppliers it will be ceasing orders for Camera control parts.
It’s not clear how reliable this assertion is, as Baby Sauce OvO made several claims about the iPhone 16 prior to its release last year, some of which turned out to be inaccurate. We’ll need to see other leakers with stronger track records to be confident in this claim.
The Camera Control is more versatile than the name suggests, acting both as a shutter button and navigation method for moving through camera options, plus a shortcut to the Camera app or Visual Intelligence. It can be useful, but can also get in the way depending on how you’re holding the iPhone. You don’t have to search long to find Reddit threads filled with users both praising and criticizing the Camera Control.
This sounds too quick a switch-up for Apple
Apple does change its mind about features on its devices, but looking through its product history, these changes normally take longer to happen. For example, the widely disliked MacBook Touch Bar was around for five years before Apple began to switch it out for traditional function keys again.
And in terms of iPhones, the Action button, which replaced the mute slider, shows no signs of disappearing, despite some users preferring the more traditional controller. We’ll only get a firm answer about what the iPhone 18 will do to the Camera Control next year, although there will likely be lots of leaks before that.
Next month we’ll see the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max according to the rumors, which you can read more about in the above hubs. And we think we have a pretty good idea about the iPhone 17 release date.
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