The Digicam app obtained a number of the most noticeable design updates in iOS 26, with Apple simplifying the interface to make it simpler to get to varied controls. Most of what is new focuses on design, however there are a pair different notable adjustments.
Liquid Glass Design
Like the entire iOS 26 apps, the Digicam app has adopted the Liquid Glass look. Buttons are extra rounded and “float” over the background of the app due to a brand new depth impact.
The realm behind the digicam shutter and management buttons is a contact extra see-through than earlier than, so you’ll be able to see the areas outdoors of your picture extra clearly. There’s additionally no bar behind the toggles to alter focal size, so the interface appears to be like a bit cleaner.
Two-Tab Structure
The navigation bar on the backside of the Digicam app has been overhauled in iOS 26. Fairly than the choice to swipe between the entire picture and video modes, there at the moment are simply two fundamental choices that you simply see: Photograph and Video.
Whereas it is solely the Photograph and Video buttons which can be seen, you’ll be able to truly nonetheless swipe in the identical method to get to the opposite choices like Portrait, Panorama, Slo-Mo, Cinematic, and extra.
For multi-lens cameras, the small buttons to alter focal size are nonetheless in the identical place, and the buttons to view the picture you simply snapped or change to the entrance digicam have not modified location. The button to view images is now spherical as an alternative of sq., in step with the Liquid Glass replace, and Apple has shifted the controls down on the show.
The Photograph and Video buttons are beneath the shutter button, after they was once above. The shutter button itself now not has a shiny white ring round it, with Apple as an alternative choosing a extra delicate Liquid Glass ring. Bezel dimension for the highest and backside bars hasn’t modified.
Among the controls that was once situated on the prime of the Digicam app at the moment are tucked inside come out menus. When you choose a mode like Photograph, you’ll be able to then faucet on the Photograph button to get extra choices.
The menu has a Liquid Glass design and it affords giant buttons for accessing Flash, Dwell Photograph settings, Timer, Publicity, Kinds, Side, and Night time Mode. Tapping one provides you additional choices for that setting. So when you faucet Publicity, you will get a slider the place you’ll be able to rapidly modify the publicity setting earlier than you are taking a photograph.
In Video mode, you’ll be able to faucet to entry Flash, Publicity, and Motion. A lot of the different modes even have no less than one possibility that is accessed by this new menu. These menu choices are additionally accessible by tapping on the menu icon on the prime proper of the show.
There are nonetheless some fast entry buttons on the prime of the Pictures app, so you’ll be able to swap to RAW mode, faucet into Kinds, or modify flash and Night time Mode settings with out having to open the menu. Context-specific settings just like the Macro mode toggle additionally nonetheless pop up in the identical method as earlier than when relevant.
There are toggles to see the Flash, Dwell Photograph and Motion Mode indicators within the Digicam part of the Settings app.
Distant AirPods Shutter
The AirPods Professional 2 and AirPods 4 can be utilized as a digicam shutter in iOS 26, so you’ll be able to take a photograph by urgent on the stem of the AirPods. To get this to work, join your AirPods to your iPhone, open the Digicam app, after which press and maintain on the AirPods stem.
You possibly can take a photograph utilizing this methodology, or proceed to carry to start out a video. While you’re completed recording, press and maintain once more to cease the video.
Utilizing this characteristic requires iOS 26 and the brand new AirPods firmware that accompanies iOS 26. Utilizing the AirPods as a distant shutter button works with the Digicam app and with third-party picture apps.
Cleansing Warning
In case your digicam lens is soiled, your iPhone can detect that it must be cleaned and can ship you a notification letting you realize you must clear it.
Developer APIs
Builders have entry to a brand new Cinematic mode API in iOS 26 that permits third-party apps to seize Cinematic mode video, identical to the built-in Digicam app.
Cinematic mode helps recording video with a shallow depth of discipline and computerized focus adjustments between topics. Apple makes use of rack focus to rapidly swap the main target from one topic to a different, for a movie-like recording expertise.
Apple can also be offering builders with an Audio Combine API for adjusting sound after a video is captured. Third-party video recording apps can supply the identical Audio Combine controls which can be accessible within the Digicam app. Choices embody In-Body for decreasing sounds and voices from sources outdoors of the body, Studio for decreasing background sounds and reverb, and Cinematic for placing voices right into a front-facing monitor whereas leaving environmental noises in encompass, just like film audio.
Mac Accessibility
With macOS 26 and iOS 26, your Mac can hook up with your iPhone to make use of your iPhone’s Digicam app as a magnifying glass. A Magnifier on Mac characteristic makes use of the iPhone’s zoom capabilities, with the iPhone’s video feed exhibiting up on a linked Mac by Continuity Digicam.
Apple confirmed a pupil with imaginative and prescient points utilizing an iPhone to zoom in on a blackboard in a school class, with the feed coming by to her Mac so she might view what was occurring whereas additionally taking notes.
Learn Extra
We’ve a full iOS 26 roundup that covers the entire new options which can be accessible within the replace.
