In the pre-smartphone era, if you wanted someone to take a picture of you in front of the Eiffel Tower or somewhere else, you had to give them a little impromptu lesson on using your camera first. An ambitious new iPhone update This was reported by Mark Gurman from Bloombergbut not yet confirmed by Apple, it sounds like the default camera app could be so customizable that it could bring this kind of confusion to smartphone photography — but only if the phone’s owner chooses to set it up that way.
Gurman, whose reports always come from anonymous sources, writes that the pending updates “should appeal to professional users.”
The physical side button Bringing the camera controls to the fore starting with the iPhone 16, it invited users to adventure with the device’s more advanced features, and this app actually seems to be the next step for users who like this button. According to Bloomberg, the Camera app will evolve into its own ecosystem of small apps called widgets that add new control options “to the top of the interface.”
It’s as if advanced smartphone photographers are truly making the Camera app their own, allowing them to keep their favorite widgets ready at all times, discard widgets they don’t want to see, or simply leave the Camera app as is.
According to Gurman, the widgets will change from feature to feature and live in an “Add Widgets” tray that can be pulled up from the bottom of the interface. So there will be widgets for taking photos that control things like exposure and depth of field. Widgets sound like euphemistic difficulty settings: “basic”, “manual” and “settings”.
And you know it Control button in the top right corner of the camera app looks like a series of programs? Gurman says this is moved to the right side of the shutter button.
In addition to the new pro-grade features, Gurman writes, you’ll be able to switch past modes like photo and video to an entirely new mode called Siri mode. Apparently, Siri mode can be used for things like translating text in the camera app, or pointing your phone at a flower and finding out what kind it is.
Gurman says Apple is set to debut these features in iOS 27 alongside the long-delayed new Siri at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) starting June 8.
