No matter what happens with WWDC today, I’m not using this AI feature on my iPhone 16

I was incredibly excited to upgrade to An iPhone 16 Last fall. After five years with the beloved but outdated iPhone 11, I was ready for all the regular perks: better battery life, better cameras, (particularly exciting for me) shades of Barbie pink. What I wasn’t expecting is that my iPhone 16 comes with not one, but two new buttons, an action and camera controls. And one of these will definitely rain in my parade.

The action button is a small button above the volume adjuster. It was featured on the iPhone 15 Pro model, Customizable Buttons It can do anything from turning on your ringer to ordering for your Dunkin’s coffee. It’s small, meek, and it’s your own business.

It is the camera control button that causes all the chaos.

Camera control The new button in the iPhone 16 lineup is to do what the name suggests. Control the camera. It helps you snap photos quickly and acts as a shortcut to launch the camera app. In particular, you can slide your finger into the mini settings menu to adjust the camera zoom and more. However, there is one true reason for the existence of buttons: ai.

Like all other tech companies, Apple has invested heavily in artificial intelligence. I’m looking forward to next week Worldwide Developers Conference To highlight and in detail the advances the company has made since debuting its suite of Apple Intelligence features last year What role does AI play? With next-generation software and hardware.

Apple Intelligence It was the driving force behind much of the company’s innovation. For example, the camera control button is Visual Intelligencewith new AI-driven features that allow you to use cameras to scan real-world objects and get more information about them. It sounds fashionable, but it’s completely pointless to me, and it’s a feature I’ve never been tempted to use.

There is Other Use Cases For camera control buttons, how to do this Customize button settingsas my colleagues found through the test. But that doesn’t change the fact that the camera control button is so perfectly It’s annoying.

This is a button about the size of the power button on the bottom right side of the device. And by chance it’s very easy to tap. I opened the camera while driving and using the navigation app while I was in my pocket. While I was turning my phone off all night, I opened the camera app all night and drained the phone’s battery.

And if it wasn’t annoying enough, it took some taps to do so every time I actually intended to open the camera via camera controls. Go to the diagram.

I had camera controls enabled, but the camera roll included some great shots like this.

I ask you: what is the point of a button that works when you don’t need it and doesn’t work when you do? There are already three ways to access your iPhone’s camera from the lock screen, which takes literally seconds to use. Camera control is a very expensive and a very unreliable addition to the iPhone 16. Everything is for AI functions Not needed or used by many people. There was no moment I missed it since I turned off the camera controls. So, even if Apple announces some huge visual intelligence updates at WWDC next week, there’s no way to spontaneously reverse it.

I understand that my complaints with camera control are minor complaints in the overall positive experience with my new phone. But as an AI reporter, I can only see this as a nasty indication. So many tech companies are AI-friendly overhauling software and devices whether they spam Gemini popups on all Google apps, whether it’s the new Copilot button on Microsoft Windows laptops, or the Apple camera control button.

Tech companies are so enthusiastic that they can’t ride AI trains, they don’t give them enough ideas about whether their features will use their products to enhance our experience or simply derail them. It’s not enough to provide an opt-out option. Thankfully, me and my camera roll, Apple will. However, we hope that in the future, such drastic measures will not be necessary as companies are intentional with AI-enabled features.

If you want to join to remove the Camera Control button, you can go to iPhone Settings and select it. camera. Next, tap Camera control. Selection within camera control Accessibilityafter that Switch camera controls. If you are also experiencing ultrasensitivity, you can adjust the number of taps (and the required pressure) to trigger buttons on the same accessibility page. Light press power.

For more information, see the hands-on experience at iPhone 16 Pro And we iOS 19 Wishlist.