- An iOS 19 leak suggests the iPhone Camera app will get a giant redesign
- Mock-ups primarily based on the leak level to a simplified, Vision Pro-inspired look
- iOS 19 is predicted to get a full launch in September
The iPhone’s Camera app has been handled to a beneficiant serving to of recent options over the previous few years, from Photographic Styles to Apple ProUncooked. But one factor Apple forgot to do is arrange them in a means that makes intuitive sense. Fortunately, a brand new iOS 19 leak suggests it will lastly be rectifying that later this 12 months.
iOS leaks are fairly uncommon, so I’m treating this new one with warning. But the supply, the YouTube channel Front Page Tech, is not identified for outlandish, unsourced rumors. And speaking about its mockups (primarily based on inside contacts at Apple), the channel says “I can say with 100% certainty that what I confirmed you is actual”.
So what precisely is new? Well, if the iOS 19 leak is true, Apple will quickly be changing the complicated mess that’s iOS 18’s cluttered Camera UI with a cleaner, simplified look that is impressed by the Apple Vision Pro.
For me, the Vision Pro affect is much less fascinating than the easy indisputable fact that Apple seems to have lastly tidied up the cluttered interface. Gone is the thumb-tiring row of eight modes for photographs and movies, with these lists as a substitute hidden inside a easy photograph and video toggle.
This does imply that some digital camera options will likely be a bit extra out-of-sight – for instance, do you know that the QuickTake function lives contained in the shutter button for one-touch burst photographs and video? But that is positively the course the Camera app wants to maneuver in. Hopefully, iOS 19 additionally fixes the arrow on the high of the app, which confusingly opens a draw of icons on the backside of the display. I’d wager that rather a lot individuals do not even know these settings exist.
The Camera app’s cluttered high bar additionally appears to have been given a welcome makeover, in line with this iOS 19 leak. It appears we’ll be getting a extra apparent means to decide on video specs like decision and frame-rates. Presumably, Apple will nonetheless discover someplace for shortcuts to Action Mode and focal lengths, which appear to be lacking from this mockup. But general, I’m absolutely onboard with the refresh – other than one factor…
The lacking hyperlink
I’ve been hoping that iPhones would possibly get a Pro photograph mode for just a few years now, however there’s sadly nonetheless no signal of 1 in these iOS 19 leaks. Apple has proven indicators of transferring in that course with video, however solely with separate apps like Final Cut Pro for iPad.
To be honest, Apple has added a whole lot of pro-friendly photograph options to iOS, a lot of that are hidden in its Settings menu. I’ve rounded up a whole lot of these tweaks in my information on find out how to arrange your iPhone 16 (or iOS 18 cellphone) to take nice photographs in 2025.
But one easy resolution to hiding the Camera app’s muddle can be to have a toggle that flips it between ‘point-and-shoot’ and ‘Pro’ mode. The iOS 19 redesign seems to be like a stable point-and-shoot expertise, however a Pro mode (maybe mapped to the Action button) might rapidly flip it into one thing like a Fujifilm X100VI by mentioning additional controls like guide focus or focus peaking.
That can be my perfect Camera app setup, successfully making the iPhone two cameras in a single. But it is potential that Apple is worried about ‘Sherlocking’ a number of the finest digital camera apps like ProCamera, Halide or Camera Obscura, which could possibly be seen as a pretend pas contemplating many have starred in its annual App Store Awards.
Still, even when Apple resists including a full Pro mode to its Camera app, the refresh illustrated on this iOS 19 leak seems to be like a step in the suitable course. And who is aware of, perhaps it does trace at a wider iOS refresh that might see it get its largest visible makeover since iOS 7 again in 2013…
