For years, iPhone owners have been stuck with a Camera app that looked and worked the same for everyone, regardless of how they actually shoot. That finally changes with iOS 27. Apple has quietly added the ability to customize which controls show up on screen, and the fix arrived in the iOS 27 Release Candidate the company pushed out to developers on Wednesday, just days ahead of the public rollout.
A Feature That Was a Long Time Coming
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman first reported back in May that Apple was planning to make the Camera app more customizable, giving iPhone owners more say over how the interface looks and behaves. The feature didn’t show up when Apple previewed iOS 27 at WWDC in June, which led Gurman to suggest that Apple was holding it back specifically for the launch of the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. Those two phones bring some of the biggest camera hardware changes Apple has made in years, so it made sense that Apple would want the software to catch up alongside the new hardware.
Now that the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max have officially been unveiled, the customization feature has arrived in the iOS 27 Release Candidate, and it isn’t limited to the newest phones. Apple has made it available across every iPhone model that supports iOS 27, which stretches all the way back to the iPhone 11.
How to Customize the Camera App on iOS 27
Setting up your preferred Camera app layout only takes a few taps. Open the Camera app and look for the button showing six small circles in the bottom-right corner of the screen. Tapping it reveals a new Edit button in the top-left corner, and selecting that opens the “Add Photo Controls” tray.
From this tray, you can add or remove widget-style controls that appear along the top of the Camera app’s interface. Once you’ve arranged things the way you like, tap Done in the top-right corner to save your setup. Depending on which iPhone model you own, the available controls include:
- Flash
- Live Photo
- Aspect Ratio
- Timer
- Exposure
- Styles
- Filters
- Depth Control
- Night Mode
- Center Stage
- File Format
- Shared Library
If you end up wanting your original layout back, there’s a “Reset to Essentials” option at the bottom of the widget tray that restores Apple’s default set of controls in one tap.
When You Can Try It
This feature is currently live in the iOS 27 Release Candidate, which developers can install now. Apple has confirmed that iOS 27 will roll out to everyone with a compatible iPhone on Monday, September 14, so this level of Camera app customization is only a few days away from reaching the general public.
