Check out these seven tips to launch the iPhone camera instantly, making sure you never miss a memorable shot.
1. Swipe left on the Lock Screen
You obviously know there is a camera button on the iPhone Lock Screen to quickly launch the Camera app. However, you need to touch and hold this button, which can be a bit time-consuming. An even faster method is to swipe left anywhere on the Lock Screen to jump straight into the camera — no need to unlock the device.
Extra info: If the iPhone flashlight is active, you can swipe a bit on the Lock Screen to peek at the camera, and it will turn off the flashlight.
2. Use the Camera Control
Both iPhone 16 and 16 Pro models have the new Camera Control side button that lets you open the camera instantly. Click or press this switch to launch the Camera app, and click it again to use it as a shutter button to snap a picture or start a video recording.
By default, this button works only when your iPhone screen is awake. If you want to launch the camera even when the screen is off, go to iOS Settings > Display & Brightness, and turn off the Require Screen On switch.
If you have an iPhone 16, 15 Pro, or 15 Pro Max, you can set the Action button to launch the camera. The best part about this is that you don’t have to wake your iPhone to use the Action button. You can long-press the Action button even when the phone is locked, and it will take you straight to the camera.
You can also customize this button to open a specific shooting mode in the Camera app, like Photo, Selfie, Video, Portrait, and Portrait Selfie.
- Go to the Settings app on your iPhone and tap Action Button.
- Swipe until you reach the Camera option.
- Photo mode is great for most people, but you can tap it and choose something else, like Selfie, Video, Portrait, or Portrait Selfie.
Now, lock your phone and press & hold the Action button to jump right into the Camera.
4. Add a camera shortcut under your Lock Screen clock
Swiping is fast, but it can be tricky if you get a lot of notifications. To solve this, you can add an “open camera” shortcut to your iPhone Lock Screen. Once added, just tap the button, and it will instantly take you into shooting mode.
1) Open the Apple Shortcuts app and tap the plus button from the top right of the Shortcuts tab.
2) Tap Open App.
3) Tap the word ‘App’ in blue and select Camera.
4) Optionally: Tap the shortcut name at the top and then Choose Icon. From here, select the camera symbol under the ‘Objects & Tools’ heading and tap Done. Remember not to tap the big Camera app icon at the top. You can also rename the shortcut to ‘Open Camera’ instead of the default ‘Open App.’
5) After this, hit Done once more to save this shortcut.
6) Once completed, follow the regular steps to add this shortcut as a Lock Screen widget. While adding the widget, tap the shortcut and pick the ‘Open Camera’ shortcut you just built.
Once that’s done, you can tap the shortcut icon on the Lock Screen to jump right into the camera.
5. Tap twice at the back of your iPhone
Follow these steps, and then you can double tap on the Apple logo on the back of your iPhone to quickly open the camera. This works even when you are using a case or skin.
- Go to iPhone Settings > Accessibility > Touch and tap Back Tap from the bottom.
- Select Double Tap, as that’s faster to trigger than a triple tap.
- Pick Camera from the list of actions.
Double-tap with one finger on your iPhone’s back, and it will open the camera! Sadly, this does not work when the iPhone is not awake.
6. Add the camera to the Home Screen Dock
If you have too many apps and Home Screen pages, it might take a bit longer to open the camera by finding it or typing its initials into Spotlight.
Therefore, if you take a lot of pictures and don’t want to miss important shots, you can drag the Camera icon from a Home Screen page onto the bottom Dock, which is visible on all Home Screen pages.
Note that since the Dock can only have four apps (unless you add folders to it), you will have to drag an existing app out of it to add the camera there.
7. Put a camera in Control Center
Once you add the camera shortcut to iPhone’s Control Center, you can open it quickly when inside other apps. This eliminates the need to swipe up to get to the Home Screen and open the Camera from there. Plus, it can also be useful if you don’t want to replace an existing Dock app with the Camera app icon.
Next, check out: 11 composition tips for taking great photos with your iPhone