Despite Apple’s best efforts to market the iPhone 16‘s new camera button as its innovation, this isn’t quite the case. Yes, Apple’s implementation and tech behind the button’s functionality is novel, but fundamentally, phone camera buttons have been a fixture on Android phones (and beyond) for years.
However, while smartphone cameras weren’t all that great back in the mid-2010s and didn’t justify the need for a button, this is no longer the case. Now, more than ever, hardware camera controls make sense paired with modern smartphone imaging hardware.