Apple's New iPhone 16 Pro Has A Hidden Feature

A man takes a photo of an iPhone 16 Pro (Photo by NIC COURY/AFP via Getty Images)

With the launch of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro, Tim Cook and his team have introduced a new hardware feature that will benefit the millions of users looking to buy the new iOS smartphones. And they might not realise how useful this change will be for many years.

Following on from the addition of the programmable Action Button to the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max (which is now being added to the iPhone 16 and the 16 Plus variant), Apple has introduced the Camera Button to the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro handsets.

Mounted beside the lower left-hand side of the iPhone’s display, the Camera Button can trigger several features, including opening the camera app and taking a picture, starting to record video, toggling camera features, and select a zoom level.

It also serves a more subtle purpose, one that might take time to become apparent to users. It’s a sneaky push to support the Apple Vision Pro.

As part of VisionOS, you can play back Apple’s stereoscopic video format on the Apple Vision Pro. These Spatial Videos are recorded on your iPhone but have previously been limited to the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max thanks in part to the layout of the main camera and its two lenses that sit next to each other when the iPhone is held in landscape mode.

While the iPhone 15 had a diagonal arrangement of its two camera lenses, the iPhone 16 moves to a vertical arrangement… or a horizontal arrangement when held in landscape. Which is perfect for Spatial Video recording.

You might not be able to play them back in 3D on your iPhone, but if you pick up an Apple Vision Pro headset (or perhaps a second Vision headset at a more attractive price point in the future), your recorded memories will be waiting for you in three glorious dimensions.

And you’re more likely to hold your phone in landscape mode if you need to reach for a brand new Camera Button with its one-handed controls. It’s a subtle nudge from Apple to help users record spatial video for “a magical moment that only Apple can deliver” in the future.

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