I was excited for the biggest iPhone Camera app upgrade in years, but WWDC 2026 left me disappointed
I was excited for the biggest iPhone Camera app upgrade in years, but WWDC 2026 left me disappointed
https://www.phonearena.com/news/camera-app-add-widgets-feature-not-announced_id180948
Publish Date: 2026-06-09 02:36:00
Source Domain: www.phonearena.com
Apple has finally unveiled iOS 27 at WWDC. It doesn’t just include bug fixes and improvements to Liquid Glass; it also brings several notable upgrades over iOS 26. However, one particular upgrade that I was eagerly waiting for wasn’t showcased at the event.
The Camera app didn’t receive the highly anticipated upgrade
Apple has always gone with a very minimalistic approach for its Camera app. Its interface shows very limited options, making it easier even for people who haven’t used iOS ever before to open the app and capture an image. However, multiple reputable tipsters, including Mark Gurman from Bloomberg, confirmed before the WWDC that with the upcoming software update, the tech giant will be giving more control to users over what they want to appear on the interface.
For reference, a new Add Widgets panel was said to be added to the Camera app in iOS 27. It would basically allow you to add and remove features, which would be labeled as widgets, to the interface. Both photo and video modes would have their own set of widgets and would be categorized between the Basic, Manual, and Settings sections based on their usage.
For instance, you will find the Flash widget under the Basic section. You would then simply need to tap on it to add it to your main camera interface. All the added widgets will then appear at the top of the UI.
While the change sounds really exciting, for some reason it wasn’t even mentioned, let alone showcased at the event. Well, I definitely don’t know the exact reason behind this, but if you still ask me to take a guess, I would say that it’s because Apple wanted this event to be solely focused on their AI upgrades. If you had watched the entire show, you would have gotten my point: the majority of it was filled with all the AI and Siri-related announcements.
It’s not that the feature wasn’t announced but was added directly to the first iOS 27 beta, which is already available to download….
