Did you know that you can use your iPhone’s volume buttons to capture pictures and videos? If you didn’t know that, now you know a shortcut to shoot photos with hardware buttons. But that’s not all. You can also utilize the long-press action on Volume up and down buttons to take burst photos and quick take videos.
Apple has made it very confusing to capture photos and videos using volume buttons as the feature changes depending on your iPhone model and iOS version. In this article, first, we will discuss the single-press actions of volume buttons that are constant across devices and iOS versions and then we will move on to the differences.
Single-press Action for Volume Buttons
Since way back Apple has allowed users to use volume buttons as physical shutter control for the camera app. So, no matter which iPhone you are using or which iOS version it’s running on, all these actions will work. Remember that for these actions to work, you need to be in the same mode inside the camera app. For example, for using the volume button as a photo shutter, you need to be in the photo capture mode.
Long-Press Actions for Volume Buttons
This is where things become a little obscure. In iOS 13, for iPhone 11 or newer, you get the following long-press actions.
- Video Mode: Press-and-hold volume up/down key to start a video. Let go of the button to stop recording.
- Slo-mo Mode: Press-and-hold volume up/down key to start a slow-mo video. Let go of the button to stop recording.
- Panorama Mode: Press-and-hold volume up/down key to start capturing the panorama. Let go of the button to stop recording.
In iOS 14 the above features also work on iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max models. No other models of iPhone support these features.
In the photo mode of the camera, the long-press actions on volume buttons act differently. If you have iPhone XR or newer models of iPhone, long-pressing either Volume up or down button will start a quick-take video recording. You can release the buttons to stop recording.
- Here, enable the toggle for “Use Volume up for Burst”.
So that was all that you needed to know about capturing photos and videos using iPhone volume buttons. As you might see, the system is a bit confusing. That said, I have tried my best to explain everything as clearly as possible.
