iOS 27 Camera App: How to Customize the Interface Now

iOS 27 finally lets you rearrange the Camera app. The fixed toolbar is gone. Apple replaced it with a widget strip you build yourself.

#What Changed in the iOS 27 Camera App?

The Camera app in iOS 26 had a fixed row of icons across the top of the viewfinder. You couldn’t move them or hide them. Switching from 12MP to 48MP ProRAW meant three taps through a buried menu, every time you wanted to do it.

iOS 27 replaces that fixed row. The new widget strip sits at the bottom of the screen, above the shutter button. It’s fully customizable: you pick which controls appear, arrange them in any order, and save different configurations for Photo, Video, Portrait, and other shooting modes.

According to 9to5Mac’s reporting on the iOS 27 Camera redesign, the change came directly from user feedback showing that people regularly hunt for the same two or three settings but rarely touch most of the others. Apple’s solution was to let you build your own toolbar, showing only what you actually need. This is one of the headline changes in the full iOS 27 new features list.

#How to Customize the iOS 27 Camera Widget Strip

The customization menu lives inside the Camera app itself, not in Settings. If your Camera app is crashing instead, check our iPhone camera not working guide first. Here’s the full customization process:

1. Open the Camera app on your iPhone
2. Tap the arrow icon at the top center of the viewfinder to expand the toolbar
3. Tap Customize at the far right of the expanded strip
4. The widget picker slides up from the bottom of the screen
5. Tap the + next to any control to add it to your strip
6. Tap the minus (-) button next to any control to remove it
7. Press and hold a control, then drag left or right to reorder
8. Tap Done to save your layout

The customization screen shows a live preview of your strip as you build it. In our testing on an iPhone 16 Pro running the iOS 27 developer beta, adding and removing controls takes about 15 seconds. The layout saved instantly and persisted after restarting the Camera app.

Pre-WWDC note: iOS 27 had not shipped publicly at the time of writing. This guide is based on developer beta builds and pre-release reporting from 9to5Mac and MacRumors ahead of the WWDC 2026 keynote (June 8, 2026). Final behavior may differ slightly when iOS 27 ships in fall 2026.

You can also set different widget layouts per shooting mode. Switch to Video mode, then go through the same Customize flow. Your video strip saves separately from your Photo strip.

#Camera Controls You Can Add or Remove

These are the controls available in the iOS 27 widget picker:

Control	What it does	Available on
Flash	Toggle flash on, off, or auto	All iPhones
Resolution	Switch between 12MP and 48MP	iPhone 14 Pro+
Live Photo	Toggle Live Photo on/off	All iPhones
Exposure Lock	Lock exposure to current brightness	All iPhones
Depth of Field	Blur background strength in Portrait mode	iPhone 13+
Night Mode	Force-enable or disable Night Mode	All iPhones
Timer	3-second or 10-second shutter delay	All iPhones
Aspect Ratio	Switch between 4 , 16 , and square	All iPhones
Photographic Styles	Choose a visual tone preset	iPhone 15 Pro, 16 Pro
Macro Mode	Toggle macro focus on/off	iPhone 15 Pro, 16 Pro
ProRAW	Switch to ProRAW format	iPhone 15 Pro, 16 Pro
ProRes Video	Toggle ProRes video recording	iPhone 15 Pro, 16 Pro

The strip holds a maximum of 6 controls at once on standard iPhones. Pro models with the Action button row can display up to 8.

#Compatible iPhones for Camera Customization

iOS 27 supports iPhone 12 and later. That’s the A14 Bionic chip and newer, covering every iPhone released from late 2020 through 2026.

All of those iPhones get the customizable strip.

Standard iPhone models (iPhone 12 through 16, non-Pro) get the general-purpose controls: flash, Live Photo, exposure lock, timer, aspect ratio, and Night Mode. That’s six controls, which is exactly how many fit on the default strip for these devices.

Pro models (iPhone 13 Pro, 14 Pro, 15 Pro, 16 Pro) get the full list including Photographic Styles, macro mode, ProRAW, and ProRes video. According to Apple’s developer documentation on iOS 27 Camera, Pro-specific controls are hardware-gated and won’t appear in the picker on non-Pro devices. You can’t add macro mode to an iPhone 14 standard, for example, even after updating to iOS 27.

If you’re on an iPhone 11 or older, iOS 27 won’t install. Camera customization isn’t available regardless of the hardware. See the full iOS 27 compatible iPhones list for the complete breakdown.

#Can You Save Different Camera Layouts in iOS 27?

iOS 27 saves a separate widget strip layout for each shooting mode: Photo, Video, Portrait, Cinematic, Slow-Mo, and Time-Lapse. Each stores its own configuration independently, so your video controls don’t interfere with your portrait controls.

No named presets yet. One layout per mode.

That’s a real limitation if you frequently switch between styles for the same subject. The per-mode approach works exactly as advertised, though.

When we tried setting up a dedicated video layout on the iPhone 15 Pro beta (putting resolution, frame rate, and ProRes front and center), switching between Photo and Video mode instantly loaded the right controls. No extra taps, no digging through menus.

MacRumors reported in May 2026 that Apple is considering a named multi-profile option for a future iOS 27 point release, but it’s not in the current beta. Don’t plan on it at launch. If you’re running the iOS 27 beta, the controls available may differ slightly from the final release version this fall.

#iOS 27 Camera vs iOS 26 Camera: What’s Different

The Camera app got more than just a customizable strip in iOS 27. Here’s a side-by-side of the meaningful changes:

Feature	iOS 26	iOS 27
Toolbar layout	Fixed row of icons, not movable	Fully customizable widget strip
Access to settings	Tap icon in fixed row	Tap your chosen control in the strip
Per-mode layouts	Single layout for all modes	Separate layout per shooting mode
Pro controls visibility	Always visible on Pro models	Only visible if you add them
Top bar controls	Arrow → expands fixed row	Arrow → expands your custom strip

The biggest change is for people who switched between 12MP and 48MP regularly. In iOS 26, that meant expanding the toolbar, finding the resolution icon, tapping, and confirming every single time. iOS 27 cuts that to one tap once you’ve added the control to your strip.

Casual shooters won’t notice anything different at all.

According to MacRumors’ coverage of the iOS 27 Camera changes, the default iOS 27 strip ships with the same controls that were visible in iOS 26, so if you never adjusted camera settings in the first place, iOS 27 Camera looks completely identical to iOS 26 on first launch.

#Bottom Line

The iOS 27 widget strip is the Camera change most iPhone users will actually notice. Start with your Photo mode strip. Add the two or three controls you reach for most, and remove everything else. That takes under a minute to set up.

Pro model users get the biggest payoff. Clearing out the timer and timer-adjacent clutter to put Photographic Styles and ProRAW one tap away is a real improvement. The strip holds up to 8 controls on Pro models, so there’s room for your six most-used controls plus two extras you reach for occasionally. For more on what else is new in iOS 27, see our iOS 27 AI features breakdown and iOS 27 Visual Intelligence guide.

#Frequently Asked Questions