Technologies

No Matter What Happens at WWDC Today, I’m Never Using This AI Feature on My iPhone 16

Commentary: I’m an AI reporter, and this one AI feature on my iPhone 16 drove me bananas. So, no matter what Apple announces regarding Apple Intelligence at today’s developers event, I’m never turning it back on.

I was ridiculously excited to upgrade to an iPhone 16 last fall. After spending five years with my well-loved, but outdated iPhone 11, I was ready for all the usual perks: a better battery life, nicer cameras and (particularly exciting for me) a Barbie pink hue. What I didn’t expect was that my iPhone 16 would come with not one, but two new buttons: action and camera control. And one of these would absolutely rain on my parade.

The action button is a small button above the volume adjusters. It was introduced with the iPhone 15 Pro models and is a customizable button that can do anything from turning your ringer on to ordering your Dunkin’ coffee to-go. It’s small, demure and minds its own business.

It’s the camera control button that causes all the chaos.

Camera control is a new button on the iPhone 16 lineup that does what the name suggests: it controls your camera. It’s meant to help you quickly snap photos and serves as a shortcut to launching your camera app. You can slide your finger through a mini settings menu to adjust your camera’s zoom, among other things. But there’s one true reason for the button’s existence: AI.

Like every other tech company, Apple has been heavily investing in artificial intelligence. We’re expecting next week’s Worldwide Developers Conference to highlight any progress the company’s made since it debuted its suite of Apple Intelligence features last year, and to detail what role AI will play in the next generation of its software and hardware.

Apple Intelligence has been the driving force behind much of the company’s innovation. The camera control button, for instance, is the physical pathway into Visual Intelligence, a new AI-powered feature that lets you use your camera to scan objects in the real world to get more information on them. It sounds snazzy, but it’s completely pointless to me, and it’s a feature I have never been enticed to use.

There are other use cases for the camera control button, including ways to customize your button’s settings, as my colleagues have found through their testing. But that doesn’t change the fact that the camera control button is so completely annoying.

It’s a long button, about the size of the power button, located on the lower right side of the device. And it’s very, very easy to tap by accident. I’ve opened my camera while putting my phone in my pocket, while I’m driving and using navigation apps and once as I was turning off my phone for the night, which left the camera app open the whole night and drained my phone’s battery.

And if that wasn’t annoying enough, every time I actually intended to open my camera via camera control, it took several taps to do so. Go figure.

While I had camera control enabled, my camera roll included stunning shots like these:

I ask you: What is the point of a button that works when you don’t need it and doesn’t work when you do? There are already three ways to access your iPhone’s camera from the lock screen that take literal seconds to use. Camera control is a very expensive, very unreliable addition to the iPhone 16, all for the sake of AI features that many people don’t need or use. There hasn’t been one moment since I turned camera control off that I’ve missed it. So even if Apple announces some huge Visual Intelligence updates at WWDC next week, there’s no way I’m voluntarily turning it back on.

I realize my gripes with camera control are minor complaints among what has been an overall positive experience with my new phone. But as an AI reporter, I can’t help but see this as a troubling sign. So many tech companies have overhauled their software and devices to be AI-friendly, whether it’s Google spamming us with Gemini pop-ups in every single Google app, the new Copilot button on Microsoft Windows laptops or Apple’s camera control button.

Tech companies are too eager to get on the AI train and haven’t given enough thought to whether those features enhance or just derail our experience using their products. And not enough offer opt-out options. Thankfully for me and my camera roll, Apple does. But I hope in the future, such drastic measures won’t be necessary as companies are more intentional with their AI-enabling features.

If you want to join me in making your camera control button obsolete, you can navigate to your iPhone’s settings and select camera. Then, tap camera control. Within camera control select accessibility, and then toggle off camera control. If you’re also experiencing the hyper-sensitivity, you can adjust how many taps (and the pressure needed) to trigger the button in that same accessibility page under light-press force.

For more, check out our hands-on experience with the iPhone 16 Pro and our iOS 19 wish list.

Technologies

Samsung’s iPhone Fold Killer Is Leaked

Technologies

How to Tell if Someone Else’s Apple AirTag Is Tracking You

These settings can help make sure your iPhone alerts you to unwanted location trackers.

The biggest benefit of Apple’s AirTags is that they help you find your belongings, whether you’re looking for lost keys or keeping track of your luggage while traveling. But AirTags can also be used to track you without your knowledge.

AirTags work by combining built-in sensors, wireless signals and Apple’s wide Find My network to let you keep tabs on your valuables. If you ever lose your wallet with an AirTag inside, for example, you can use the Find My app to locate it on a map, have it play a sound to help you find it nearby, or mark it as «lost,» which allows other Find My users to help you find it.

One of the biggest complaints about AirTags, however, is that someone with malicious intent could easily slip one of the tiny tags into your bag and then track your movements without your consent. Multiple people have reported AirTag-related stalking incidents where the victims didn’t know the trackers were placed on them until much later.

Apple and Google (Android users have their own choice of Bluetooth trackers, such as the Moto Tag, which works with Google’s Find Hub) have since collaborated on an industry standard that alerts the user if a device is being used to track them without their knowledge. Thanks to this collaboration, Android users will be able to know if an AirTag is being used to track them, too.

Apple, for its part, has also made some changes in the past few years that improve the ability to detect an unwanted AirTag. In the initial rollout, an AirTag would make a sound three days after it’s separated from its paired device. Now, that duration is 8 to 24 hours. If you have unwanted tracking notifications enabled (which we’ll get to below), you’ll receive an audible alert.

We should note here that the new AirTag is 50% louder than the first-generation model, and would therefore be theoretically better at alerting you to the unwanted AirTag. Apple has also said that the speaker on the second-gen AirTag is harder to remove than on the first-gen model, in case bad actors try to remove it.

Detecting unwanted trackers

To be able to detect unwanted trackers, first enable unwanted-tracking notifications. For AirTags or other Find My accessories, these pop-up notifications (e.g., «AirTag found moving with you») are available on devices with iOS 14.5 or later. For other Bluetooth tracking devices, these notifications are enabled on iOS 17.5 or later.

You should enable Location Services, Find My iPhone, Bluetooth and Allow Notifications. Here’s how:

Head to Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Location Services and toggle it on.
After that, head to Settings, then Apple Account, select Find My and turn Find My iPhone on.
To enable Bluetooth, go to Settings, then Bluetooth and turn that on.
Then go to Settings, then Notifications, scroll down to Tracking Notifications and toggle on Allow Notifications. Make sure airplane mode is off, or you won’t receive tracking notifications.

What to do when you get the tracking notification

If you do get a notification like «Unknown tracker alert» or «Item detected near you,» you can try to find the unwanted AirTag by tapping it. Tap continue and then tap Play Sound or tap Find Nearby to locate the AirTag in question.

If it doesn’t play a sound or you’re unable to find it, the item may no longer be on your person. Apple suggests checking your other belongings or the area around you, just in case. If you want to review the notification at a later time, you can open the Find My app, tap Items and then tap Items Detected With You.

Be aware that there are often «false positives,» when notifications are triggered when someone nearby has a tracker on them. If you’re traveling on a train, plane or bus, waiting in line or seated in a public space, a mistaken tracking alert could stem from glitches or high-density Bluetooth environments.

If you get an alert, though, it’s always a good idea to take it seriously and investigate what might be causing it.

If you do find an AirTag that doesn’t belong to you, hold the top of your iPhone near the tracker until you see a notification. Tap it, and this will launch a website that provides information like its serial number, the last four digits of the phone number or a blurred-out email address of its owner. If the AirTag is marked as «lost,» you may see a message with instructions on how to contact them.

If you’re concerned that the tracker is being used to monitor your movements and location, Apple advises taking a screenshot of the information above for your records. You can then disable the AirTag by pressing down on the back of the AirTag, turning it counterclockwise to remove the cover and removing the battery.

Of course, before making any of these changes, it’s important to come up with a safety plan, especially if you’re afraid you’re being tracked by a current or former abusive partner. Contact your local law enforcement if you feel like your safety is at risk, or the National Domestic Violence Hotline 800-799-SAFE (7233).