Please don’t copy Apple’s minimalistic camera app

Apple has just announced its iOS 26 software, and we’ve got a technically impressive Liquid Glass visual design here. However, one visual change that may have flown under the radar is the new camera app. And I really hope Android OEMs don’t copy this decision.

Apple’s new camera app is an exercise in extreme minimalism, according to an official image seen below. The bottom of the viewfinder only contains preset camera zoom buttons, video and photo mode buttons, the camera roll shortcut, and the expected shutter and camera switch keys. Check out the top of the viewfinder, and you’ve got an overflow menu. That’s literally it.

It’s all very clean, but this comes at the expense of usability. That’s largely due to some options being buried behind a tap or upward swipe compared to iOS 18. It also doesn’t help that Apple now only shows photo and video mode options, with no visual sign that you can actually swipe laterally to switch modes. All of these changes could be especially annoying for iPhone owners upgrading from iOS 18 who don’t expect drastic UI changes.

It’s worth noting that team members with the iOS 26 beta report that you can re-enable some viewfinder toggles like the flash, resolution/HEIC, and Live Photos. Nevertheless, it’s clear from Apple’s own material that it wants users to embrace a stripped-down interface for their camera app.

Now, I’m not saying that a simpler approach is a bad thing, but there is such a thing as oversimplification. An oversimplified viewfinder means that users have to spend a few seconds summoning a menu to find a specific feature or mode. And these precious few seconds could be the difference between getting a shot and missing the moment. Thankfully, Samsung showed the rest of the smartphone world how a camera app redesign should be done.

The Galaxy maker delivered a well-received camera app overhaul in One UI 7, focusing on one-handed usability. The app still features a visible carousel of camera modes at all times, but also brings the overflow menu down to the bottom of the screen. You can also see a quartet of toggles at the top of the viewfinder (flash, resolution, live photo, filters). Needless to say, I think the company achieved its goal without significantly compromising the options at your disposal.

If anything, I’d like to see Android OEMs offer more controls in their camera app viewfinder. Brands like OnePlus and vivo show that this is possible without making things too unintuitive and cluttered. I particularly like seeing viewfinder toggles for color profiles, snapshot/sports modes, and more in these Android camera apps. These OEMs can always restrict the extra toggles to the top of the viewfinder, leaving the bottom half for essential controls.

I’d even love to see Apple or Android OEMs offer customizable viewfinder shortcuts for specific features and modes. I constantly shift between 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios for work, so having an aspect ratio toggle in the viewfinder would be extremely useful. Meanwhile, a Top Shot shortcut might be handy for some Pixel owners.

Unfortunately, despite my protestations, history tells us that when Apple says “jump,” a few Android OEMs will say “jump,” too, as they blindly copy the iPhone maker. So I’m fully bracing for a few brands to clone this camera app redesign and maybe take an even more minimalistic approach in a bid to “outdo” Apple. But I really hope this isn’t the case.

We’re also at a point where many Android OEM camera apps finally have their own visual identities after years of copying the iPhone app. So it would be a real shame if they undid a lot of this work.