Use AirPods to Remote Control Your iPhone Camera
About this QuickTip
Want to take better group shots or solo photos without holding your phone? This iOS 26 feature lets you use your AirPods as a camera remote. In this video, I’ll show you how to enable it and capture perfect photos with just a squeeze of your AirPods.
Transcript
Hi, it's Jacob here, and in this Quick Tip video, I'm going to show you how you can use your AirPods as a camera controller to take your group shots and your selfies — so you can leave your iPhone somewhere safe, take a photo from a distance, and get that awesome selfie.
Before we do this, I need to put my AirPods in. Hang on... much better!
So, all we're going to do is go into the Settings app and then tap onto our AirPods. This works with AirPods Pro and regular AirPods too. From here, we're going to scroll down a little bit until we find the Camera Remote Control options.
We can then choose to simply press the button once by squeezing a stem of our AirPods, or we can do a long squeeze instead. I'm going to go for press once, and then I'm going to open up the Camera app on my iPhone.
I've just got my little desk setup here going on — it's not really a selfie or anything today — but all I need to do to take a photo is squeeze the stem of my AirPods, just like this.
And you can see it's doing a “3… 2… 1…” taking the photo. On the other side of the phone, the camera flash is lighting up — “3… 2… 1…” — which means that you can see exactly when the picture is going to be taken and you can all make sure you're smiling.
And do you know what would make me smile? If you went to my YouTube channel and pressed Subscribe. That way you'll get hundreds more iPhone Quick Tips and I'll get some more subscribers too!
That's it. I'll see you next time.
Technical details: This QuickTip was recorded in July 2025.
The content used in this video is intended for educational and informational purposes only. All rights to the images, music, clips, and other media used belong to their respective owners. I do not claim ownership over any third-party content used. This video has not been authorised, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. iPhone, AirPods and AirPods Pro are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries and regions. iOS is a registered trademark of Cisco Systems Inc. Whilst I have done my best to list all applicable trademarks for this video, in the (hopefully unlikely) event that I have missed any you can find a full list of trademarks registered to Apple Inc. on their website. Finally, please note that whilst every effort has been made to ensure the information contained within this video was correct at time of publication, please be aware that as future updates and software changes occur some or all elements of this video may become outdated. I will endeavour to remove videos which are completely obsolete so as not to cause confusion!