With iOS 17, Apple introduced a feature that photography enthusiasts will love: the shortcut “Open Camera” action. Here’s how to set up and configure actions:
Camera actions in the Shortcuts app in iOS 17
iOS 17’s beta cycle is coming to an end as Apple prepares for general availability in late September. But the company is not only improving iOS 17’s major new features, but also adding some of them to the Shortcuts app.
Perhaps most notably, Shortcuts introduces a new feature that speeds up the time it takes to take and save a photo through the familiar camera app. A new “Open Camera” action allows iPhone photographers to quickly select from different camera modes and take photos instantly without having to spend time changing settings.
If you don’t take many photos, you may have little idea that there are so many different options until your finger slips and you snap a panorama. In total, here is the complete list of camera options available from the shortcuts:
- cinematic
- pano
- photograph
- Portrait
- portrait selfie
- selfie
- Slow motion
- time lapse
- video
For all of these, we’ve added just one new shortcut action that allows users to preset which one to use. After that, the camera is still available and you can choose any option you want, but you also have the option to bypass the default “Photo” settings and adjust them to your liking.
How to use camera shortcuts in iOS 17
- Open the Shortcuts app and tap the plus icon in the top right corner to create a new shortcut.
- Swipe up from the bottom to find Actions or search for “Open Camera.” Tap an action to add it to your shortcuts.
- Then tap on the blue text to change the mode from “Photo” to another mode in the list.
You can prompt for input and set variables, so you can create a list of the two or three most common camera options instead of going straight to one. In that case, each time you run a shortcut, you will be asked which one you want.
This seems to be more at the expense of the speed of accessing Pano directly, but you can build shortcuts to perform many steps.
For example, you can combine actions to take a selfie and automatically save it to your camera roll or Files app.
Add camera shortcut to home screen
Once you create a shortcut, you can add it as an app icon to your home screen by tapping the share icon at the bottom. This looks like a rectangle with an arrow pointing up. The user scrolls down and taps (Add to Home Screen).
Alternatively, tap and hold an empty area on your home screen, select the plus icon in the top left, and scroll to or search for the Shortcuts widget to switch to the widget.
Then drag and drop it to your home screen or press the “Add Widget” button. Finally, long press on the widget and select “Edit Widget” and select your new camera shortcut in the menu.
None of these are as fast as swiping the lock screen to go directly to the camera, and probably not as fast as tapping the camera app directly. However, if you don’t always need the stock photo option, you’ll want this shortcut for speed and convenience.
(Tag translation)Apple