The iPhone 16 has been on sale less than a week, but it’s already got a pretty useful upgrade. iOS 18.1 beta 5 has just been released, bringing with it a bunch of new upgrades and features — including a new selfie option for the Camera Control button (via 9to5Mac).
Right now if you want to control the iPhone 16’s front-facing camera with the Camera Control button without the beta, you’re have to interact with the phone’s display — which defeats the purpose of having the button. But the new iOS 18 beta adds a new option to the Camera Control settings, which are controlled via the button’s swiping gestures.
It’s all very simple. Tap the Camera Control button once inside the camera app to launch the Camera Control interface and menu. Then swipe across the new button to scroll though the menu at the top of the screen until you see an icon that looks like a person. Tapping again switches the cameras, and opens up the selfie camera so you can snap pictures of yourself.
This is a pretty useful addition, although it’s currently only available as part of the iOS 18.1 developer beta. Sadly, those of you running vanilla iOS 18, or the iOS 18.1 public beta will have to wait a little bit longer for this extra feature to arrive. Here’s just hoping it doesn’t take very long.
Other features coming to iOS 18.1 beta 5
iOS 18.1 beta 5 has a lot more to offer than this single Camera Control option. There are other tweaks and upgrades coming to your iPhone.
The first are two changes to the Control Center, adding dedicated connectivity toggles for Wi-Fi and the VPN — plus a reset button that lets you revert back to the default icon layout. RCS messaging will also be coming to new carriers around the world, including TracPhone and C Spire in the U.S.
iPhone mirroring with macOS Sequoia 15.1 allows the dragging and dropping of files between devices — something Apple showed off at WWDC, but didn’t release in the first version of the software. Anyone looking at the Notes app will see that there’s a new “Writing Tools” button on the toolbar, meaning you don’t have to highlight text and use the popover menu anymore.
On top of that, the Apple Watch icon has been changed to remove the button; there’s a new shortcuts action for opening the Control Center; and the Apple Intelligence icon will appear in dark mode in the settings app.
As with the change to Camera Control, these features are only available in the developer beta right now — though we expect that the iOS 18.1 public beta will get them very soon. The added bonus is that compatible iPhones will get access to Apple Intelligence in the process.
