How to Access Portrait Camera Mode in iOS 26 on iPhone
Camera app received a dramatic redesign with iOS 26, and many iPhone users have found that the new interface is confusing, leading them to believe that some prominent features of iPhone Camera have been removed. For example, many iPhone users running iOS 26 now think Portrait Mode camera has been removed or is no longer available on iPhone, because when they open Camera app on iPhone all they see are “Photo” and “Video” options to toggle between, and there do not appear to be any other camera modes available.
The logic goes something like this; Portrait mode is missing from the obvious camera options in iOS 26, so the Portrait camera feature must have been removed from iPhone, right? Well, no, that’s wrong!
The confusion with Portrait camera mode apparently being missing in iOS 26 is understandable, and this is directly related to the dramatic user interface changes that came with Camera app for iPhone on iOS 26. But once you learn how camera mode access works in iOS 26, you’ll find that you still can access and use Portrait camera mode on iPhone with iOS 26, along with other camera modes that many users think are missing, including slow motion, cinematic, time lapse, and more.
To be clear, Portrait Mode as a camera option still exists on iOS 26 on iPhone, it’s just harder to find, and that’s what we’re going to show you how to use and access here.
How to Access Portrait Camera on iPhone with iOS 26 (including iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 16, etc)
If you can’t find Portrait camera mode on iOS 26, you’re not alone. Here’s what you need to do now:
- Open the Camera app as usual, you will initially only see Photo and Video options available under the shutter button
- Now swipe left or right on the “Photo” or “Video” camera mode selector – there is no indicator this is a horizontally swiping menu of choices but it is. Continue swiping left or right until you find the “Portrait” camera mode option
- Once in Portrait Camera mode, tap the multi-box button in the top corner, or swipe up to access additional settings, including flash, aperture, timer, exposure, filter, and intensity
There you go, you now have access to Portrait camera mode again in iOS 26.
Was Portrait mode removed from iOS 26 on iPhone? Is Portrait mode not available on new iPhone models like iPhone 17 Pro?
Many users think that portrait mode has been removed from iOS 26 on iPhone.
Additionally, a fair number of people believe that Portrait mode camera was removed from new iPhone models, like the iPhone 17 series and iPhone 17 Pro.
Neither of these are the case, Portrait mode camera still exists on all iPhone models that run iOS 26, including the newest iPhone 17 series, but accessing Portrait mode has changed. Portrait mode is now hidden behind a non-obvious horizontal swipe menu, something that is very easy to miss or overlook.
Why is Portrait mode hidden on iOS 26 for iPhone?
Given the amount of attention the Portrait Mode camera features have received in the past from Apple, often as a core photography feature on iPhone camera, it’s a bit of a mystery why they’d hide Portrait mode and make the other camera modes hard to find as well.
Why Apple made various camera modes so difficult to find and hidden is curious and many users find it to be confusing or bad user design and user experience, but much of the other Liquid Glass design decisions are questionable as well to users who find Liquid Glass difficult to read and interact with. And while Liquid Glass is overall pretty good on iPhone and iPad, minus perhaps hiding features like Portrait mode anyway, it’s a lot messier on the Mac.
It’s important to remember that Apple has aggressively leaned into the trend of obfuscating the User Interface, and things that were once obvious and easy to find like obvious features, buttons, settings, toggles, and gestures, are often hidden or disguised, or less than obvious. This is all part of some minimalist user interface design objective, which trades function for form. These type of design decisions are often aggressively done at first, and then altered or even rolled back, as Apple receives feedback from users and customers about the design. Therefore, it’s reasonable to expect that perhaps iOS 27 will make the iPhone Camera modes more obvious to access again, so there is less confusion amongst iPhone users.
To quote Steve Jobs, “design is how it works”, which implies that design should be easy to understand and use, and that concept used to be the guiding principle behind nearly all of Apple design decisions. If the user can’t figure out how something works… that’s probably not good design… but what do I know? I’m just a multi-decade Apple user who regularly sees the confusion among friends, family, colleagues, and in our comments, emails, and elsewhere online like Apple’s own support forums. If I’m aware of these types of complaints, surely Apple is too, which is why it’s again fairly likely that the design will evolve to be more user friendly with future iOS releases, like iOS 27.
Bottom Line: Portrait Mode isn’t gone in iOS 26, it’s just hidden
Apple may have streamlined the Camera app design and interface a little too aggressively, and while the new Camera UI reduces clutter and focuses on two of the most common actions, record video or take a photo, that unfortunately comes with a trade-off of having a learning curve for accessing other features. Specifically the confusion comes from the hidden Portrait and other camera mode settings, and instead people aren’t guessing that they can swipe on things where there is no indicator they can swipe to access more features.
Portrait mode is now sort of hidden, and without the necessary swipe gesture on the camera modes, you won’t see it in Camera app on iPhone.
Just remember, in Camera app, swipe left or swipe right on the mode selector to find Portrait mode as an option, and other camera options as well. Once you know how the gestures and swiping trick works, you’ll find the interface is familiar again, just a bit less crowded and much more minimalist than before.
What do you think of the Camera app redesign in iOS 26? Did you think Portrait mode was removed in iOS 26 or on new iPhone models? Do you like the minimalist design and hidden features like this? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments.
It is interesting how companies often lose sight of who is most important to them. It is always the customer, period. The software designers and marketing folks tend to forget this, wanting to create “cool” features or make change for change’s sake. But it is not about you, ever. Just keep us happy ;-)
The operative word is KISS (keep it simple stupid). And if something works, don’t fix it! An example of how not to do it is the Microsoft OS. How many times have they completely changed how it looks and feels, radically. MS who?
The author, Mr. Cuevas is to be commended on his restraint and subdued opinion on the current Apple management choice to completely abandon Steve Jobs’s philosophy of making the user experience paramount.
I have only found solace in the private casual use of my father’s Marine Corps language to describe this inane, idiotic and clearly self defeating and customer insulting choice by Apple’s management to ignore Steve’s complete dedication two providing superior user experience on which his company was built.
Like Mr. Cuevas, I’m a longtime user, having purchased my first apple, a Mac, back in 1984.
None of the lower management people to which I have directed my frustrations and criticisms of the companies direction, nor the completely naïve staff of the current Apple stores appear to have any appreciation for the history of the company, let alone any desire to actually change or revert their policiesfor the better.
A reborn Steve’s death every time each day the loss of pleasure and accomplishment I used to have using my iMacs, my iPads and my iPhones.
Apple is losing sight of good, clear, and easy-to-navigate design in favour of obscurity, flash but illegible irrelevance such as Liquid Glass, and minimalism, evidently to attract a younger clientele, which is not the way to treat its longstanding and so very loyal users.
Thank you for this. Design obfuscating function is incredibly irritating. If they keep getting feedback which urges them to roll back hidden things like this, you would think they might take a hint. 😒
I’ve been an “Apple” user since the first Macintosh 512K E-Plus was released. I’ve watched over the past 5+ years while Apple has diminished the operational benefits of their OS across all platforms, in what seems to be the same attitude of Microslop in making choices for their OS’s that are not in the best interests of their consumers, but rather seemingly in the interests of “change for the sake of change” and in maximizing profits over function. I’ve been in the “computer & networking” field since 1970, an have watched the entire industry slowly slip downhill, driven by “profits” and “quick production” to reduce costs, while leaving behind any ongoing consideration for their consumers, figuring that they would “adapt” to their “new reality”. Unfortunately, our entire industrial economy has adopted this “business attitude” and is progressively choking the consumers with higher costs and lower qualities & benefits.
I won’t even get started on the diminishing quality of “software” scripting driving the common failures of many apps and products. Fortunately, most of the “gaming industry” has not been caught up in that trap, and still provides a higher quality product overall.
If nothing changes at this point, my current Apple tech will be my last, as the cost to benefit exchange is no longer worth it. I’m already switching some of my OS’s to Linux for that reason.