How I Configure My Phone Camera Apps for Snapshots (Late 2026) ⭐

Back in March, I described how I configure my iPhone and Pixel for photography, but there are already some changes. On the iPhone front, I'm still using the iPhone 17 Pro Max, though iOS 27.x has arrived with new camera features. And for Pixel, I have upgraded to a Pixel 11 Pro XL, which delivers major new camera software features and a few useful hardware updates.

Though I am interested in third-party camera apps, Apple and Google both limit what developers can do compared to what they allow for themselves, and for this and other reasons, I typically stick to the stock Camera apps on both phones. I also stick mostly to photography, though I continue trying to figure out the best configurations for video too. But this update, like the original, is all about photos. It's also a lot more comprehensive than that previous article.
Common configurations
I customize the following on both phones.

Flash. The flash on the phone is almost always unwelcome and unnecessary, except when it's used as a flashlight, so I disable the flash capability in the Camera app.

Night Mode/Night Sight. I configure Night Mode (iPhone) and Night Sight (Pixel) to come on automatically as needed. On iPhone, low-light shots take longer than with this feature disabled, but on the Pixel 11 Pro XL, Night Sight is nearly instant now.

Live Photo/Motion Photo. These features will record a short video each time you take a photo and I can't stand that. I disable this feature.

Location. I often rely on location metadata when I'm searching for photos (or events in which there are many photos), so I always leave the location permission enabled for the Camera app.

Framing grid. The iPhone and Pixel Camera apps both support an on-screen framing grid, which I find useful, so I enable it. The iPhone also offers an on-screen level, which appears as a line in the viewfinder, to help you keep shots level when that's desirable. And the Pixel lets you choose between 3 x 3, 4 x 4, and Golden ratio grids, which is ideal, so I configure that for Golden ratio.

Aspect ratio. I always use a 4:3 aspect ratio for photos.
How I configure the iPhone
The iPhone requires a lot more work to configure correctly than does the Pixel, but the resulting snapshots can be great and only require a bit of babysitting as you take them. Most of this configuration occurs in Camera settings in the Settings app, which is found in the "General" section and not with all the other apps for some reason.
Preserve Settings
It's crucial to configure this set of settings--found in Camera settings > Preserve Settings in the second "App Settings" area--correctly because otherwise you will go to great lengths to customize how the app works (such as the Photographic Styles options, below) and then lose those customization settings when you close it and use it again.

In short, I configure every option on this page--except for Exposure Adjustment and Night Mode--to be Enabled. So Camera Mode...