Your AirPods are a selfie remote.

Every group photo has the same problem: somebody has to hold the phone, and that somebody ends up closest to the lens with their arm in the frame. iOS 26 quietly fixed this with a feature hiding in your AirPods settings — Camera Remote. Once it's on, a press of the AirPods stem takes the photo or starts the video while you stand wherever you actually want to be in the shot.

It's off by default. One minute in Settings turns your earbuds into the remote you already carry everywhere.

Turn it on (once)

1. Connect your AirPods and wear at least one earbud, then open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap your AirPods at the top of the Settings list (or find them under Bluetooth).
3. Open Camera Remote in the Camera Control section and choose your trigger: Press Once or Press and Hold. Press Once is the simplest place to start.

Take the shot

1. Open the Camera app and prop the phone where it can see the group — Camera Remote only works while a camera app is open.
2. Step into the frame and press the stem. You'll get a short countdown, then the photo — with the selfie camera it fires a burst, so you'll have options.
3. In Video mode, the same press starts recording, and pressing again stops it.

What you need, and the one trade-off

• Hardware: an iPhone on iOS 26 or later, and H2-chip AirPods — AirPods Pro 2, AirPods Pro 3, AirPods 4, or AirPods Max 2 (Digital Crown instead of a stem).
• The trade-off: while the Camera app is open, the stem press is borrowed by the camera — your usual play/pause or Siri gesture on that press pauses until you close the camera. Nothing breaks; it just waits.

It's the best kind of feature: free, already in your pocket, and useful the very next time someone says “let's get one with everyone in it.”