Is the camera shutter noise the last skeuomorphic element left in iOS?
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The amusing thing is that shutters don't sound like that: the iPhone 'shutter sound' is the sound of a camera with a motor drive. Looking it up, I think it's a Canon AE-1 with a motor drive.
I guess the interface to change the size of the torch beam could be considered skeuomorphic too; it's actually a pretty new setting for the flashlight. They could have just used a classic slider like they do for screen brightness or volume, but they didn't.
It’s my understanding that the shutter sound is intended to be a deterrent to creepshotting, and that it cannot be disabled on phones sold in Japan.
Yep. People are really good at silencing their phones (and generally being quiet in shared spaces) here, but at museums, you hear it every time someone takes a photo.
I *think* it might a byproduct of the original design decision – it just happened to work well for that purpose once you take away the option to silence it.
But in most countries you can still silence it. (Plus, screenshotting makes the exact same sound.)
I would be remiss not to mention the original iPhone also had more “typewritery” keyboard sounds which paired nicely with the shutter sound.
From Bluesky:
There are still trash icons in places (for example in the Music app), and on another plane, you can also make an argument the entire soft QWERTY keyboard is itself a skeuomorph.
We used to have a proper phone. Bring it all back. Give me the rich, corinthian leather of the notes app, the lickable glass icons, all of it.
I feel like Apple design is actually getting more skeumorph-y with the introduction of Liquid Glass. It's not referencing some specific thing, like the camera click, but it's still trying to create the illusion of tangibility.
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