Apple tries to simulate the instant camera experience when you take a photo in the Photos app on an iPhone or iPad with a click. Many of us prefer to avoid this sound.
Remarkably, there is no on/off button in the camera settings! Instead, you have one of three alternatives:
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Enable Live Photo: If you hear a click, you haven’t enabled this feature, which retains some still images from before and after when you take photos, providing animation and sound. If the click was enabled, it would be captured in a Live Photo. You can have Live Photo always on when you launch the camera by enabling Settings > Camera > Keep Settings > Live Photo.
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Squelch switch: When the Ring/Silent hardware switch is set to Silent, the snapshot audio is muted. You can toggle this switch on and off at will if you prefer the click to be off sometimes and on others. However, the Silent Switch is a system-wide mute, so no sound from the iPhone will be heard.
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Set the system volume to zero: You can also or instead set the alert sounds volume to zero. Whether Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Edit with Buttons is enabled, you can use the Control Center or the side volume down button. However, if this switch is disabled, you must separately slide the ringtone and alerts level to the far left in Settings > Sounds & Haptics.
Another note: some countries require shutter sound on devices that take photos. While in those countries including Japan and South Korea, the snapshot sound will still play. It appears to be SIM-based, as travelers from other countries who swap to a local SIM card have their snapshot preference overridden.
This Mac 911 article is in response to a question submitted by igamesnews reader Ron.
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