Samsung Camera Icons and UI Explained (One UI 9)

Most options in Samsung’s camera app are tucked away behind cryptic icons with no accompanying text, and some of these icons have been relocated to an obscure settings panel in recent One UI updates, rendering many older Samsung camera icon explainers inaccurate.

Below, we explain what each icon on Samsung’s camera app means. We’ll go through the entire camera interface from top to bottom.

We’ve used Samsung’s official documentation to verify some of the icons and explanations. Everything else has been tested on our Galaxy S25 Ultra.

Zoom buttons, resolutions and a few icons on the Galaxy S25 Ultra may differ on other Samsung Galaxy phones depending on the camera hardware and One UI version. We’ll point out where this is the case. Tested on One UI 9 as of November 2026.

Photo mode icons, top to bottom

The table describes the controls you’ll see in Photo mode when shooting in portrait orientation, starting with indicators at the top, followed by the viewfinder (which includes focus indicators and the grid), the zoom controls and then the modes available at the bottom of the screen.

Tap Flash to display a menu with three choices: Off (a white lightning bolt with a slash through it in the top bar), Auto (yellow lightning bolt with a tiny A), and On (yellow lightning bolt).

Tapping Filters displays a strip of filter thumbnails above the shutter button. The first option in the strip (a plus sign) allows you to create Custom filters; choose Original for an unaltered photo; and swipe along the strip to reveal a bevy of built-in filters, beginning with Classic film.

Face retouching (On/Off button and dials for adjusting Smoothness, Tone, Jawline, Eyes) opens when you tap Face on the rear camera.

Tap one of the settings next to the On/Off button (Smoothness, Tone, Jawline, Eyes) to open a dial for making adjustments.

Night shot is only available in low light conditions. The Night shot button is located just above the Quick controls button and is represented by a moon icon. When Night shot is enabled, the moon icon will be yellow. When disabled, the icon will appear as a white moon with a line through it.

Tap the Night shot button to enable or disable this feature.

To record video from Photo mode, enable Video recording in Photo mode in Camera Assistant. Once enabled, press and hold the shutter to record a video. To continue recording hands-free, drag the shutter to the padlock icon that appears. For burst shots, check the Swipe Shutter button to edge to setting in Camera Assistant.

Our Motion photos guide covers when Auto is worth using over On. Locking focus and exposure (see our AE/AF lock guide) can be useful but is easy to miss as the padlock icon only appears once you’ve tapped.

Quick controls and how to move icons to the top bar

Tap the four-dot button on the far right of the zoom bar to open Quick controls. On One UI 9, this includes Go to Settings (the gear) / Flash / Timer / Ratio / Resolution / Exposure / Motion photo / Filters / Face, depending on the camera mode you’re using (according to Samsung). Press X to close.

It's up to you which of these you want to have available from the top bar. After Camera Assistant is installed, turn on the indicators you want to see: Flash / Timer / Ratio / Resolution / Motion photo / Exposure / Filters / Face. To do this, open Customize indicators. Other indicators will show in the bar only when they are being used, notes Samsung. Try setting a timer and you'll find a yellow clock showing the number of seconds appears between Flash and 12M until you turn it off.

Zoom buttons and the zoom wheel

Tap and hold on any of the zoom buttons to bring up a zoom wheel that displays the current zoom level so you can make smooth adjustments while recording. When zoomed in at a higher level, Samsung’s S26 guide says a small guide map appears to help you get a sense of what you’re pointing at.

Of note, 2x and 10x zoom shortcut buttons don’t appear by default, but can be added via Camera Assistant’s Zoom shortcuts option, which also offers a 100x shortcut.

As for the S25 Ultra’s labels, .6 is Ultra wide lens, 1 is Wide-angle lens, 2 is Wide-angle lens two times zoom (a remosaiced crop of the high-res sensor according to Camera Assistant), 3 is Telephoto lens, and 5 and 10 are Super telephoto lens.

Video mode icons

When we swiped to VIDEO we got Flash, Super steady, FHD 30 and HDR along the top (on our S25 Ultra) and the shutter button acquired a red dot.

To record video in HDR, enable HDR in Camera settings > Video format, and then tap HDR in the camera preview (outlined in yellow when enabled). According to Samsung’s Galaxy S26 series phone user guide, enabling HDR in Camera settings > Video format displays the HDR option in the camera preview. Our video stabilization guide covers when Super steady helps and when plain stabilization looks better.

When enabled, Super steady is highlighted in yellow with motion lines and Horizontal lock is indicated by a yellow frame around the figure (you’ll also see brief notifications confirming Super steady On or Super steady with horizontal lock On).

The Quick controls offered change depending on the mode you're in.

In Video mode you have access to Go to Settings, Flash, Super steady, Ratio, Video size and Exposure. Dual recordings and Auto framing can be found by scrolling the panel.

Tap X to close just like in Photo mode.

Pro and Pro video icons

MORE also houses Pro and Pro video. These add a line of manual settings above the lens buttons (which replace the zoom numbers of non-Pro modes), and tapping any setting brings up the associated dial. Settings with a little A after the current setting are still set to Auto. The Hide controls button (the little bracket to the left of UW) collapses the manual settings row.

Each of those icons has a set of options, which appear as a row of icons or words.

For instance, the metering icon’s options are represented by three different metering mode icons, with the currently selected one highlighted in yellow. The Exposure monitor’s options are written out, and an X icon can be used to dismiss that set of options.

Just like HDR, LOG has a two-step process. First enable Log under Video format in Camera settings (note the “Pro video mode only” comment), then you’ll see the LOG button in the Pro video preview screen. Our Log video guide covers grading the footage, and the Pro mode guide has starting values for each dial.

Expert RAW's top bar and buttons

There’s also Expert RAW (accessed from the MORE tab), a standalone app from Samsung with a similar interface to Pro mode but with additional settings. Here’s what we see on Expert RAW 6.0 on the S25 Ultra.

The sliders icon in the bottom left corner of the preview brings up a number of presets. In our case (using the S25 Ultra), we were presented with a plus icon, followed by two presets labelled Photographer (Night Sky and Night Long Exp.), and finally Custom 1.

Sadly, the FE models can’t run Expert RAW, and neither can some other Galaxy phones. Our Expert RAW guide lists the supported models and what each Labs mode does.

The More tab

The MORE button located on the extreme right side of the modes strip will open up the hidden camera modes panel, which on our S25 Ultra included EXPERT RAW / PRO / PRO VIDEO / FOOD / SLOW MOTION / PORTRAIT VIDEO. You can drag and drop camera modes here (using the Edit button at the top right corner, which will also bring up the handy tip ‘Add modes to the bottom of the screen’) to either add or remove them from the main camera modes strip.

The button with the eye icon at the top left corner of the screen will take you to Bixby Vision.

Depending on the model, NIGHT may act a little differently.

On the S24 and S25 series, NIGHT stays in the strip of camera modes.

On the S26 series, some of NIGHT’s functionality moves over to Photo, and the mode itself will be missing from the strip of camera modes. You can get it back using Camera Assistant.

Also note that on One UI 9, you won’t see Single take and Dual rec until you enable them in Camera Assistant under Additional modes.

Green and white dots at the top of the screen

When a microphone or camera is in use on an Android 12 (or later) Galaxy phone, a camera or microphone icon appears in the status bar. After a moment, that icon will shrink down into a small green dot.

The colour of the indicator dot may vary from one phone to the next. For example, iPhones use a green dot to indicate the camera is in use and an orange dot to indicate the mic is in use. On Galaxy phones, however, both the camera and mic in-use indicators are green.

Expand the notifications panel and tap the dot to identify the app currently using your camera or mic.

To see which apps have access to your Galaxy phone’s camera and mic, Samsung recommends checking the Permission manager option in your phone’s privacy settings.

If you see a white dot among your Galaxy phone’s notification icons, Samsung’s own status bar and notification icons guide explains this could mean One UI 7 (or later) is using a dot in place of your phone’s notification icons. This type of dot disappears when you expand the notifications panel.

If the Camera app icon is missing

First, make sure the Camera app hasn’t been moved or hidden. Try searching for Camera from the Apps screen. If you find it, touch and hold the app and add it to your Home screen. If you can’t find it, it’s likely hidden. Touch and hold an empty area on your Home screen and select Settings > Hide apps. Select the red minus icon next to Camera and select Done.

Another option would be to set up a shortcut for the Camera app. Go to Settings > Advanced features > Side button (this option may vary depending on your One UI version) and set Double press to Camera. If you see an icon, but the app opens with a Camera failed warning, follow the steps in our Camera failed guide. If one solution doesn’t work, it will have you try the next one, and so on until your camera is back up and running!

Yellow, crossed-out and other icon questions