How to launch the Camera app from the Lock screen in Windows 10 Mobile

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Along with other improvements and system enhancements, build 14322 for Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview also brought a few Lock screen improvements. Now, the option to access the camera and control the music you’re listening from the Lock screen is now available.

In this article, we’re going to talk about the first above-mentioned addition: the ability to open the Camera app from the Lock Screen. Microsoft replaced the back button in the Navigation bar with the new camera button, making accessing the camera app a piece of cake. All you have to do is to tap and hold the button and the Camera will immediately open.

You won’t have to do any additional unlocking as Windows Hello and PIN rules don’t apply here. So,  press the button and take a picture quickly. Of course, accessing every other part or feature of the OS would require unlocking, so don’t think you can hack someone’s phone just by opening the camera.

lock screen camera app win 10 mobile

Some owners of high-end Lumia phones might find this addition useless since their phones already have a physical camera button on the side. However, there are a lot of Lumia phones that ship without the camera button, so Microsoft probably had users of these phones in mind when it introduced the camera button on the Lock Screen.

Another way to access the Camera app is from the Action Center which also received some improvements in the latest Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview build. To open the Camera from here, just pull the Action Center and tap on the Camera shortcut.

The introduction of the Camera button is another improvement to Windows 10 Mobile’s Navigation bar. If you want to give your Navigation bar some more customization, you now have a whole page in the Settings app for that.

More about the topics: windows 10 mobile