Pick the frame before you roll
On the iPhone 17 generation's square front sensor, 9:16, 1:1 and 16:9 are chips in the camera. Tap one and the preview reshapes live; the take records in the frame you chose.
The frame chips live in the camera
Right above the record button sit the frame chips: 9:16 · 1:1 · 16:9. Tap one and the live preview reshapes on the spot. This is capture, not an edit: the sensor records the frame you picked.
Tall, square, wide, same stance
Cycle through them and nothing else changes: same framing instinct, same light, same take. A Short, a feed post and a landscape cut stop being three shoots and become three taps.
Shooting square (1:1) leaves the most room to reframe later in the editor's Aspect tool. Widest net, latest decision.
The square sensor makes it native
Here is the same thing from outside the phone. This works because the iPhone 17 generation's front sensor is square: every one of these frames is read straight off the glass, full quality, no faking. On earlier iPhones QCam records clean 9:16 instead.
The frame chips live in the camera
Decide the frame when you press record, or shoot square and decide after. Either way, the platform format stops dictating how you shoot.