The unveiling of the iPhone 16 line will happen on September 9, when we’ll see if the rumors of a new capacitive shutter button prove to be true. But I’m more interested in the other dedicated button that debuted a year ago in the iPhone 15 Pro models: the Action button that replaced the Ring/Silent switch. The Action button is completely customizable, and you activate it by pressing and holding it briefly. By default, it puts the iPhone into silent mode, but you can set what you want it to do, such as activate Voice Memos, set Focus modes, access the camera or flashlight, open the Magnifier app, start translating speech, enable Accessibility options, or launch a shortcut.
I was very much looking forward to the Action button, but in reality, I almost never remember to use it. The problem is that I don’t need any of the actions I’ve tried assigning to it often enough, such that it has never taken over in my head as the primary way of accessing them. The rumors of the capacitive shutter button—where there would be no confusion about what it does—have reinspired me to see if I can work the Action button into my everyday use.
So I’m curious: if you have an iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max, how do you use the Action button? Let’s find out in the poll below. Please share details if you use one of the more flexible options, like toggling a Focus, running a shortcut, or accessing an accessibility feature.
If you don’t have an iPhone 15 Pro model, please don’t vote in the poll, but feel free to chime in with how you think you’d use it if you got one.
How do you use the iPhone 15 Pro’s Action button?
Silent mode: Turn Silent mode on or off
Focus: Turn a specific Focus on or off
Camera: Open the Camera app
Flashlight: Turn the flashlight on or off
Voice Memo: Start or stop recording a voice memo
Magnifier: Open the Magnifier app
Translate: Start translating speech
Shortcut: Open an app or run a shortcut
Accessibility: Quickly access an accessibility feature
I’ve tried doing nothing, but I’ve left it at the default toggle silent mode for now. I’ve had the button pressed in my pocket accidentally at times when I didn’t want it to be, so I don’t want to use any other action, and I may switch it back to do nothing.
Honestly I’d prefer the silent switch over the action button, because that never toggled accidentally.
I don’t have an iPhone 15 Pro. It’s impossible to say for sure what I would do if I had an action button, but it’s hard for me to imagine using it for anything aside from the default silent mode toggle. I use the silent mode switch on my 12 mini a few times a day at least, and I can’t think of anything else that I both access regularly and want to be able to get to with the speed and ease the action button provides.
Like Adam, I was excited about the concept of the button when it was announced, but I’ve never found a use for it. I literally forget it’s there.
I just checked and it’s now set to Flashlight. I had it for something different at first and never used it, so I tried Flashlight, since I do use my phone that way quite often. But I never remember to use the button – I activate the flashlight from the Control Center or Lock Screen.
The biggest problem is that you can’t just tap the button. You have to hold it down it activate it. That’s just dumb. I guess Apple was worried about accidental pushes, but if I have to hold it down for a second or so, the hardware benefit of a quick tap is useless and I might as well touch a virtual button on the screen.
Initially, I was concerned with accidental presses and thought I would prefer the mute switch for that reason. And of course for the fact that the mute switch’s state I can tell blindly by just reaching into my pocket.
But then it dawned on me that I have probably switched the mute switch only about once per year on average making it kind of a wasted widget. So I felt the Action Button would perhaps offer added value.
Now I read folks mentioning how they manage to press it by accident in their pockets which tells me I could not use it reliably for anything important. And if that holds, well then the Action Button is the truly wasted widget.
My bigger peeve though it that it appears something as dull as this silly button (or the rumored Capture Button) is apparently deemed significant enough of a “feature” by Apple that they trumpet it around big time. As if there’d be nothing actually important they could really improve on iPhone instead of these mostly marginal annual updates. /cough
I set my Action button to Camera, but I often forget it’s there. I didn’t want to waste it (Do nothing), but there’s really no single function that I use often enough to suggest assigning it to the Action button. I rarely need Silent, the flashlight is accessible on the lock screen (but I don’t use it often), I don’t use Focus or Voice Memos. I have Magnifier assigned to triple click and it’s been that way for years. I’m still looking for a good use for the Action button.
After thinking about this I realized I often disable the security cameras around my house when I’m working outside. I just created a shortcut that 1) launches the app which controls the cameras and 2) creates a reminder for 2 hours to turn the cameras back on (I often forget). That shortcut is now assigned to my Action button and, if I can remember, I’ll probably use it more often than when it was assigned to my camera.
[After using it a few times I edited the shortcut to give me the option to remind me in 2 hours or not, in case I want to use the app for something other than turning off the cameras.]
I looked everywhere, but I can’t find a Flashlight option in here. There is one for “Torch”, whatever that is. Sounds dangerous though.
Anyway, Focus/DND for me. It’s a dream come true. Do away with a silly switch I simply never use and sometimes switch accidentally, to a button which is actually useful and is in practice very hard to push accidentally from inside the Apple silicone case, especially since you have to press and hold with the device unlocked to get the change in behaviour. Initially the VoiceOver support was very buggy and/or incomplete, but now it’s all good and I have spoken as well as tactile feedback. So it’s fine. Maybe one day I’ll graduate to Shortcuts, but right now I have “back tap” and that’s working pretty well. So we’ll see.
Edit: It turns out if you hold the button long enough the change happens even with the device locked, but I still get clear feedback. This is actually even better news for me, since I can keep the phone in my pocket. I think it’s just a question of getting used to the new thing, honestly.
Good idea. If there’s one company that could miniaturise plasma discharge hardware and put it into an all-purpose consumer product without telling anyone about it, it’s Apple.
I’ve assigned it to Accessibility > Spoken Content > Speak Screen.
It’s easier to invoke than the default 2-finger swipe down — I can find the action button no matter how the phone is positioned.
I listen to Instapaper at night when I’m too awake. While IP has its own reading interface, it skips the very start of each article. IP also uses the stock iOS voices. Since Speak Screen is a system level command, I can assign it a Siri voice, which makes for more soothing (thus sleep inducing) reading.
I use it for Silent Mode Toggle, which I need regularly, so I can’t use it for anything else. Which really makes me miss the old toggle because the silent mode is not generally visible on the phone so I often have no idea whether the phone is in silent mode or not, resulting in me having to toggle it multiple times every time I want it on or off, or missing calls because it is accidentally left in silent mode.
I completely agree. The button often gets pressed in my pocket, so I do not assign anything as I want to choose when to activate these features. So, do nothing is the only way to stop this. I much preferred the swich too!
My abject apologies, folks, but the more I thought about this poll, the more I realized that it lacked an important answer, which boils down to “Regardless of how the Action button is set, I don’t use it.” Who cares how it’s configured if you never find yourself using it? I think that’s an important fact to extract from the answers.
I’ve reset the poll to include that answer, so if you answered previously, you’ll have to vote again. I forgot to put it in last week’s TidBITS issue, so only 35 people had participated, making me think I was better off just restarting it before publishing it in TidBITS next week. I hope you’ll forgive me, scroll to the top of this topic, and vote again. Thanks!
I use it for Shazam so I can get that going quickly. I hate it when the song ends while I’m fumbling with the phone trying to get Shazam going. The action button makes that go much more quickly.
I resubmitted my answer to the poll to the ‘Don’t Use’ response. As I said, the Apple Clear Case makes pushing a button at least as hard as opening an app on the first or second screen.
Note: this also makes it hard when I need to activate Face ID. I need to carefully position the phone to click the side button and quickly ensure I’m looking at it. Fortunately, I have Apple Pay on my watch, so I only need this for other iPhone security confirmations.
