In my previous piece detailing what’s new in the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, I neglected something pretty important: the Action button. Apple has replaced the silent ringer (or mute) switch, which has been a feature of every previous generation of iPhone going back to the very first model, with an Action button, inspired by the Action button on the Apple Watch Ultra.
The mute switch was a beloved feature, so this will be somewhat controversial. In fact, it was a differentiator from other smart phones. I don’t know if any Android smartphone ever had a hardware switch for mute, but if that did exist it was incredibly rare.
So is this a good idea? I think so! I actually think the mute switch was probably a sacred cow that needed killing, and the Action button feels like the right thing to replace it with.
As you can see in the image above, you can set the Action button to perform a number of different tasks. It can still mute your phone, but it can also launch the flashlight, open the camera, or trigger a shortcut. To use the Action button, you press and hold it for a moment. To customize what the Action button does, you go to Settings > Action Button.
I’m still not sure what I think about the way this appears in Settings:
It reminds me, somewhat unpleasantly, of iOS 6’s skeuomorphic design where every interface element looked like an item in the real world. (Torn pages and leather borders in Calendar, a reel-to-reel tape in Podcasts, etc.) I haven’t seen this in person yet though, so perhaps it looks better in person. It’s certainly whimsical.
I’m not totally sure what I’ll set mine to, but I don’t think it’ll be mute. It may well be camera, because I find myself going to that app a lot via search since it’s not on my home screen in my Work focus mode. What would you set yours to?
You can swipe left on your Lock Screen to access the camera. I’m going to set mine to flashlight at first and see where I go from there.
I would set my action button to a loud fart sound.