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Action Button Usages and Shortcuts Examples [MERGED]

I’m using the action button with a shortcut. A long press will open a menu with different stuff so I don’t have to swipe down the control center which sometimes is a bit uncomfortable for me (small woman hands, haha 😅). In some categories I setup kind of a drop down menue e. g. to toggle from sound to vibrate and silent. I linked airplane mode with another short cut which turns on battery saving mode when activating airplane mode and some more tweaks.
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The.Glorious.Son said:
Mine is set to mute but I don’t use it. I’d like the mute switch back personally.
Click to expand...
Is there a way to set action button in such a way that at least in 2 presses you can ensure it's "completed muted" without looking at the screen? (i.e via "clearly" different haptic feedback or vibration for "muted" "unmuted" or so?

Yes - I would also prefer a dedicated mute button on my next iPhone (16 or 16e)
 
I've set my action button to completely declutter my phone. It opens a launcher menu that links to other shortcuts. As a result, my home screen is simplified, yet I can quickly get to anything I need.

-Home screen has quick launches for ChatGPT and GPT Voice
-Home screen has only a pic from my photo library, with constantly used apps in the dock.
-Launch Menu is linked to any sub catagory I need to get to.
-Swipe right menu has quick weather info, battery info, and high-use shortcuts
 

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Not trying to troll. Really. But if I set the action button to anything other than mute, how will I be able to mute?

Thank you
Pete
 
I leave mine on mute all the time.

But, you could set up a shortcut to have different functions based on the position of the phone. Portrait is a launch menu. Flat face up is mute. Something like that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
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just got a 16Pro this weekend (I know the 17s are coming out and I wanted to wait BUT we have a vacation next week where the better camera than what we had will be put to use...not sure what/if we will do anything great in 2026 so rather have a better camera now than later)

Anyway, I wanted to step into some things before we go with the Action Button. I have a few Focus Modes and have Shortcuts dedicated to a few (the ones I haven't thought of just opens the flashlight).

anyway, in the order I made them...
GROCERIES FOCUS (this is set to auto Focus when I get to 1 of 4 of my specific grocery/Warehouse locations)
I the Groceries focus is set and I hit the button within .5 of the grocery stores the Groceries Reminder opens; if I am .5 mile from the warehouse stores, those reminders will open showing my lists.

DRIVING FOCUS - if I am 50 meters from my house I can open the garage door OTHERWISE it will open Maps (I'd like for it to check my calendar events and if something is with 1-2 hours get directions there

MOVIE TIME FOCUS - action button triggers IMDB app

GAME TIME FOCUS - opens the Sports App

all other focus modes will open the flashlight. I need to figure out if I have other actions I'd like to do. I think for Travel I have a few options so I may do the drop-down menu for Maps, Calendar, Photo, Weather, Night Sky, etc
I'd like for the action do adjust for time of day too so I may add that.
 
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vermilion_sky said:
I’m using the action button with a shortcut. A long press will open a menu with different stuff so I don’t have to swipe down the control center which sometimes is a bit uncomfortable for me (small woman hands, haha 😅). In some categories I setup kind of a drop down menue e. g. to toggle from sound to vibrate and silent. I linked airplane mode with another short cut which turns on battery saving mode when activating airplane mode and some more tweaks.View attachment 2476862
Click to expand...
Share your shortcut please
 
Jackbequickly said:
I wish I could turn on and off the silent calls from unknown callers.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I had that in iOS 18.. broken in iOS26 Best option now is setting a focus

Settings > Focus > New Focus (“Known Callers”).
  1. Allow Notifications > People > Allow Notifications From > Next (at top)
  2. Phone Calls > Allow Calls From > Choose individuals, favorites, a group or all contacts
  3. Optionally allow repeat calls if you want emergencies to break through.
Then two shortcuts to turn on/off that focus
 
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I used to use an action button shortcut that would show me a list of shortcuts in a folder and pick one to run. It's a very easy way to add/delete shortcut functionality without having to edit a huge shortcut.

However, I've gone back to having the action button just do mute/unmute.

LordArchie said:
Yeah, I had that in iOS 18.. broken in iOS26 Best option now is setting a focus
Click to expand...
I'm confused. The shortcut action, "Turn Silence Unknown Callers On/Off", still works in iOS26; you just can't set it to "Ask Reason for Calling". unfortunately.
 
Thor_9 said:
How did you do that?
Click to expand...
Use the shortcuts app to create a list of "choose from menu" actions. Each option links to a corresponding action like launching an app, triggering an action or opening a file.

I would share mine, but it's tied to a whole bunch of work-related google documents that I access regularly.
 
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vermilion_sky said:
I’m using the action button with a shortcut. A long press will open a menu with different stuff so I don’t have to swipe down the control center which sometimes is a bit uncomfortable for me (small woman hands, haha 😅). In some categories I setup kind of a drop down menue e. g. to toggle from sound to vibrate and silent. I linked airplane mode with another short cut which turns on battery saving mode when activating airplane mode and some more tweaks.View attachment 2476862
Click to expand...
Same here. And I customise the action button menu to turn on sleep mode and launch headspace, put on rss feeds, and more.
1761080350426.png
 
I use it to turn off all the lights downstairs via shortcut. Nice easy way to ensure no one left anything on when I go to bed.
 
Just upgraded from a 14PM to a 17PM. Right now I’m using ring/silent, but I like some of the ideas in here.
 
Bkfraiders7 said:
Hey everyone! I’ve updated the script. You’ll need the (Free) Actions app on the Appstore

With this, if your phone is in landscape it’ll default to the camera function to get the quick camera.

Otherwise it will prompt with a menu. Feel free to give it a try and update to make it better

Click to expand...

JBinPDX said:
View attachment 2305293

This is mine. I had it set for camera at first, but that was pretty useless. Camera will probably come out of this list, too, as soon as I figure out a different shortcut I want there. I probably use shopping list the most — it just opens my list in Reminders. But this is a way easier method of getting there.
Click to expand...

How do you get it to appear horizontal?
 
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