iPhone 15 Pro: Here's Everything the New Action Button Can Do

[willchris]

Now it’s time to add the silent icon to the status bar to still be able to tell if your phone is actually on mute or not

And a notifications indicator! That ish is long overdue.

 

[spinedoc77]

If it is only one action… this is the lamest thing ever. I hope it is more than just 1 action.

I would think 2 actions would take away from the simplicity Apple always strives to achieve. Can you imagine the chaos if users were actually allowed to utilize more than 1 action? /s (sort of)

 

[spinedoc77]

This is incredibly dumb. On the older models, you could easily tell without looking whether the phone is silent or not. Now you can’t anymore. They really don’t know what else to add to make people buy the new models.

Making things more difficult by making them more simple, the Apple way.

 

[DeepIn2U]

I will use the action button for my camera, but I’m going to still need a quick way to mute my phone

This really could’ve been implemented in software without a hardware change.

 

[DeepIn2U]

I’ve always wanted that switch to control orientation lock, and I guess I can now do that with the action button via shortcuts which is cool.

I do also hope it can be programmed to multiple options. If not, I’m almost certain it would be able to in a 17.x update.

Like the early iPads which the slider did control orientation lock IF you toggled that in settings.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

I use the mechanical switch for toggling silent mode daily(with flash for notification), soon as I get to work. This has worked well for my OG SE and now the 13 Mini. With a physical switch it was easy to tell, sight unseen, what position it's on. I guess a long press with haptic feedback wouldn't be that difficult to adjust to. Not sure about "accidental" instances though.

 

[tzxsean]

I wonder if the haptic feedback is important for the action button

because some cases are without button cover (i.e. only cutout) for the action button

 

[_Spinn_]

I would probably keep it as the mute function.

 

[ignatius345]

Should have two action buttons and a way to invoke two different actions with each one.

Or just keep the same ring/silent switch as before, but add the Action button. Or maybe let us use the Volume buttons for more things.

 

[ignatius345]

What about double press, triple press, press and hold, etc... the possibilities were unlimited but they decided to just allow one press for one action. LAME.

They could hopefully unlock more later. There's ample precedent, as the old Home button (and current power button on the right side) can be configured with add'l functions on multiple presses.

For example I currently use a triple-click on the power button to trigger a deep red display filter that's very easy on the eyes late at night. No reason on earth they couldn't add more to this new Action button, while still letting users keep the default mute/unmute function.