iPhone 15 Pro Rumored to Feature Multi-Use Action Button Instead of Mute Switch

[lazyrighteye]

Interesting. I wonder if the rumored Action button is for the 15 Pro, Max or [rumored] Ultra (if not all three).

Off-topic, but related: I don't own an AWU. So I have no real-world data here. Just a hunch - which could [likely] be wrong. But I kind of suspect the Action button is one of those cool looking, highly touted/marketed "features" that, at the end of the day, doesn't actually see much action (sorry, couldn't resist). Again, I could be wrong but would love to hear some AWU owners chime in on their Action button usage and perspective.

As far as an Action button for iPhone - I'll have to wait and see. I do implement some Accessibility features (double-tap the back of iPhone to take a screen shot and triple-tap the Power button to pull all blue light out of the screen, yielding an all-red screen which is great for low-light phone access in spaces where even a fully dimmed screen is still too disruptive - think photography at a concert), so I'm curious about an Action button on iPhone as a concept. Just uncertain if it would make its way into my workflow. We'll see.

 

[Tozovac]

The funniest thing about this thread…
If the original iPhone had a button there instead of a switch that could be remapped at the time, and the iPhone 15 were changing it from a button to a switch that was only for mute, people would be flipping out and saying these exact same things in the thread… Just the other way around.
What’s the point of turning it into a switch when the button works just fine?
Change for changes sake
Etc

Do you also know of any good stocks to short?

In the case you describe, if they were wishing for a quicker, easier, more discrete and obvious way to set and confirm the mute, at least they'd be right.

 

[Smooley]

I like the change and we will see how they implement it. How I would do it you ask (nobody asked but I am going to tell you anyways), well making two assumptions 1) The buttons are capacitive and 2) can be mapped too different number of presses. I would lock the mute/unmute to two quick presses - the odds of something in your pocket being able to activate the capacitive button, twice quickly are pretty slim. I would then make the a single press mappable contextually, one press while on the lock or any of the home screens can open the camera but while in the mail app opens a new message draft, a single press in Music pauses audio, etc.... All of this being at the users choice.

As for the action button on the Apple Watch Ultra, the best thing I did was create a shortcut that when pressed, queries my front door lock status, tells me that status and then prompts me to either lock or unlock the door. Easy to run as I pull up to the house.

 

[Premium1]

When you run out of ways to innovate with the phones, this is what you get...

 

[rjjacobson]

As I sorta expected with an informal poll nearly two thirds mute all the time:

 

[jmgregory1]

Careful. Press 11 times for Apple Pay, and 13 times for Apple Pay Later.

Undoubtably Apple will engineer a solution for the problem, such as combining long and short press combinations so there won’t be any mistaken actions taken. For Apple Pay, it will be short long, short long long short, short long long short, short long short short, short short long long short, short long, long short long long (bringing Morse code back into the modern tech vernacular).

 

[Marty80]

Another pointless update, I would prefer an increase in the display size & no dynamic island distractions.

Apple is steering to the 80s route, over priced items that offer little to the competition.

Common Apple innovate & re vision the iPhone to create something new & bold.

 

[RaphaZ]

I Think these phones need more buttons. I always say that. It would be great.

 

[jimmy_uk]

Apple has to do something to make the new iphone the best iphone they've ever made....

 

[klasma]

As I sorta expected with an informal poll nearly two thirds mute all the time:

View attachment 2180938

“or often”, which is an important difference. I mute often, but that means I also use and check the mute switch often. That’s very different from someone who always has the phone on mute and hence almost never uses the mute switch. The poll arguably doesn’t distinguish between those two usage patterns. The formulation “use mute” is also ambiguous in whether it means “use the mute switch” vs. “have the phone on mute”.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Anyone plays with the "mute" switch button and rocks it back n forth. Pure Satisfaction!

 

[MallardDuck]

bummer. I like a physical mute button with a clear visual indicator of status at a glance. Solid state fake buttons are a step backwards IMHO.

 

[MallardDuck]

Interesting. I wonder if the rumored Action button is for the 15 Pro, Max or [rumored] Ultra (if not all three).

Off-topic, but related: I don't own an AWU. So I have no real-world data here. Just a hunch - which could [likely] be wrong. But I kind of suspect the Action button is one of those cool looking, highly touted/marketed "features" that, at the end of the day, doesn't actually see much action (sorry, couldn't resist). Again, I could be wrong but would love to hear some AWU owners chime in on their Action button usage and perspective.

As far as an Action button for iPhone - I'll have to wait and see. I do implement some Accessibility features (double-tap the back of iPhone to take a screen shot and triple-tap the Power button to pull all blue light out of the screen, yielding an all-red screen which is great for low-light phone access in spaces where even a fully dimmed screen is still too disruptive - think photography at a concert), so I'm curious about an Action button on iPhone as a concept. Just uncertain if it would make its way into my workflow. We'll see.

Haven't used it myself. The functions you can assign to it aren't ones that would make a difference for me.

Now if I could push it and have it ping my phone, that'd be useful.

 

[dwaite]

Agreed! All also needs to consider bringing back 3D Touch. It was high-end, exclusive, and overall premium.

Someone else had a patent touching it. Presumably they weren't willing to license it (or wanted something ridiculous), and Apple lawyers said Apple was too likely to lose.

 

[dwaite]

Agreed! A lot of people seem to think that just bc they don’t find it useful no one else will. I like this idea though. You can leave it as a mute/silent button or you can customize to something that’s more useful to you. Seems like a win for everyone, imo.

I believe the challenge is that they are replacing a physical toggle with a button. You won't be able to glance at the replacement button or feel it with your finger in your pocket to know if your phone is muted, say in a meeting. Or, whether you properly unmuted it when you left.

That said, the interplay between normal volume controls (plural, since different systems have different volume levels), this toggle, and focus modes (which are synced between devices) has grown really clunky. An action button to put you into a DND like focus for all devices makes a lot of sense to simplify things. They just have to figure out how to better surface that you've silenced all alerts.

 

[dwaite]

When are they going to go the route of the Magic Mouse and put the charging port in the middle of the screen?

They already did go this route - there's a charging port centered on the back of the last five years of iPhones.

 

[brandoman]

A fingerprint/thumbprint, perhaps? That's all I ask. Gimme that Touch ID.

 

[lazyrighteye]

Someone else had a patent touching it. Presumably they weren't willing to license it (or wanted something ridiculous), and Apple lawyers said Apple was too likely to lose.

Always wondered why 3D Touch gave way to Haptic Touch. The former was preferred. More dynamic. Liked the perceived x-axis 3D Touch offered. Something more elegant about varying touch pressure yielding different actions.

 

[HVDynamo]

Yeah. Lets go back to a less secure, less reliable option. You belong on the engineering team, for sure.

Sorry, but this is a terribly bad take.

1. TouchID was plenty secure, especially if you consider that most people have it locked behind a 4 to 6 digit passcode number. FaceID being more secure basically doesn't matter in practice when the other entry points are less secure anyways.

2. TouchID may have been less reliable FOR YOU, but as usual so many forget that there are OTHER people out there with different situations. For instance, TouchID worked nearly flawlessly for me, and I would happily revert to using it over FaceID which works less well for me if it was offered in a flagship iPhone again. Yes, FaceID can be better for others like my mom who basically has no fingerprints left somehow.

 

[SouthBronx187]

flashlight button! take my money!

 

[SouthBronx187]

Sorry, but this is a terribly bad take.

1. TouchID was plenty secure, especially if you consider that most people have it locked behind a 4 to 6 digit passcode number. FaceID being more secure basically doesn't matter in practice when the other entry points are less secure anyways.

2. TouchID may have been less reliable FOR YOU, but as usual so many forget that there are OTHER people out there with different situations. For instance, TouchID worked nearly flawlessly for me, and I would happily revert to using it over FaceID which works less well for me if it was offered in a flagship iPhone again. Yes, FaceID can be better for others like my mom who basically has no fingerprints left somehow.

i hate face id! rarely works for me! especially in sunlight or wearing a beanie, sunglasses or hat!

 

[rukia]

The programmable buttons would be a significant benefit for camera functionality. The action button could be the shutter release while the volume buttons could be used to change the focal length or shutter speed. Of course apple could have done something with the volume buttons today …

 

[Realityck]

The programmable buttons would be a significant benefit for camera functionality. The action button could be the shutter release while the volume buttons could be used to change the focal length or shutter speed. Of course apple could have done something with the volume buttons today …

Could they really, it's not like whenever you are using the camera app that you don't need to frame/compose/select mode/digital zoom what you are shooting vs a real camera's focal length and shutter speed? A lot of this is automated not like walking around with small point and shoot. Seems a stretch to use such gimmicks.

 

[tucupeis]

the current switch is very useful as it is. having a button to mute/unmute will be a problem as its too easy to press it by mistake. if it requires confirmation on screen then its a 2 step process to do something that currently only requires one step.

 

[Roadstar]

Depending upon how many times you push the button, it will perform different functions. Push it once for the silent/mute, push 2x for flashlight, push 30x for magnifier.😁

🙃You can even send a morse code to invade Cuba.🙃

Move over Type to Siri, Morse to Siri is here!