The latest iPhone 15 series breaks tradition by ditching the old-school mute switch on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. Instead, it introduces an all-new “Action Button.” What’s surprising is that Apple lets users assign a bunch of preset actions to this button. Even more surprisingly, you can run Shortcuts using this button, which opens up a world of quick functions. Here’s how you can master the use of the iPhone 15 Pro’s Action Button.
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How to customize the Action Button
To tweak the Action Button, just head to Settings > Action Button on your iPhone 15 Pro. Straight out of the box, Apple sets it to switch between mute and ringer, just like the old mute switch did.
Apple also lets you choose from a bunch of preset actions for the button, such as:
- Silent mode [Default]: Swap between Silent and Ring for calls and alerts.
- Focus: Activate Focus to silence notifications and cut out distractions. You can select from your available Focus modes to switch it on and off.
- Camera: Launch the camera app and go straight to a mode.
- Torch: Activate the flashlight. Voice Memo: Start recording a voice memo right away.
- Magnifier: Enable the Magnifier accessibility feature, using the camera to zoom in on the viewfinder and assist in reading small text.
- Shortcut: Launch another app or execute a shortcut.
- Accessibility: Pick from Vision, Motor, Hearing, and General accessibility options.
- No Action: Do nothing.
You’re free to pick any of the options above that suits your needs without any hassle. Just remember, you’ve got to hold down the button to kick things off, so accidental triggers are pretty unlikely. Apple doesn’t allow you to set actions for a quick press, double press, or triple press.
If you wanna take your iPhone to the next level, you gotta dive into the Shortcut feature. With just a long press, you can start a series of fancy commands or open up a bunch of menus where you can stack even more shortcuts.
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How to make action button more useful with Shortcuts
Shortcuts is this legit Apple app on your iPhone that lets you set up actions and jobs to kick in when certain conditions are met. You can roll with the Shortcuts app on older iPhones too, firing up tasks when you tap the icon linked to the shortcut.
But with the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, you can straight-up program a bunch of stuff to happen when you hit that button. It could be as easy as just opening an app or a bit fancier, like snapping a pic and shooting it off in an email automatically.
Once you nail down Shortcuts, you can cook up even crazier situations that happen just by hitting a button. The stuff it does can switch up based on what Focus Mode you’re in or even how you’re holding the phone, or a mix of both. And if you wanna go full-on bonkers, you can make a whole other menu of actions pop up, giving you this totally custom Control Centre for your phone with just the stuff you wanna see.
In iOS, it’s a breeze to pass around Shortcuts with your pals, so you can nab someone else’s Shortcut and tweak it as you like. This comes in handy since the process of making a Shortcut isn’t the most user-friendly.
You can set this up to make the Google Pay app pop open on your iPhone, so you can swiftly jump into the QR code scanner and get cracking with those UPI payments. The regular Code Scanner shortcut won’t cut it for this scenario.