Do You Use It? iPhone 15 Pro Action Button Struggles to Find Its Purpose

In our most recent Do You Use It? poll, we asked readers who own an iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max if they used the Action button, and if so, for what. Remember, the Action button replaced the Ring/Silent switch on earlier iPhone models and defaults to toggling Silent mode but lets users customize its functionality if they prefer. I was initially curious about Action button uptake and usage because I’ve had trouble working it into my everyday iPhone habits—was I just too set in my ways compared to others? Two changes for the iPhone 16 lineup make the question even more timely. First, all iPhone 16 models gain the Action button, so it will become available to far more iPhone users than last year. Second, Apple also added the new Camera Control to the entire lineup, making it unlikely that iPhone 16 users would associate camera functions with the Action button.

Although the poll received relatively low participation because it was limited to TidBITS readers who own one of the iPhone 15 Pro models, the results still suggest that the Action button hasn’t been a runaway success. The most common use was to recreate the function of the Ring/Silent switch, garnering 33% of the votes. Even then, some people aren’t happy with the Action button as a replacement for the Ring/Silent switch because you can’t tell at a glance which state it’s in. (iOS does provide Silent mode feedback in the Dynamic Island, but if you’re in a theater, you may have to press the Action button twice to be sure it’s muted. Or you could look in Control Center.)

Another 21% of respondents use the Action button to open the Camera app, which I doubt iPhone 16 users will do, and 20% said they don’t use the Action button at all, like me. That’s a total of 74% who either use the Action button like the switch it replaces, don’t use it at all, or use it in a way that Apple is, in essence, deprecating in future iPhone models by adding the Camera Control.

I was encouraged by the 11% of respondents who use the Action button to trigger a shortcut. That’s taking advantage of the Action button’s flexibility to personalize the iPhone for that precise task that improves the overall experience. The 9% who use the Action button to control the flashlight remind me of the morose robot Marvin in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. “Here I am, brain the size of a planet, and what do they use me for? A flashlight.”

The remaining options are vanishingly little used, which isn’t surprising. Focus is an overengineered solution still searching for its problem. Although the Magnifier app is wonderfully helpful, few people need it regularly. Although it’s great that Apple provides access to a long list of accessibility features, most of them probably don’t need toggling throughout the day. I could imagine connecting Translate to the Action button while on a trip to a country where I don’t speak the language, but how many people rely on frequent translations every day? Finally, it seems that Voice Memos don’t get much use on an everyday basis.

I’m sad that the Action button hasn’t been more of a hit because it seemed like the sort of thing that power users would leap to use. I’ve been trying to figure out why I haven’t taken to it myself, and I think it comes down to two reasons:

• The iPhone is a highly visual device with most controls defined by software and appearing onscreen. Before the Action button, the only physical controls were the side button (the top button before that), the volume buttons, and the Ring/Silent switch. Their “hidden” actions generally take place outside of iOS apps: waking and sleeping the screen, changing or muting volume, activating Siri, opening Apple Pay, powering the iPhone on and off, taking a screenshot, activating Emergency SOS, and force-restarting the iPhone. I’d argue that Apple has trained us not to think about attaching an app-related function to a physical button, and the other buttons already handle most of the extra-iOS features we need.
• If we’re to become fluid with the Action button, it needs to trigger an action we will invoke regularly, but we already have longstanding muscle memory for such actions. I tried setting the Action button to open CARROT Weather, which is one of my most-checked apps, but I find myself preferring to tap the widgets I’ve placed on the Lock Screen and Home Screen. I could remove those to force myself to use the Action button, but I have nothing better to do with those widget slots. In essence, the Action button has to compete with the many other shortcut options Apple provides in iOS.

Some people have suggested that the Action button’s location can make it difficult to activate, while others expressed concern that it could be activated inadvertently in a pocket. Apple may have required that we press and hold the Action button to reduce the likelihood of accidental presses, but that adds friction to every invocation of the Action button, making it less satisfying as a shortcut. The press-and-hold requirement and associated delay would seem minor, but with user interfaces, small things can have outsized consequences.

I’m looking forward to seeing if Apple has tweaked the feel of the Action button on the iPhone 16 Pro. I could imagine a future iPhone taking the Action button virtual, much as Apple trackpads simulate movement and feedback with the Taptic Engine rather than having physical switches.