The Action Button is a genuinely new button on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max — but not the regular iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus. Instead of the mute switch that's been on every iPhone since the first one that Steve Jobs announced in 2007, the newest Pros have a new button that you can customize to your liking. The idea is that you can make your iPhone feel more like your iPhone. It's personal.
Apple has a number of preprogrammed "actions" for the Action Button that you can choose from. By default, the Action Button is programmed to work just like the mute switch of old — you can toggle silent mode on or off. If your iPhone is always on silent (which I think is the case for most people), you might be able to get better use out of the Action Button by switching it to something else.
Here are the preprogrammed "actions" that Apple gives the Action Button:
- Silent mode: works like the traditional mute switch, turning the ringer on or off.
- Focus: toggle Do Not Disturb or Sleep modes — you pick — on or off.
- Camera: open the camera app (you can pick the setting: photo, video, selfie, Portrait, Portrait Selfie)
- Flashlight: turn the flashlight on or off.
- Voice Memo: open the Voice Memo app.
- Magnifier: turn your iPhone into a magnifying glass.
- Shortcut: open a specific app or run a shortcut.
- Accessibility: quickly use an accessibility feature (there are many to choose from).
- No Action: pressing the Action Button does nothing.
How to customize the Action Button
The only way to change the function of the Action Button on your iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max is through the Settings app. Here's what to do:
- Open the Settings app.
- Scroll down and select Action Button.
- Swipe through to choose the new action.
- Simply leave the app while the new action is selected.
For some of these actions there are additional customization options that you can choose from. For example, if you choose Camera there is a little drop-down menu where you can select a specific camera setting when you press the Action Button; you can choose between a photo (Portrait or not), video or selfie (Portrait or not). If you choose Focus, you can choose from Do Not Disturb or Sleep modes.
The two outliers for the Action Button are if you choose Accessibility and Shortcut — there's further customization options. Both have a button that leads you to a separate screen. For Accessibility, you click the "Choose a feature" button where you can select from a wide variety of accessibility features. And for Shortcut, you can select "Choose a Shortcut..." and you can basically turn the Action Button into anything you want.
How to create a Shortcut for the Action Button
The Shortcuts function allows you to really customize the Action Button. You can have it open a specific app, call a certain person, start a timer, play music or even turn it into a remote for your Apple TV. If you're a power user of Shortcuts — which I admittedly am not — you can go real deep with it and get the Action button to open a menu with lots of Shortcuts (for a deep dive on that, check out this YouTube channel).
I've been playing around with some more simple (yet very practical) use cases for the Action Button.
How to get the Action Button to open your most-used app (like Instagram or Spotify)
It's probably not the healthiest option, but I've been using the Action Button to quickly open some of my most used apps — like Spotify, Twitter (now "X") and Instagram. Here's what to do.
- Open the Shortcuts app on your iPhone.
- Scroll down and select Action Button.
- Swipe over to Shortcut.
- Select the "Choose a Shortcut..." drop-down menu.
- Choose the "Open App..." option.
- Select the app you want to open.
How to get the Action Button to turn on/off Orientation Lock
I'm an avid user of Orientation Lock because I hate when my iPhone randomly decides to switch orientations when I'm on the go. Typically, you toggle Orientation Lock on/off from the Control Center, but you can create a quick, practical Shortcut and assign it to your Action Button instead. Here's how:
- Open the Shortcuts app on your iPhone.
- Select the "+" icon in the top right corner.
- Select the "Add Action" option.
- In the search bar, type Orientation...click the "Set Orientation Lock" option.
- Exit out of the Shortcuts app and open the Settings.
- Scroll down and select Action Button.
- Swipe over to Shortcut.
- Select the "Choose a Shortcut..." drop-down menu.
- Select "Set Orientation Lock."
How to quickly take Notes with the Action Button
The Notes app has one of the best and tightest integrations with the Action Button. When the Notes app is selected as the default app for the Action Button, a simple long-press opens a little window where jot down a note. If you are an avid Notes app user, I highly recommend doing this.
- Open the Shortcuts app on your iPhone.
- Scroll down and select Action Button.
- Swipe over to Shortcut.
- Select the "Choose a Shortcut..." drop-down menu.
- Scroll down and select the Notes app.
- Select the New Note option.
If you don't want to open a new Note every time, you also have the option to open up to a specific Note. However, it seems that only choosing the "New Note" option gets you this quick little window. If you select a specific Note, the Action Button will open the entire Notes app and bring you to that specific Note.
