Everything You Can Do With the IPhone 15 Pro Action Button

The mute switch is officially disabled on iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max . Instead, you now get an Action button, similar to the button on the Apple Watch Ultra . Luckily, this button still works as a mute switch. If you press and hold the button, you will switch between ringer mode and silent mode. iOS will even tell you if you don’t hold down the button long enough. Careful!

So, the physical mute button isn’t going anywhere; it’s just different. But it’s not just for muting or muting: you can choose what it does when pressed, and Apple has created a good system for easily customizing what the button can do.

The Action button on the iPhone Pro ( the iPhone 15 still has the old mute switch) serves as a shortcut button for many standard iPhone functions. You can go to Settings > Action Button to customize this action at any time.

You can use the Action button to quickly open the camera without fiddling with on-screen controls. Likewise, you can use it to turn your flashlight on and off, so you don’t have to rely on the Home screen shortcut or Control Center tile. It can also start recording with voice memos, open the Magnifier app, activate Focus, or open the Translate app (though this won’t be available until later this year). You can also activate any accessibility shortcut using the Action button to toggle actions like VoiceOver, AssistiveTouch, and more.

Speaking of shortcuts, the Action button also supports shortcuts so you can easily create and assign shortcut automation to the Action button. You can do something simple—like opening Spotify, choosing to play a specific playlist, or running a complex automation—just by clicking the Action button. If you can create it using shortcuts, you can activate it using your 15 Pro’s new button.