Yes, you can do these tasks through the Control Center or wherever else they are located on the iPhone, but the entire point of the Action Button is to simplify the action by reducing the time it takes you to trigger them. Just set the button to whatever task or action you want to perform and hit it whenever you want.

The Action Button is a relatively new addition to the iPhone. Currently, only six iPhone models have the button, including both the iPhone 15 Pro models and all the four entrants in the new iPhone 16 lineup. On models with the button, it is located in the place of the mute switch, right above the volume rockers on the left panel. Further, it has a similar texture to the aluminum and titanium frames on the respective iPhones.

Using the Action Button is pretty straightforward: press and hold the button, and it will perform the assigned action. Note that you must hold the Action Button for it to work as opposed to sliding the mechanical mute switch on older iPhone models. Upon executing the set task, iOS provides haptic feedback.

By default, the Action Button toggles between the ringer/silent modes so you don’t miss the ringer switch. However, there are more than a dozen possible ways to use the Action Button by customizing it. By changing the action it triggers, you can change how you use the Action Button and, eventually, how you use your iPhone.

How to Customize the Action Button

On iPhones with an Action Button, you get a dedicated settings option that contains all stock options (the ones that Apple provides). Out of the box, there are a total of 12 different actions that you can pick from.

These include silent mode, Focus modes, Camera, Flashlight, Voice Memo, Recognize Music, Translate, Magnifier, Controls, Shortcut, Accessibility, and No Action. While the first few are clear, Shortcut and Accessibility could use some explanation.

To check out all the available options, head to Settings > Action Button. You’ll see all the actions listed, along with the name and task they perform there.

If one action has more than one outcome, you’ll see a menu at the bottom to control them. For instance, Focus enables you to select from different modes, including Work, Sleep, Personal, or the other modes you might have created.

Accessibility options let you enable features like color filters, classic invert, increased contrast, magnifier, VoiceOver, and other accessibility features baked into the iPhone.

• Even though Apple’s pre-defined Action Button tasks are a little boring, you can link a custom Shortcut with the programmable button and get much more use out of it. In the Action Button menu, head to Shortcut > Choose a Shortcut, then select from the list of available options.
• For some ideas, check out my favorite Action Button shortcuts. I covered tasks like unlocking screen rotation, dictating a quick note to your iPhone, controlling smart home devices, or navigating back home, all at the press of a single button.

You can only set one Action Button shortcut at a time unless you know how to set up a condition shortcut that can do two different things. To do this, download the Double Tap Action shortcut by Jordan Zeleny, add it to the Shortcuts library, and customize it to do what you want.

By default, the shortcut lets you open the photo camera with one press, but with two presses, you can open the video camera. If you want to, change what the shortcut does by editing it and replacing the “Photo in Camera” and “Video in Camera” actions with others. Once done, map the shortcut to the Action Button, and you’re good to go.