What uses have you put to the action button on new phones?

Great question, and I too am keen to learn what the Cool Kids do...

I have the 16 pro max and I had not use it since it came out. Will see in iOS 27.

I have tried and been successful and avoiding a phone that has an action button. Both of my devices still have to switch. I really think Apple should’ve just kept that switch. I swear Apple is changing things just to change things. There’s too many freaking side buttons. There’s gonna be too many things to accidentally push. Even as it is with the power button doubling as a button I pushed that so many times on my iPhone 15 accidentally someone when I didn’t need to. So I can only imagine what will happen when I have an action button and the power button and the volume button and hopefully not a camera button. It’s just too many things on the side of the phone. They switch would go up and down. You could very easily check whether your phone was on mute or bring mode just by touching the position of the switch. You didn’t even have to take your phone out. They’ve made it harder now. Just like everything else that they’ve made harder unnecessarily. For example, the new in dictation sound are just driving me crazy still even though we had those changes in the iOS 16 I still have yet to get used to them and like them. I think it’s crap that we don’t have a setting that can revert back to the older sounds. I guess Apple decides for us what we can I can’t have for sounds. They let us choose what kind of Voice we want they couldn’t be bothered. What kind of sounds you wanted? Nothing just frustrates me to know and I’m just saying. You know what I was really nice. I said to Apple ha you know you’re kind of inadvertently created an Accessibility issue here because it’s harder to hear these sounds I got literally no response about that. I even talk to people at the Apple Accessibility and they even said it was harder for them to tell if Siri was on, and they literally had to look at their phones to make sure that was actually being listening to them. As far as uses for the action button, I would probably keep mine as the mute and silent action. I know from people on here that they have used it to create Voice Memos and people have. I think there’s other things that you can assign, but I’m pretty sure at least when it first came out that there was only one reassign action that you couldn’t have, but that may have changed. I don’t remember exactly. I’m sorry that this may not be the most helpful on here but I just figured I would come on here and let you guys know what I think about it. Exercise buttons on the phone. It is a great question though since you have updated to a phone that has the button hopefully you can get the uses that you need out of it.

There are not to many choices. I have no interest in what apple suggest. Perhaps when apple let people choose it might be different.

Thanks for the info. I completely agree. Apple definitely likes to make choices for us. That’s why I brought up in my previous comments about how I really hate the New and dictation sounds and the Apple doesn’t allow us to revert back to the old ones. That was a really stupid change in iOS 16. It was absolutely no need for it. It was just them changing it because they think that they know best. And this is coming from somebody who you know genuinely drives like my iPhones. So you know it’s a big deal for me to say that. It was when they changed the new Siri and dictation sounds.

Each to their own, but I love my action button on my 16+! I use this to quickly toggle VoiceOver on and off, very useful for my friends and family who may need to borrow my phone but do not need VoiceOver! Pete however could be discussing the camera control button which I never use and is completely unnecessary in my opinion, not now the action button can act as the camera control button as of recently. No wonder Apple does not include the camera control button on the 17e for example.

For now I use the action button for silent mode, as I like the way it's implemented with VoiceOver and tactile feedback. I have, however, made a shortcut to make the camera control button toggle the "silence unknown callers" setting.

It required a weird hack where I had to make an automation for every time I launch an app mapped to the camera control button, but it works well enough once that's set up.

I have it assigned to voice memos. This seemed like a good idea when I assigned it. However, i have to say it's a bit inconsistent. Pressing and holding won't always record a voice memo, even when I get the message 'hold to record'. I raied this issue in a post a while back, but I don't think many people shared my particular problem. I'd be lying, in any case, if I said the action button got all that much use. It's one of those features of the pro phones about which I am ambivalent.

Is it true the button is still limited to a single press and hold, even in iOS 27? If so, this is a feature crippled by artificial software limitations, but it isn't surprising given it's Apple we're talking about.
I could imagine all kinds of potential uses for such a feature, but if you can only assign a single action at a time, I can understand why most people don't even bother. True, you can use Shortcuts, but it would be great to have at least double click and hold along with triple click and hold.

I have trouble with the shortcuts app, or making shortcuts. I hope that is not the only way to assign the action button a purpose.

With iOS 27, I was able to get my phone to create a shortcut which would check screen brightness and toggle voiceover on/off, then change the screen brightness so a sighted user can use my phone, or set it back to 0 when turning voiceover on. I then mapped that shortcut to the action button.

I used to have mine set to Seeing AI. Since 27, I set it to the new scene description. I know someone who used to have theirs to turn on hotspot. So it's really not useless.

I have assigned mine with a shortcut that takes a screenshot and creates a calendar event for me based on the picture. Very handy for online meetings.

Thanks, Joe Ballard. I understand that this may be useful for some people. It literally just sounds to me like an unnecessary step and complication. I just want my devices to just be simple to use instead of having to go through a bunch of controls and trying to figure out what I can assign a button too. It’s just easier to have one simple operation. Check if the phone is ringer or silent and that’s it. I don’t have to go through all kinds of hoops to just access these possibilities of choices somewhere. Look I get it that sounds like that I’m not willing to change it and quite frankly I’m not because I don’t really need Apple redesigning their hardware just because they think that they can change things just to change it I mean, it just seems so unnecessary to me. I’ll definitely have to keep my devices as long as possible since they’re the only ones left with a switch. I do have an action button. I don’t think I’m even going to bother doing anything with it. It’s going to stay its default setting of ringer and silent mode. As I said no I do have an action button. I don’t think I’m even going to bother doing anything with it. It’s going to stay. It’s default setting of ringer and silent mode. I said no it’s not gonna be a really easy thing to just go ahead and check. Just right now I don’t even have to take my phone out to check whether it’s ringer silenced. I can just feel the position of a switch and find it that way. So yeah I’m glad that you guys are found use for it. I’m glad it’s been helpful for some people you know each their own obviously but I’m pretty sure once I have a button like that I’m just going to leave it at default configuration. I don’t wanna have to go through a bunch of different control center options or whatever it is figure out whether my phone is silenced or not. Also, I do still have the same concern that I had earlier. I have too many side buttons and there’s just gonna be too many things for me to accidentally press. Do you know how many times I accidentally summoned Siri because of the side button doubling as a button for my iPhone 15? So yeah there was another thing. Apple should’ve never done. Apple should’ve never gotten rid of a freaking home button. Even my technology teacher did the Connecticut services told me that they should’ve never gotten a home button and she somebody who has been teaching for a really long time. She also said that they shouldn’t have changed the in the dictation sounds either. So it’s not just me who doesn’t like this stuff. Apple still freaking thinks they know what the best thing is for us I guess. And like I said, this is coming from somebody who actually likes her iPhone so yeah, it’s a big freaking deal for me to say that. I am in no way saying that anybody else cannot enjoy the action buttons or anything else about their phones. I just know that it’s gonna take a big adjustment for me. You didn’t even took me a long time to get used to not having a home look I’m doing it, but I still don’t think it’s the best situation. Took me a few days to figure out how to do it and even now I can’t always do the gesture and I don’t feel like going through the customizing gestures to pain in the butt. I’ve tried trust me, but like I said each their own it’s cool. Hope everybody has a good day or night wherever you guys are.

There was a shortcut posted here a while ago that would toggle VO off and turn up brightness, then toggle everything back. That's what I have mine set to do.

Since iOS 27 I have now added the “Ask Questions” function to the button. This way I can specifically ask something, for example “who is this letter addressed to?” I have also set it up so that I don't have to type or dictate, but can speak my question directly.

Before iOS 27, I had the Action Button set to toggle Focus/Do Not Disturb. In iOS 27 I set it to Scene Description, but will probably change it back just because Do Not Disturb is something I tend to use more regularly and now have to go into Control Center to change.

I have mine set to sleep focus. Just turn on at night and off in the morning.

I have it set to Visual Assistance but it's not really working the way I was hoping. I thought I'd press the button and it would describe what's in front of me. But I think it's just opening up the Siri app with camera, and then I need to fiddle on the screen to do anything. I need to spend some more time seeing what it can do. I think I can use it to trigger a shortcut, so might have to farm out to another app but was wanting to put Apple Intelligence to the test.

It's also odd how few options there seem to be for the camera button. I can set it to Camera, Code Scanner and Claude. Except Claude is disabled and I' not sure why. This feels like an obvious place to make use of visual intelligence.

I left it at the original setting, turning on and off silent mode.

First of all, lets clear up any confusion. The camera control is a smooth rectangular control on the right side of an iPhone which is found below the side button nearer to the bottom. I haven't put that control to any serious use and somewhat dislike it. However, it has some benefits for photographers. Meanwhile, the action button is found above the volume buttons on the left side of an iPhone. It has replaced the mute switch found on older iPhones.
There are a great many uses you can put this button to. I used to have it set to record a voice memo so I just had to hold in the button to do that. However, I find that I'm currently torn between two different choices. I like having it set to open the quick note dialogue. This pops up a dialogue which lets you easily create a quick note without committing you to having a new note if you decide that you ultimately don't want to save what you enter. It puts you in a text field where you can magic tap to start dictation or type with the onscreen keyboard. I've found that to be very convenient.
However, on the recommendation of a screen alerting me to what's new that i encountered updating to iOS 27, I set the action button to the "describe scene" option in the updated Live
Recognition tools in VoiceOver. I've found this to be very hand as it lets me point the iPhone accurately and then briefly hold in the button to be figen a good description of things like the green lights on my hearing aid charger. I could unleash even more if I set that action button choise to the "ask" option. That would essentially give me the initial description and then allow me to ask further questions and take additional pictures using the volume buttons during the ask cession.
Having a button on the side of your iPhone which is this versatile is one of those things which makes you wanter why they didn't always have that. It keeps out of the way and is incredibly handy. To set your action button to something useful, go into settings and then into the "action button" area. There's a slider with some options and when it's set to some like "accessibility", flicking right reveals further choices. Hope that helps people get started. For anyone who wants, it's quite possible to have the action button activate the do not disturb focus. If you know how to do things with shortcuts, you can use the action button to activate those as well. While I find the camera control to be more of a questionable choice, I very much appreciate the action button.

You only can do 2 choices. I am sure there are many but the action only let you do 2. It has so many possibility.

Hello,

The new iPhones have two different buttons. The first one has been redesigned to function as a button, whereas previously it was used as a mute/silent mode switch. The new button, on the other hand, is designed to control the camera.

As for the first button, I have kept it as it is, with the mute function.

Regarding the new Camera Control button, I noticed during the setup process that several apps have been designed by their developers to support it and make use of it within their apps. Instagram, for example, supports it.

That is why I was hoping that the developers of Be My Eyes or Seeing AI would enable support for this button in their apps as well.

I have wanted to write about this for a while, but I never had the opportunity.

For me, the button is currently of very limited use, so I have configured it to open a QR code reader.

I use the action button to trigger Be My Eyes to take a picture and then give me a full description of that image. This is incredibly helpful when I need a description of something going on around me. This was actually quite easy to set up, just selected the appropriate shortcut from the menu in settings. Really useful. Have not yet decided if I will change this to the descriptions offered in iOS 27, probably not, I think Be My Eyes descriptions are still better.
Jim

If you change the function of the Action button, how do you toggle silent mode?

I turned mine into a quick shortcut to open sirius xm! Its so handy! I have a 17 pro max that I got in june.

How does one get the action button to take a screenshot and set up a calendar meeting? That sounds potentially very useful.

I left it at the default setting where it turns silent mode on or off.

You can download, or make yourself, a shortcut that will allow you to activate Ring mode and Silent mode with Siri. I used to have this on my rather short-lived 15 Pro. Makes the Action button redundant for muting imho. 😊

You can also put silent mode on the lock screen.

For the longest time I've had the Action button configured to launch Seeing AI. Recently I experimented with using it to launch the native description tool to its Ask option. My most common use case is help identifying things in and around the kitchen, most commonly spice and herb jars. So this was my first test for the new setting - it stubbornly refused to recognise that I was holding anything in my hand. No matter how I positioned my hand and the jar, I was confidently told my hand was empty ☹️ So that was a non-starter and back to Seeing AI I went.

For the Camera Control button, I have this configured to open Be My Eyes to its AI recognition tool, and again I'm immediately prompted to ask a question. A photo is taken and an answer given. I can use either the volume buttons or Camera Control to quickly snap further photos as I continue the discussion with Be My Eyes. It's quite a nice, slick workflow, but it always wants to be too wordy with its replies, so again isn't great for the kitchen where I want quick, accurate answers.

If anyone has suggestions of other tools I should be looking at for my kitchen use case, I'd welcome them.

I assign my action button to scene description, which is the quickest way to access it without needing to unlock the iPhone.

I'd love to use the action button for image description or something else fun, but I frequently need to change between ring mode and silent mode, and I'm not aware of another way to accomplish it, so can't change the default behavior of the action button. It's OK, though, because I think long pressing my iphone 16's camera button more or less does the same thing with regards to image description.

Lock screen, you can change the camera or flashlight to silent mode and you have it for the lock screen.

I think I might have been the one that shared this shortcut. This is what mine has been ever since I got the 15 pro. I like it because it can do both actions at once when I need to hand my phone to a sighted person for whatever reasen, or if I need to let someone scan a ticket or something I have on my phone. It also frees the tripple click of the side button up so I can use it to trigger guided access before I give my phone to my little niece or nephew to watch YouTube Kids. Keeps them in that app so they can't go mess up my settings anywhere else.
I've actually just started using Apples describe scene to tell me things like what t-shirt I'm getting out of my closet instead of Be My Eyes. It's a lot faster. I would love to be able to have a phone with the camera control button, and be able to trigger that from there.
I know I'm inpatient, but that couple seconds difference, and the fewer taps to get to something like that can make the difference in weather I take the ,trouble to see what t-shirt it is, or just say, it's not worth the bother and just wear whatever it is anyway, lol.