In case you missed it, the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max have transcended the age-old ringer/silent switch that has accompanied every iPhone since the first generation. While the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus still have the regular ringer/silent switch, the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max instead replace it with what’s being called the Action Button, and it’s very similar to the one that we’ve already had on the now one-year-old Apple Watch Ultra.
The Action Button resides in the same place that you would find the ringer/silent switch on other iPhone models, just above the volume up button. In fact, when you look at it, it looks like a shrunken-down volume button in that it’s very compact.
Users can still press and hold the iPhone’s Action Button to mute or un-mute their iPhone by default, an action that provides positive haptic feedback to let you know it was successful, but it’s worth noting that this button is fully mappable, which means that you can replace the traditional ringer/silent functionality with one of several different options, which include:
- Silent Mode (default – to keep your iPhone quiet)
- Focus Mode (to silence incoming notifications)
- Camera (to quickly capture a frame)
- Flashlight (to quickly illuminate a dark space)
- Voice Memos (to quickly capture an audio recording)
- Magnifier (to zoom in on something that’s hard to see)
- Shortcut (select any of your favorite Shortcuts to invoke)
- Translate (to rapidly translate between different languages in real time)
It’s worth noting that some of these features, such as translation, won’t be available at launch, but rather be made available in a software update later this year. This seems to suggest that Apple could continue adding Action Button features in future software updates, but it remains to be seen if that will actually happen.
In any case, while the classic ringer/silent switch will absolutely be missed, we think that iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max users are going to fall in love with their new customizable Action Button, especially since not everyone uses the ringer/silent functionality on their existing phones.
Not interested in the iPhone Action Button? Never fret… you still have the option to hold on to your older iPhone, or to upgrade to the cheaper iPhone 15 or 15 Plus instead of the Pro models.
Are you planning to take advantage of any of the new features included with the iPhone 15 Pro & 15 Pro Max’s Action Button? Let us know why or why not in the comments section down below.