Action button shortcut: What you should set your iPhone to do
Action button shortcut: What you should set your iPhone to do
https://www.cultofmac.com/how-to/iphone-action-button-shortcut
Publish Date: 2026-01-27 10:01:00
Source Domain: www.cultofmac.com
I finally figured out the perfect set of controls to assign to the iPhone’s Action button. I created a shortcut that cleverly combines the two controls I want to use it for.
The Action button can toggle the flashlight, mute audio, toggle an accessibility feature, open the camera, start translation, run any shortcut of your choosing and more. It’s so open-ended that figuring out what to use it for can trigger decision fatigue.
Don’t panic — I discovered what you should use the iPhone’s action button for. And I’m sharing the shortcut, which combines two actions into one elegant system, so you can use it, too.
What to do with the iPhone’s Action button
The iPhone’s Action button, which replaced the familiar Ring/Silent switch on the iPhone 15 Pro before spreading to the rest of the iPhone lineup, is remarkably powerful. It’s also most likely underutilized.
By default, you can press and hold the Action button to toggle Silent mode on and off. However, it can do much more. (And to be honest, the Ring/Silent switch made less sense over time — many iPhone users now wear an Apple Watch, which sends notifications to the wrist, meaning the iPhone is effectively always silent.)
If you own a recent iPhone and miss the Ring/Silent switch, the easy option is to simply keep using the Action button for that function. But if, like me, your phone is always on mute, that’s wasting a perfectly good button. I worked out a better option.
The two things I need to do all the time
Before I upgraded to an iPhone 16 Pro, I had a whole year to think about what I might use the Action button for. I had two ideas:
- Add an item to my shopping list. I often think to myself, “Oh, I’m running low on this item, I should add it to my shopping list.” Unfortunately, I literally never do. And then I get stuck making pasta sauce that doesn’t have any Italian seasoning or Parmesan cheese, and at that…
