Your iPhone's Action button is surprisingly powerful—here's everything it can do

Still using the side button as a mute switch? Here's what you're missing out on.

- BY JASON CROSS

Since the very first iPhone, Apple has featured an on-off mute switch above the volume buttons. That all changed with the iPhone 15 Pro, and every iPhone since—the mute switch was replaced by something called the Action button.

The idea is simple: Instead of a switch, you have a button you press and hold for a second (to avoid accidental presses in your pocket or bag) to mute or unmute your iPhone. But of course, being a button, it's far more flexible than the mute switch. Just hop into your Settings menu to select your iPhone. a different function for your Action button. Here are all the things you can do with your Action button.

You can start recording a voice memo without having to launch the Voice Memos app.

BUILT-IN OPTIONS

Open Settings and tap on the Action button menu to change what it can do.

Silent Mode: It's the mute switch, in button form! Just press and hold to toggle between mute and unmute.

Focus: Enable the focus mode of your choice. By default, it brings up a menu of all your Focus modes, but you can select one (such as Do Not Disturb) to always activate.

Camera: This launches the Camera app, and you can select whether you want it to go directly to Photo, Selfie, Video, Portrait, or Portrait Selfie. Once in the Camera app, it acts as a shutter button.