Apple

Just curious: Isnt it just a programmable button? Cant we set the existing power or volume buttons to do the same? I dont understand whats so special about it.

I use it for flashlight. It's way better than fumbling on the screen at night when I need to turn it on quickly. That's the best use I could find.

Been loving it as a camera button on my current vacation. Taking pics with gloves on is finally achievable.

It controls the lights in my bedroom. I love it.

I wish it didn't exist, or at least wasn't next to the volume buttons.

can't wait until they add one on the other side for the 16 pro max mega

I set it up to do voice memos. But honestly it’d be much much more useful if Apple came up with speech to text for voice memos.

iPhone 14 Plus bought in March. There were no instructions included at all. Action button? I will have to look it up. From the comments of others, it might be useful. Right now, the iPhone is just one of many devices I use to play a game. It is also used for calls and text, maybe 10 a month. I use my iPad 10, bought at the same time, as a replacement for my laptops main functions of shopping, chrome searches, and banking. My laptops are now for old games from before the micro transaction and scammer apps from the Apple Store.

Love it ! Just open the camera with it. Simple but effective

I’m enjoying it as a camera but will be moving somewhere with a “”””smart”””” lock on the front door soon and if it’s actually smart it’s going to be awesome to lock and unlock the house with the action button.

I have a shortcut menu on mine that has mute, flashlight, camera, Halide, rotation lock, QR code scanner, and settings. Halide generates it for you in the app but i added the code scanner to it.

I use it as often as I used the mute switch… pretty much NEVER.

I never use it. I set it to open location settings so I can easily turn on the location, but I still go into Settings -> Privacy -> Location Settings.

I just feel it is awkwardly placed. I mean if you’re holding it in your palm and using your phone with just one hand, it is hard to reach.

It still takes too long to activate to be useful for any camera app. It should have a toggle for instant response.

No bueno. Made a shortcut to nudge volume up less than a normal volume up button press so that I could hit it with my eyes closed while in bed listening to music/podcast quietly and trying to sleep. I think apple added some proximity sensor thing so that if the phone is face down or in a pocket it won't trigger the action button. So half the time my shortcut assigned to the action button didn't even work and then I had to look at my phone in bed which is what I was trying to avoid in the first place.

I don’t use it at all. Pretty useless for me, but idk. They need to add more abilities like on double or triple tap maybe.

Pointless.

Like a second tail on a dog. Useless.

I didn’t use it at all and found it pretty pointless until the weather got cold. Being able to easily open the camera and take pictures with that button has been great with gloves

I don’t use it at all. It’s just not that useful to me.

I use it just for silent mode, but after using my 14 and 15 pros together, I prefer the action button to the toggle switch. I just imagine a focus group packed with people who never used the silent toggle.

Only as a mute switch. I'm gaming on my iphone so I always switch the mute because game have no sound in mute.

Use it everyday. Set to run a shortcut to turn on/off my living room lights. It has become my lazy go to light switch.

I'm loving it so far.

I've mapped it to a shortcut that opens a menu that makes it act like a second control center.

It still functions as a mute toggle but also for rotation lock, turn on flashlight, etc. Very versatile and customizable.

I use it for opening the Ring doorbell app. It’s the only thing I could think of that I use regularly that isn’t already easily accessible.

I use it to open a menu letting me pick different shortcuts, I also have it set to open a folder of shortcuts. I thought it was a gimmick at first but now it’s a necessity for me

I set mine up to do two things - if my phone is in sleep focus it deactivates sleep focus, so I'll use it when waking up in the morning. In any other focus it's an auto rotate toggle. Both of these are actions that would usually require extra presses or command center taps and it's quite nice to have them on a button instead.

Probably the most useless “feature” of the phone.

Never use it

I have it set to launch Google Translate in camera mode since I live in a foreign country.

I originally had mine set up with a shortcut menu for various apps/home features, but ended up switching it to just turning the flashlight on and off. Same with my AWU2's action button. I almost always need a flashlight so it just made the most sense.

I have it set to a menu for quick actions

I don’t use it much, but I’m glad it’s an option instead of the switch. I usually leave my phone on silent 90% of the time (the only time I turn alert sounds on are at home sometimes), so I’m glad that it’s a software option now. However, I wish the action button was in a different spot. Maybe on the right side below the power button, I often press it when trying to turn the volume up

At first I thought I wouldn’t use it for much since it’s only one button, but using conditions in shortcuts you can do a lot with it. For me holding it horizontally in one orientation before I click it goes straight into the camera. Holding it horizontally the other direction goes to video. Each room of my house has a separate condition set for a list of smart home controls (using home assistant and espresence to determine the room I’m in). When I’m at the gym it starts a weight lifting workout. When I have an online meeting within 5 minutes it starts the meeting. When I’m connected to CarPlay it opens Spotify. You can do as many things with it as you are willing to spend creating conditions (as long as you remember what’s going to happen when you click it 🤣)

I use it for a flashlight but my god why does it also turn the screen on every time I turn the flashlight on or off?

I use mine to skip music

I just use it for the camera, but I can’t believe they don’t have a double/triple/long press option to set it for different things.

Use it to toggle silent, focus, flashlight, and Shazam. Surprisingly, I use it everyday and can’t imagine getting an iPhone without it.

I have shortcut attached to it but I barely use it. I do not like you have hold it. Rather see option to tap it to go into action. Shortcut opens menu to pick various things.

I have the screenshot, copy to clipboard, autodelete shortcut.