One big change that came to the iPhone 15 Pro is the removal of the silence switch above the volume buttons. Instead, Apple changed it to an Action button which can trigger a function on the phone. By default, the Action button still triggers silent mode (and turns it off, when enabled), but you can also turn your flashlight on and off, launch your camera, turn on the magnifier, and more. Some functions, like turning your camera on and off, come with the bonus of the Action button also becoming a shutter button.
Further, you can use the action button to trigger an iOS shortcut which means you can open just about any app, and in some cases, you can launch directly to a function within that app. So you can launch Safari to jump straight to a given web page, for example. The possibilities are pretty endless once you factor in Shortcuts.
Turning on the flashlight in this way is lovely, as is launching the camera. Those are likely two of the more common things you do with your phone without necessarily wanting to turn on the screen and go through the whole face ID rigamarole. In the future, it would be great if you could assign other actions to, say, a double press like you can with other similar buttons on Android phones.
The placement of the Action button, right above the volume keys, is unfortunate. It’s easy to mistake the action button for a volume button, even though the Action button is noticeably smaller, but other than that, it’s a great added utility for the iPhone 15 Pro.
