iPhone 20 range rumored to ditch Action Button

The Action Button may soon be dropped, but if you thought that would mean getting back the much-missed mute switch, think again.

Back in 2023, the Action Button began replacing the mute switch on ever iPhones, but that stopped with the launch of the iPhone Duo. Now prolific leaker Instant Digital claims that it's about to be history.

Writing on the Chinese social media site Weibo, they say (in translation) that "Apple's Action button... will officially be phased out starting with new iPhone models in the second half of next year." So presuming Apple sticks to its new split iPhone launch, that may mean that the 20th anniversary iPhone will be the first to lose it.

"It will be integrated with the camera button," the leaker continues. "Tap to launch the camera, press and hold... to perform [the Action Button's] function."

The camera button referred to is presumably the iPhone's Camera Control. This already launches the camera with one tap, but pressing longer is already a way to use Visual Intelligence.

If correct, the Action Button would be the first iPhone control to be removed since that button replaced the mute switch.

While it's unusual for Apple to do this, the company must know how much or how little it is used. Whatever the figures are, they weren't high enough to make finding space for the Action Button on the iPhone Duo a priority.

Then there is also that the button and what its settings are hasn't been significantly updated since launch. There is still the peculiar design that pressing it once does nothing but display a notice telling you to press longer.

Nonetheless, pressing and holding has proved a quick enough way to launch one action or, via Shortcuts, multiple ones. But, speaking of Shortcuts, it is already possible to emulate practically every benefit of the Action Button with a lock screen icon.

The Action Button was first introduced on the Apple Watch Ultra.

Note that Weibo leakers do not have a great track record. Instant Digital has sometimes posted what seems more like wishful thinking than an actual leak.

Even so, removing the Action Button does seem plausible given its absence on the iPhone Duo.

Apple had hopes for the Action Button

The Action Button first appeared on the Apple Watch Ultra back in September 2022. Then it came to the iPhone with the iPhone 15 Pro the following year and the smart money would've bet on it coming to the iPad eventually.

It never did, but Apple certainly had more plans for the Action Button, at least at one stage.

In 2024, for instance, a patent revealed that there could even be more than one Action Button, albeit on iPhone cases instead of the device itself.

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