iOS 18 Adds Control Center Options to Action Button on iPhone 15 Pro

iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max models have an Action button in place of the Ring/Silent switch on older iPhones, and iOS 18 makes it even more useful.

iOS 18 Control Center Toggles for Action Button FeatureScreenshot Credit: Aaron Perris

iOS 18 allows the Action button to be assigned to one of the dozens of controls available in the new Control Center gallery, allowing the Action button to invoke Dark Mode, Airplane Mode, Personal Hotspot, and more. Options like Low Power Mode and Orientation Lock do not appear to be available as of iOS 18 beta 1, but the Shortcut action already allows the Action button to be assigned to those options if desired.

These new options are in addition to the actions that were already available for the Action button on iOS 17, including Ring/Silent, Do Not Disturb, Camera, Flashlight, Voice Memo, Magnifier, Translate, Shortcut, and Accessibility. Some of the new Control Center options were already possible with the Shortcut or Accessibility options.

It has been rumored that the Action button will be expanded to all four iPhone 16 models later this year, so these new controls will come to even more devices.

iOS 18 is currently in beta and should be released in September.

Related Roundups: iOS 18, iPadOS 18
Related Forums: iOS 18, iPadOS 18

Popular Stories

iOS 19 Mock WWDC25 Feature

iOS 19 Expected to Run on These iPhones

Monday March 31, 2025 5:28 pm PDT by
iOS 19 will not be available on the iPhone XR, iPhone XS, or the iPhone XS Max, according a private account on social media site X that has accurately provided information on device compatibility in the past. The iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max all have an A12 Bionic chip, so it looks like iOS 19 will discontinue support for that chip. All other iPhones that run iOS 18 are expected...
watchOS 11 Thumb 2 1

Apple Releases watchOS 11.4 With Sleep Alarm Update

Tuesday April 1, 2025 10:34 am PDT by
Apple today released watchOS 11.4, the fourth major update to the operating system that runs on the Apple Watch. watchOS 11.4 is compatible with the Apple Watch Series 6 and later, all Apple Watch Ultra models, and the Apple Watch SE 2. watchOS 11.4 can be downloaded on a connected iPhone by opening up the Apple Watch app and going to General > Software Update. To install the new software,...
AirPods Pro Firmware Feature

Apple Releases New Firmware for AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4

Monday March 31, 2025 11:27 am PDT by
Apple today released new firmware updates for all AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2 models. The new firmware is version 7E93, up from the 7B21 firmware that was installed on the AirPods Pro 2 and the 7B20 firmware available on the AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with ANC. It is not immediately clear what new features or changes are included in the new firmware, but we'll update this article should we find ...
maxresdefault

Apple Releases iOS 18.4 With Priority Notifications, Ambient Music, New Emoji and More

Monday March 31, 2025 10:03 am PDT by
Apple today released iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, the fourth major updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating system updates that came out last year. iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 come two months after Apple released iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to...
Apple Card iPhone 16 Pro Feature

Visa and American Express Vying to Win Apple Card Deal in 'Fierce' Fight

Tuesday April 1, 2025 1:50 pm PDT by
Visa wants to pay Apple approximately $100 million to be the new payment network for the Apple Card, reports The Wall Street Journal. As of right now, the Apple Card is on the Mastercard payment network, but that is set to change because Apple is ending its partnership with Goldman Sachs. Both American Express and Visa are vying to replace Mastercard as Apple's card services provider, while...
iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
iOS 18

Apple Seeds First Beta of iOS 18.5 to Developers

Wednesday April 2, 2025 10:11 am PDT by
Apple today seeded the first betas of upcoming iOS 18.5 and iPadOS 18.5 updates to developers for testing purposes, with the software coming just two days after Apple released iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4. iOS 18.5 and iPadOS 18.5 can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software Update. We don't yet know what Apple is introducing in the iOS 18.5...

Top Rated Comments

kalafalas Avatar
11 months ago
ORIENTATION LOCK YYYYAAAAAASSSS

dang I might have to ruin my life and install the beta on my main

edit: seems the writer was wrong :/ oh well. I use shortcuts right now, but I was hoping for something a bit more native with synced haptics and stuff
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
kirky29 Avatar
11 months ago
This is pretty cool, I now wish you could change the volume up and down buttons to whatever, I'd be happy to control my volume manually from control centre and have, say, my volume up button as orientation lock, and volume down as quick access to the home app. Or something like that!
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Joe Rossignol Avatar
11 months ago

ORIENTATION LOCK YYYYAAAAAASSSS

dang I might have to ruin my life and install the beta on my main
I wrote the MacRumors story, and unfortunately I made an error. I thought the Action button could be assigned to ANY control in the Control Center gallery, but it turns out that options like Orientation Lock and Low Power Mode are not available, at least as of iOS 18 beta 1.

Truly sorry to get your hopes up! I messed up that one.

EDIT: But as the comment below me pointed out, you can already map the Action button to Orientation Lock via Shortcuts on iOS 17, so the end result is still completely possible.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
FishyFish Avatar
11 months ago
But no way to use the button to actually just bring up Control Center which would be the most useful shortcut of all.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mrat93 Avatar
11 months ago

This is pretty cool, I now wish you could change the volume up and down buttons to whatever, I'd be happy to control my volume manually from control centre and have, say, my volume up button as orientation lock, and volume down as quick access to the home app. Or something like that!
Anytime there’s an article about the Action Button, I’m reminded of the Jailbreak app Activator from over 10 years ago. You could assign literally over 100 actions systemwide similarly. It is so sad that Apple is restricting this to one action for one button.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AppleInLVX Avatar
11 months ago
I feel like between adding things to control center, colorizing app icons, and making the Action button more robust, I'll finally be able to reach minimal iPhone using only native functionality, and that will be lovely.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)