Millions of iPhones have secret coffee-ordering button – it’s hiding in plain sight on your phone’s edge
APPLE has bundled an extra button into millions of iPhones, and it has some very surprising uses.
The Action Button was added in Apple’s latest round of iPhones.
It’s currently only available on iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.
And its purpose is to replace the old Mute Switch with a button that can perform a wide range of functions.
Some of those are built into the iPhone as standard – like turning on the flashlight or activating Do Not Disturb.
But it’s also possible to assign almost anything you can dream up to the Action Button through the use of Shortcuts.
“You can choose which function you want the Action button to perform when you press it,” Apple explained.
“Because the button is so accessible, it’s useful for actions you perform often.
“It’s easy to change the action when you decide you want to use it for a different function.”
Several apps have built-in Shortcuts that you can use on the Action Button.
For instance, anyone with the Starbucks app installed can access a built-in Shortcut to order your favorite coffee with a click.
Here’s a list of apps that offer built-in shortcuts that can be used with the Action Button:
- AirScrobble: Identify music and scrobble to Last.fm
- Albums: A music library management tool for Apple Music
- Ambre: Recipe organizer
- Calory: A macros, fat, calories tracker
- CardPointers: A credit card rewards app
- ChatGPT: The official app of OpenAI
- Crumbl: The official app for Crumbl Cookies
- Doneit: An app to manage tasks and projects of any complexity
- Drafts: A digital notebook meant to quickly capture notes.
- Endel: AI-powered sounds to focus, sleep, relax
- Focused Work: A productivity timer
- GoodLinks: An app that saves links for reading later
- Halide: An app for RAW, Manual and Macro image capture
- Liftin’: An app for weightlifting
- Longplay: An indie music app
- LookUp: A reference and learning app
- Movie Tracker: Keeps track of movies and tv shows to watch
- Music Tracker: Keeps track of songs to listen to
- Musicharbor: Helps you stay on top of new music
- Rewind: Personalized AI powered by everything you’ve seen, said, or heard
- Sleep Cycle Kids: Nap schedule, tracker & sleep sounds
- Starbucks: The official app for Starbucks Coffee Company
- Streaks: The habit-forming to-do list app
- Soka: An app for bucket lists
- Tape It: A professional songwriting app
- Tasks: A daily planner app
- Things: A personal task manager
- Tide Guide: Provides NOAA surf, weather, alerts
- Timery: A time-tracking app
- WaterMinder: A water intake app
- Zenitizer: A meditation app
More apps will add built-in Shortcuts over time.
How to customize the Action Button
There are some standard options to choose from:
- Silent mode: Turn Silent mode on or off.
- Focus: Turn a specific Focus on or off.
- Camera: Open the Camera app to quickly take a photo, selfie, video, portrait, or portrait selfie.
- Flashlight: Turn the flashlight on or off.
- Voice Memo: Start or stop recording a voice memo.
- Magnifier: Open the Magnifier app.
- Shortcut: Open an app or run your favorite shortcut.
- Accessibility: Quickly access your favorite accessibility feature.
- Do nothing.
If you scroll towards the end, you’ll find the option to add any Shortcuts – either built-in ones from apps, or Shortcuts that you’ve created.
You can choose ready-to-use Shortcuts – make sure you have the Apple app downloaded on your phone.
Then go to Settings > Action Button > Shortcut, and scroll down to choose a built-in Shortcut.
Once you’ve assigned an action, you can press and hold it to use it.