Action Button Maybe Dropped on iPhone Fold

by Rian

Action button replaced the traditional Silent switch in 2023. The idea behind the button is rather opaque. It can be customized as a trigger of any actions, including Shortcuts. It can stay as a Silent switch for those who wish to keep it, or in my case, I use it to call the orientation lock shortcut. It is a button without a purpose, and if the leaks and rumors to be believed, the upcoming iPhone Fold does not have it.

Before I make any arguments, I do want to clarify what is circulating on the internets is not from the official sources; neither Apple nor Apple’s partners have confirmed the hardware specs of the supposed foldable iPhone. We don’t even know if any of the other buttons stayed the same software-wise, let alone the actual count of buttons that will be on the device.

The point I do wish to raise is that it can’t be a better time to make rest of the buttons customizable. On existing iPhones, the only buttons that semi-customizable outside of Action button is Camera control. Needless to say, Camera button has its own bag of problems. From what I’ve read, users opted to use it for opening a third party Camera app, but not much else. At that point, one might ask, why not make all the buttons customizable? If there are total of four buttons, including the Power button, why not make the other three customizable? Some users may opt to not have Volume control at all; Bluetooth headphone is a thing, and most headphones already have built-in volume controls on it.

I’m in a party where I still need some convincing about how the foldable UX would work out. Imagine the phone is unfolded, and a user wishes to use it vertically like an iPad. The rumor has it that the size of the new foldable will be roughly that of iPad Mini. It would be a nightmare to find out which app supports what orientation if left unchecked.