When purchasing the iPhone 15 Pro, I was completely convinced this small upgrade to the device was going to prove immensely useful. Switching the mute switch for an Action Button seemed like a genius move, as I just put my device on silent anyway and never take it out. Now I had something useful to help me do things on my phone — oh how wrong I was!

Let’s start by prefacing this with the fact that I know some people find the action button really useful. I have seen some people have wonderful setups and took to it straight away. I’ve even seen people use it, normal people, out in the wild! So I am well aware that your usage may vary, but please bear in mind this is my blog, so this is about me.

I was convinced, though. That’s not some kind of rise to keep you reading. Yet here I am a day from the next iPhone announcement, possibly with yet more buttons, having hardly ever used the action one. There doesn’t seem to be many reasons for this outside of muscle memory and forgetting it’s there, but I’ve heard similar stories from other people, too. The lack of use boils down to a general opinion that it is in the wrong place and needs to have more use cases.

I’d like to use it more. I have tried, but ultimately, I simply forget it is there. Perhaps if it was on the right-hand side as many people suggest, it might have reminded me a little more. My brain associates the upper-left side as the barren land of the silent switch that served me not other purpose than a fidget toy. I use my phone left-handed and turn it left when taking photos, so even using it as a camera button is uncomfortable.

This revolution seems to be something users are excited to see on the regular iPhone 16 models, so let’s see if adoption improves. However, I am of the mind that it will just lead to even more people forgetting it is there and being dropped in a few generations.