Apple tweaking and testing action button for iPhone 16 Pro

Apple is testing a new action button design for iPhone 16 Pro and there are plenty of tweaks that the company has made to choose one for production.

Macrumors shared some insights into the iPhone 16 Pro prototype with several new test designs for the action button including a unified volume button with the small action button.

Unified volume button with large action button and capture button. The third prototype equipped volume buttons with a large action button and capture button flush with the frame.

The fourth prototype has volume buttons with a small action button and a capture button flush with the frame.

The initial tweaks to the iPhone 16 Pro were made under “Project Bong” with an attempt to install haptic feedback. However, the project was halted due to unfavorable results.

Despite these prototype tests, Apple chose to remain on the fourth action button design for the iPhone 16 Pro and it’s quite similar to the iPhone 15 Pro.

Action Button:

iPhone 15 Pro series comes with an Action button to replace the silent/ring switch. It is fully customizable to access most used features by going into Settings and then “Action Button”.

You can set the action button to enable Focus mode, open the camera, turn on the flashlight, generate a voice memo, open the magnifier, use a translator, open a shortcut, accessibility, or just do nothing.

The action button supports long presses to enable or disable the selected feature.

For now, Apple has not shared a launch date for the iPhone 16 series but it could be unveiled somewhere in the third or fourth quarter of this year.