The next iPhones, including the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max are expected to launch this fall, but there are already enough reports for us to have a clear preview of what’s coming. And now, another design detail has leaked.
The new changes were reported in MacRumors, which says it has seen prototypes of the iPhone 16 Pro. It now claims that the Action Button has been under consideration again. As you’ll know, the Action Button is what’s replaced the Mute/Ring slider switch which has been a feature on every iPhone since the very first model, apart from the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max models.
Those are the phones where the Action Button debuted, offering a press-and-hold alternative to the previous slide action, and opened up greater versatility in the process. It can now be assigned to a range of features including one-button access to the camera, Magnifier, Translate and more. It can be configured to multiple extra capabilities via Shortcuts.
Apple, it seems, has been considering how it should make the Action Button look in this fall’s iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max. Four button options have been under consideration. The volume buttons could be changed to one unified button, or kept distinct as now. The Action Button could be kept as it is or increased in size. And the new Capture button, expected to offer a shortcut to shooting video or photography and mounted on the opposite edge to the Action Button, could be flush with the frame rather than raised. The Action Button itself has changed on prototypes, with a flush option for this, too, as well as different size possibilities.
Prototypes have shown various arrangements but it seems that the latest version has settled on a particular pattern.
This will have two separate volume buttons, as now, and while the previous version included an Action Button that was capacitive-touch, like the most recent Touch ID buttons on the iPhone SE, for instance, it looks like Apple has gone for a button which largely resembles the current one found on the iPhone 15 Pro.
All of which suggests that the prospect of a capacitive Action Button has been put on hold for this year at least. It may have ramifications for further generations. As MacRumors puts it, “While it is currently unclear how this affects the future of Apple’s work on a capacitive Action button, a design change as significant as this indicates it has been canceled or postponed for future iPhone iterations.”
Things could still change, of course, but the time for hardware alterations is almost certainly ending around now, if it hasn’t already.
