How to make your action button do different things depending on time, location, and more

• Customize your action button to perform different actions based on location, focus mode, iPhone orientation, and more.

• Create a more complex shortcut that takes into account multiple criteria to perform different actions depending on different conditions.

• Use different shortcut actions, such as battery status, current number, network details, and weather data, to further customize your action button.

The biggest problem with the action button on the iPhone 16 and iPhone 15 Pro models is that it can only be set for one thing. However, if you set it to run a custom shortcut, you can make your action button perform different actions based on your location, focus mode, iPhone orientation, and more.

Change your action button based on orientation, location, time, or focus mode

In previous articles I looked at how you can automatically change the behavior of your action button based on a single criterion. You can learn how to change what your action button does based on location, based on the focus mode, based on your iPhone orientationor based on the current time.

For example, in the iPhone orientation article I gave an example of a shortcut that you can assign to your action button. This shortcut can play or pause the current media when you’re viewing something on your iPhone in landscape orientation, but toggles Do Not Disturb in another direction. Using the shortcut, the action button can perform different actions depending on the way you hold your iPhone.

It is possible to create powerful shortcuts that look at multiple criteria to decide what to do. For example, you can add further steps to the orientation shortcut to mute the ringer when it’s face down, and enable low battery mode when the iPhone is upside down, giving you four different actions with the same action button.

You can even build more complex shortcuts that can take into account a combination of orientation, location, time, and focus mode. For example, one action might trigger when you’re at home and your iPhone is in landscape mode, but another action might trigger when you’re away from home and your iPhone is in landscape mode.

By creating a shortcut using a combination of criteria, you can assign even more actions to your action button so that it always performs the most useful action under the circumstances.

Change what the action button does based on a combination of criteria

All of the examples in the previous articles used a single ‘If’ action to toggle the action button between two different options. However, you can make your shortcuts even more powerful by nesting “If” statements together, so your action button can perform multiple different actions depending on time, location, orientation, and more.

For example, you want the action button to do that record a voice memo when you’re in Work Focus, turn the page of your book in the Books app, when you’re in Sleep Focus, open Candy Crush when you’re in Do Not Disturb Focus, and start a timer when you’re in a other mode is Focus.

However, if your iPhone is upside down, you may prefer that the action button ignore focus mode and enable silent mode instead. It is possible to do just that by creating a custom shortcut.

Open Shortcuts and tap the “+” icon. Tap Searches, type “Get Orientation” and select “Get Orientation” from the results.

Search for ‘If’ and select the ‘If’ action. Tap Choose and select Upside Down Portrait. Search for ‘Silent’ and select ‘Set silent mode’. Drag the “Set Quiet Mode” action so that it is below the “If” action.

Tap ‘Rotate’ and select ‘Switch’. This is the action that will take place when your iPhone is upside down. In any other orientation, the action is determined by the Focus.

Search for “Focus” and select “Get current focus” from the results. Search for ‘If’ and select the ‘If’ action. Drag the “If” action so that it is below the “Get Current Focus” action.

Tap Icon, select Name, then tap the cross to close the window. Tap ‘All’ and type ‘Work’. Search for “Recording” and select “Make recording” from the results. Drag the action up so it’s below your second “If” action.

Search for ‘If’ and add another ‘If’ action to your shortcut. Drag the “If” action up so that it is below the “Other” action. Tap Icon and select Name. Close the window, tap All, then type Sleep. Search for ‘Page Turn’ and select ‘Page Turn’. Drag the action up below your third “If” action.

Search for “If” and add a fourth “If” action to your shortcut. Drag the action up until it is below the third action “Other”. Tap Icon and select Name. Tap ‘All’ and type ‘Do not disturb’.

Search for ‘Open App’ and select the ‘Open App’ action. Tap ‘App’ and select ‘Candy Crush Saga’. Drag the action up until it is below the third If action.

Search for ‘Start timer’ and select ‘Start timer’. Drag the action up so that it is directly below the last action ‘Other’.

Tap the shortcut’s name at the top of the screen, tap Rename, then give the shortcut a memorable name. Tap “Done” to save it.

Go to Settings > Action button and swipe left to the ‘Shortcut’ option. Tap the dropdown and select your new shortcut under ‘My Shortcuts’.

Your action button now records a voice memo in Work Focus, turns the page of your book in Sleep Focus, opens Candy Crush in Do Not Disturb Focus, and starts a timer in another Focus. However, if you turn your iPhone upside down, focus mode is ignored and the action button toggles silent mode on and off.

Now you can get creative and change these actions and conditions to your liking when you create your own shortcut.

Other useful shortcut actions to change the behavior of the action button

The examples in this series of articles focus on four useful ways to change the behavior of your action button, including changes based on your location, your current focus mode, the orientation of your iPhone, and the current time.

However, there are plenty of other options available so you can customize the action button to your liking. For example, you can use the ‘Get Battery Status’ action to change the action button based on your battery level. You can use “Get Current Song” to change the action button depending on whether Apple Music is playing.

You can use the Get Network Details action to change what your action button does depending on whether or not you’re connected to Wi-Fi. You can even use the Get Current Weather action to change your action button based on information from your weather app. There are also plenty of actions available from third-party apps, so it’s worth exploring all the actions available in the Shortcuts app.

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The action button can feel like a missed opportunity if it can only perform one action regardless of the circumstances. By creating a custom shortcut, you can make the action button automatically do the most useful thing for your location, iPhone orientation, focus mode, or even the time of day, making it a really useful way to interact with your iPhone.