Apple added the Action button to the iPhone 15 Pro in 2023, and it’s still there on the iPhone 18 Pro. A new rumor from a tipster on Weibo, the Chinese social media site, claims that won’t last much longer, because Apple is said to be planning to merge the Action button and the Camera Control into one button on next year’s iPhones.
The Camera Control Would Take Over the Action Button’s Job
According to the tipster, the Action button will start disappearing from new iPhones in the second half of 2027, and its features will move over to the Camera Control, which Apple added with the iPhone 16 lineup in 2024. One press on that button would still open the Camera app, while a long press would run whatever shortcut you had set up on the Action button, whether that’s the flashlight, a voice memo or silent mode.
The tipster was clear about which button is going. It’s the Action button that would be removed, and the Camera Control stays.
The Rumor Doesn’t Say Which iPhones Are Affected
The post doesn’t name any models, so we don’t know whether the change would cover the whole fall lineup or just some of it, like the Pro models. Either way, you wouldn’t lose any features, since the claim is that Apple would remove a physical button and keep everything it does.
Treat This One With Caution
Weibo is where a lot of early iPhone rumors first show up, but plenty of them turn out to be wrong, and this tipster hasn’t been named or tied to a track record. Last August, a different Weibo account claimed the opposite would happen, saying Apple planned to drop the Camera Control from the iPhone 18, and MacRumors called that one a dubious rumor at the time.
It Could Be Part of a Bigger Redesign
We’ve heard before that next year’s Pro models could get a bigger redesign, with prototypes said to be testing screens that curve down on all four edges, and MacRumors reported in May that the 20th anniversary iPhone could blend haptic buttons into curved edges. If Apple is reworking the sides of the phone anyway, cutting one button would fit that plan, though nothing in this new rumor connects the two yet.
