Dear Apple enthusiasts and accessibility advocates,
I'd like to spark a heated discussion here – What do you think about Apple’s decision to remove the physical Ring/Silent switch on newer iPhones, replacing it with the Action Button? From an accessibility standpoint, I strongly feel this change isn’t ideal.
Here's why:
- Old way was intuitive: With the traditional physical switch, you could instantly tell your phone’s mode just by checking the switch position – pushed away meant silent, pushed towards meant ring. It gave quick, tactile feedback without needing any extra interaction.
- New way adds friction: Now with the Action Button, figuring out the current mode isn’t straightforward – you need to press the button to know if it’s silent or ringer. This adds an extra interaction step which can impact usability, especially for users heavily relying on accessibility features or needing swift mode checks.
- Impact on accessibility: Does this change make iPhones less accessible? Particularly for users depending on quick feedback or tactile cues.
Now, I want to hear FROM YOU.
- Do you agree with my concerns, or do you think the Action Button is a welcome change?
- Have you faced usability issues due to this switch replacement?
- Do you think Apple made the right design decision here?
- How do YOU manage silent/ringer modes on your iPhone?
Share your thoughts, experiences, and opinions in the comments below! Let’s get this discussion rolling and see where the community stands on this accessibility-centric debate.
Comments
I don't see how it does.
Press the button and it says ring. Press it again and it says silent. The directions plainly say to press and hold, and you have the haptics as usual. The thing I really like is that if I'm not sure which mode my phone is in, a quick press will tell me without changing it. To me, that means more accessibility.
What circumstances require this "quick feedback"?
I don't have a phone with an action button. But one assumes you push it, and it tells you what the status is. Let's say you have to open the phone first. So what, a couple of seconds vs. however long it takes you to do the switch, let's say half a second? I mean, yeah, it's more time. What circumstances are happening in your life that that extra second and a half or few seconds or whatever extra time you like are so crucial that this is ruining your day?
Lock screen
Now you can change it from flashlight and camera and put the silent button instead. Also tell Siri to turn it off or on. Also control pannel you can go to it.
Genuine question
So, does that mean a sighted person could tell just by looking at the screen if silent or ring mode was on? If not then this change affects everyone in exactly the same way. To me it isn't an issue and indeed I've changed the action button to something else.
no issue
A non-issue. If you press it, it says Silent. Press it again and it is back to Ring mode. You're making an issue where there is none. This defeats any
other valid points when people or organizations make issues over non-issues. We need to be careful to not make issues where there is none.
Maybe a day late at a dollar short?
Timeline, two generations now? Honestly, I appreciate the extra options that both the action button end the camera touch control gives me! Welcome to your modern day smart phone bud!
Feeling the Switch
Thank you for the comments, really appreciate them. For me I am rushing out of meetings and things to do and I need to be on the go with putting my phone to silent and remembering to bring it back to the ring mode. Feeling the position of the switch would quickly give me that feedback. However, now that I am left with no choice I will have to do with the action button to toggle the ringer. I will miss the switch though.
Also thank you to those who shared their experience on how they are using the action button. I believe that sighted people could tell by looking at their screen there is what I hear an icon in the status bar with a cross mark or something to indicate it is on silent mode.
I would really like to hear more opinions and thoughts on the change. BTW I got my hands on the 16 Plus and found out where the action button comes and where the camera button is. I really appreciate the positioning of the camera button but I will be buying the 16E and that does not have the camera button which I can live without.
Here's the deal.
A quick unlock of my phone and a quick hold of the volume up and or down buttons tells me exactly what the phone is in. Honestly, you're making a bigger fuss than what's needed here bud. I have my action set to a shortcut, asking me what I'd like to do and silent / ring is one of the options so I can't exactly tap my action button. Welcome to the modern world.
RE: Here's the deal.
From what I understand, the action button brings up a menu that allows you to select actions that you have configured? Sounds interesting. Can I add multiple options for it? Like open a menu that gives me the options to toggle the ringer mode, launch an app. etc.? This sounds like a great productivity hack. Thank you for sharing
doesn't bother me
This change personally doesn't bother me. I feel like with having a physical switch these switches probably got a lot of ware and tear on them causing them to break which lead to this design change.
This is the very reason that I got my iPhone 15
I love that you brought this up. This is a very reason that I got an iPhone 15 instead of getting anything newer than that because I knew it was the last iPhone with a mute switch. I had a feel of the iPhone 16e and I saw the action button and I didn’t like it. so yes, I think this will be a little bit more difficult to manage from an accessibility standpoint. I don’t think Apple will ever go back to a mute switch so it really doesn’t matter exactly what we think here just like they took away the home button. This is why I kept my iPhone SE third generation because it has the home button still animated switch. And I knew Apple was going to take the other way. I still wanted to meet switch so that’s why I upgraded from the SE to a 15. I will keep both of these ones as long as I possibly can. Even if they don’t get updated anymore as long as they’re still life left in them they will be used. I didn’t like the feel of the action button so I just didn’t get a phone like that. I knew the 15 was still available to purchase from the Apple Store directly so I did that.
Mister Kayne
Siri. Ask her to turn it off and on. Simple. Long live cats.
@Mister Kayne
I haven't really thought about launching apps because at that point, I just use BSI to quickly type in part of an app I wanna launch, but in short, yes. The shortcut brings up a menu with preconfigured options such as toggling between ring and silent, turn on what's called, sight mode, where it turns VO off an screen brightness to 50 of someone needs to look at my phone for whatever reason. still trying to figure out how to make a shortcut automation to where if voiceover is on, set screen brightness to 0. If anyone has any tips on this, let me know. This also has a DND toggle but I need to fix it. I would also like the state of the toggling silent switch to say what it is currently so if anyone has ideas on how to make that come to life as well, if we can even have states read from within the shortcut control. I have ideas of what I wanna add, for example, first time setup questions letting the users configure what they want to have appeared. I'm quite still a newbie when it comes to shortcuts. I quite do wish that apple would add more flexibility to have the action button be multifunctional because then I'd be able to do lots of more cooler things with out hacking.