OPINION: Apple announced this week iPhone 15 And iPhone 15 Pro series featuring a host of upgrades and new features. Among a host of new hardware on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, the company also introduced: Action Button – a handy, customizable button that allows you to open a specific app or toggle a specific function.

I like the idea of ​​quickly opening the camera app or turning on a flashlight by pressing a dedicated button, but in doing so, Apple killed one of the iPhone’s biggest unsung heroes: the alert button. And reader, I am absolutely heartbroken.

It’s more than just a simple switch that lets you quickly and easily turn silent mode on and off without opening your phone and touching the screen; but he did his one job extremely well.

Actually, I think the mute switch is one of these: the The defining features of the iPhone’s design, much more than the notch or even the Home button, have been present in every version of the iPhone since its inception in 2007.

You might say that the new Action Button can be programmed to do exactly the same thing, but it’s not the same.

Besides the satisfying tactile experience of physically flipping a switch on the side of my iPhone, the placement of the switch allows me to feel the side of my phone and instantly know whether it’s on silent or loud without even looking at it – a very useful feature when I enter a meeting or join a video call .

With the Action Button, I’ll have to take my iPhone out of my pocket and look at the screen while pressing the button to verify that it’s in silent mode. It might not seem like much, but they’re extra steps added to an already incredibly streamlined process, and I can guarantee it’s something most iPhone owners have had to do at least once.

After all, there’s a reason smartphone fans are so envious of OnePlus’ alert slider; because it takes on a similar task of easily switching between ring, vibrate and silent modes without having to actually interact with the phone.

It was removed from OnePlus 10 and reintroduced in OnePlus 11 after fan backlash. Don’t underestimate how important those physical switches and buttons can be to ordinary consumers.

However, the new Action Button should offer an entirely new way to interact with your iPhone 15 Pro in ways I never imagined, so I’m not writing off Apple’s new tech just yet. It’s going to take me a while to get over the loss of a dear old friend.