Apple may be preparing to take a button away from the iPhone. According to a new report from China, the company is considering removing the dedicated Action button from future models and moving everything it does into the Camera Control button instead. The change, if it goes ahead, could arrive with the iPhones that launch in the second half of 2027.
The claim comes from Instant Digital, a leaker who posts on the Chinese social network Weibo. The report was picked up by MacRumors, which noted that the leaker was clear about which button would go: the Action button would disappear, while Camera Control would stay and take on the extra work. Apple has said nothing about the idea, so for now it remains an unconfirmed rumour from a single source.
How the New Button Could Work
Under the design described in the leak, the Camera Control button would gain a second job. A single press would still open the Camera app, just as it does today, while a longer press would trigger whatever function the user had assigned to the Action button. One button would do the work that two buttons do now, with the difference between a tap and a hold deciding which job it performs.
That would keep the customisation iPhone owners have grown used to. The Action button can currently be set to switch the phone to silent mode, turn on a Focus mode, switch on the flashlight, start a voice recording, or run a shortcut built in the Shortcuts app. All of that would need to survive the move, since many owners rely on the button for a task they reach for several times a day. The question is whether one button can feel as quick and reliable as two, when its jobs are as different as taking a photograph and silencing a phone in a meeting.
Why Apple Might Want Fewer Buttons
Apple has never been shy about removing hardware it considers unnecessary. The headphone jack went with the iPhone 7, the home button disappeared with the iPhone X, and the mute switch that had been on every iPhone since the original was replaced by the Action button itself. Removing the Action button would follow the same pattern.
The timing fits a bigger moment: Apple is widely reported to be planning a substantial redesign for the twentieth anniversary of the iPhone in 2027, and the button change may be part of that rethink, alongside reports of quad-curved displays being tested on prototypes of its 2027 Pro models.
The Action Button’s Short History
The Action button itself is only a few years old. Apple introduced it with the iPhone 15 Pro in September 2023, replacing the ring and silent switch that had sat above the volume buttons since the first iPhone in 2007. At first it was limited to the Pro models, but with the iPhone 16 range in September 2024 it spread to every model, and the current iPhone 18 Pro still carries it in its usual position.
A year after the Action button arrived, Apple added a second new control. Camera Control came with the whole iPhone 16 line in 2024, giving users a dedicated way to open the camera and adjust settings such as zoom and exposure. It was meant to make the iPhone feel more like a proper camera, but the reception was mixed, with some reviewers finding the button fiddly and too easy to press by accident. Apple was previously reported to be working on a simplified Camera Control for the iPhone 18 range, but that change never appeared.
One iPhone already shows what this looks like: Apple’s first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, ships without an Action button, even though it keeps Camera Control, and its published specifications list no physical mute option at all.
Which iPhones Will Get the Change?
What the leak does not say is which models would lose the button first. Instant Digital named no specific devices, so it is unclear whether Apple would apply the change across its entire autumn 2027 line-up or start with selected models, perhaps the Pro phones. Apple often introduces a design change on its most expensive phones first.
It is also unclear whether the change is final. Hardware plans can shift late in development, and a rumour based on a single leak should be treated with caution. Apple has a long record of testing ideas that never reach the shops.
If the plan does go ahead, iPhone owners will need to relearn a small but familiar habit. The Action button is still young, but in three years it has become part of how many people use their phones, whether to silence them in a cinema or to switch on the torch on a dark street. Moving its job to another button would not take that convenience away, but it would ask users to trust one control with two very different tasks. That is the gamble at the heart of the rumour: a cleaner iPhone on one side, and a daily habit made just a little harder on the other.
