Apple could reduce the iPhone 17 buttons down to three

Apple keeps growing the number of keys and buttons around its venerable iPhone. With the iPhone 15 series, it introduced the Action Button to the general iOS-loving public, replacing the mute switch that was getting long in the tooth as it’s been there since the beginning of the OG iPhone. 

The Action Button’s purpose in life is to launch default apps or be mapped to start most anything your heart desires. On the iPhone 16, however, Apple decided that it will need another physical accoutrement to the sides, this time called simply the Camera Control.

It does what it says on the tin, with a clicky module to take a picture, and a capacitive component to zoom in by sliding along the key. That, however, makes for no less than five separate buttons on the iPhone 16 series, moving Apple further away from the rumored efforts to make an all-screen buttonless phone.

Volume controls as action button on the iPhone 17

Next year, however, Apple is mulling another seismic change around the iPhone 17 sides. Instead of having an Action Button and a Camera Control on one side, then power and volume keys on the other, Apple will simply keep the Camera Control, but move the Action Button to the opposite side, and merge its functions together with the volume keys.

Pretty smart if Apple can pull it off, as iPhone 17 users will not only be down to three buttons, but they won’t have to stretch all the way up for the Action Button is things now stand. As to how would Apple be able to do it, that remains to be heard, but the mixed tactile and capacitive Camera Control button gives us some hints.

When the new key is pressed, it could serve as an Action Button, while volume can be adjusted simply by sliding up and down the rocker, and holding it could launch an app or simply serve as a mute switch, the possibilities of such a button merger are really exciting. 

To top it all off, Apple is expected to replace the unpopular iPhone Plus line with an iPhone Slim model that will be its most elegant handset in a while, so the iPhone 17 crop is shaping up to be more interesting than previously thought.