Show what is going
In the Settings app: Action Button › Controls. Tap the control's name, then find In hand under Routine Run.
One press opens In hand: what is going, what comes back, and what to start. It never does anything by itself.
Do the one thing
In the Settings app: Action Button › Shortcut, then Do the One Thing under Routine Run.
A press acts only on a run you have pinned, that is going (not paused, not put off until later). On that run's current step, it does the actions marked for the button, in the order they are written. Nothing else is ever done from a pocket.
To mark an action:
- Open the step and its action.
- Under When it runs, set Set off by to When I press it, or the button does.
Or swipe the action's row on the step and tap Let the button. Only by hand takes the mark off. A marked action wears a small badge on the step and on the Lock Screen card.
Under Set off by, For the button says how long the button may do it once the step is in hand: Every press, A number of presses, A while after it starts or Until a time. Past that, the step answers as though nothing were marked.
Seeing what it will do
The foot of the run's Lock Screen card says what the next press does, such as Next: Focus or 2 left. After a press it says what the button did and when. In hand opens with the same answer under The Action button now, including why a press would do nothing.
Putting one action on the button for a while
In In hand, press and hold an action under Waiting for you, then choose Put on the Action button: for one press, three presses, 15 minutes, or until the step is done. Until then a press does that action and nothing else, even with other runs pinned. Let go under The Action button now ends it early.
What a press does
| What is true | What happens |
|---|---|
| One pinned run, with something marked | It is done. Nothing opens. |
| Several pinned runs with something marked | Depends on More › Action button in the app: In hand over the screen, a notification with a button per run, the newest run, or the one closest to its deadline |
| An action is held from In hand | That action is done, whatever else is marked |
| Nothing pinned, or nothing marked | The app opens at In hand |
| The action is a link, or its words use the clipboard | The app opens to finish it |
On Apple Watch Ultra
Choose Do the One Thing for the watch's Action button. It follows the same rule, and asks the iPhone to do it. Out of reach, the watch says "Asked the phone", and it happens when they are back in touch. With several runs to choose from, the watch app opens on them — or, when Settings › Action button in the phone's app is set to ask with a notification, the phone sends a card with a button per run, which reaches the watch. See The Watch app.
When it goes wrong
The press opened the app instead. Nothing was pinned, or the step has nothing marked. In hand says "Nothing is pinned, so the Action button leaves these alone" when that is the reason.
It did the wrong run. Only pinned runs are reached. Unpin the ones you are not watching.
Nothing happened at all. Press it, then open More › Diagnostics in the app. The last press lists how far the press got. One that finished ends at "answered".
See also Actions in Shortcuts and Live Activity buttons.