How to use the Action Button on Apple Watch Ultra — here’s what it can do
The action button is arguably one of the Apple Watch Ultra’s best features — that much-needed third control button that’s been missing from the best Apple Watches for years. It helps make the big, rugged Apple Watch Ultra a better training tool for runners, riders, and divers.
The action button is easier to press with sweaty fingers (or while wearing gloves) and is customizable.
While it’s likely that the action button will be developed in future iterations of this watch, you can now customize it to do a number of things from both the Apple Watch Ultra and the Watch app on your iPhone.
For now, the action button can be used as a workout shortcut, a stopwatch, use the watch’s waypoint and backtrack features, a dive shortcut, activate the flashlight, or be a custom shortcut. Within each of these options, you can customize things further.
For example, if you select the Exercise action, pressing the Apple Watch Ultra action button will take you straight to the Exercise app, where you can scroll and select a specific workout or instantly start an activity of your choice. During a workout, pressing the action button either highlights a segment or, if you’re in multisport mode, allows you to manually jump from one workout mode to the next.
But how do you set up and tweak the action button to turn your Apple Watch Ultra into a more personalized workout tool? Read on to find out more.
How to set up the action button
When you sync your Apple Watch Ultra to your phone for the first time, you’ll be prompted to set up the action button, but if you skip this step or change your mind, you can always come back to edit it, both in the Watch app and on your phone or from the watch itself.
How to set up the action button from your Apple Watch Ultra
– Go to the settings
– Scroll down to Action button menu
– Choose yours action: The options here are Workout, Stopwatch, Waypoint, Backtrack, Dive, Flashlight, Shortcut, or you can choose to turn the button off entirely
– If you choose Work outyou can then choose what pressing the button does – it can either open the workout app screen or start a workout.
When you decide to start a workout, you’ll see a list of your recently completed activities to choose from. It’s worth noting that if you have the Precision Start option enabled (this shows you when the watch found GPS so you can wait and start your run or ride as soon as it connects), you’ll start the activity anyway must actively start clock.
– Scroll down and rotate the siren on or off – when it’s on, you can press and hold the action button to activate the siren.
Here’s how to set up the action button from your phone
– Open the Watch app on your iPhone
– Scroll to the action button
– Follow the same steps as above
How to use the action button to pause a workout
Another feature that makes the action button a little more useful during a workout is the option to use it to pause an activity. To do this, simply press the action button and either the digital crown or the side button. In testing, we found this to be super easy when moving around and wearing gloves.
We’re sure the Action button will get new features and shortcuts in the future, so we’ll keep this page updated as Apple makes changes.
If you’re not sure if the Apple Watch Ultra is for you, check out this one groundbreaking feature that makes the Apple Watch Ultra a better-running watch and the key differences between the Apple Watch Ultra and the Apple Watch series 8