One of the signature features of the new iPhone 15 Pro & Pro Max is that Apple has replaced the traditional ringer/silent switch with a customizable Action Button that works similarly to the one found on the Apple Watch Ultra, albeit without the screaming orange aesthetic.
Unfortunately for older iPhones that lack this Action Button, Apple hasn’t made it possible to replicate similar toggle button functionality for the ringer/silent switch, instead opting to keep it as a dedicated ringer/silent switch. That’s where iOS developer pookjw’s new ActionButtonEnabler jailbreak tweak comes into play.
ActionButtonEnabler doesn’t quite change the functionality of the ringer/silent switch as many jailbreakers would hope it did, but rather, it changes the function of the Home Button on older jailbreakable iPads running iPadOS 17 to mimic the Action Button on iPhone 15 Pro models. Currently, this means only a small subset of Home Button-equipped iPad models susceptible to the checkm8 exploit by way of the palera1n jailbreak.
As you can see for yourself in the screenshot example above, the tweak enables the same Action Button-centric preference pane on those iPads that you would see on an iPhone 15 Pro model with a native Action Button. With it, users can customize the Home Button to perform one of several useful toggle features apart from just ringer/silent.
In a separate post, I outlined all the different things that you can currently do with the Action Button, and all of those still apply if you’re using the ActionButtonEnabler tweak on your iPad. Be sure to check that post out if you want to know more about the different features you can enable with this tweak.
It remains to be seen if the developer plans to incorporate support for other devices running iOS & iPadOS 15 and 16 so that those devices can enjoy similar features using their ringer/silent switch, but many of those dependencies are likely only available in iOS & iPadOS 17, which may prevent this from happening. In the meantime, those device users can use add-ons such as Activator in its place.
Those interested in giving the new ActionButtonEnabler tweak a try can acquire the .deb for it from the developer’s GitHub page. It can then be installed with any package manager or file manager app. Only jailbroken iPadOS 17 devices are supposed at this time — and more specifically, those that can be jailbroken via palera1n.
Are you excited to see jailbreak developers continuing the long tradition of back-porting new features to older devices? Let us know in the comments section down below.