For me, the worst half about working in chilly climate isn’t the freezing wind, black ice, or the truth that my face feels prefer it’s been stabbed with one thousand needles. It’s the ten seconds spent shivering as my icicle fingers navigate by menus to launch an Apple Watch exercise. Ten seconds isn’t a lot, nevertheless it’s sufficient for the chilly to seep into your bones since you’re not shifting. That’s why I used to be stoked for the Apple Watch Ultra and one among its key new options: the Action Button.

The Action Button is a programmable bodily button that’s unique to the Ultra. Unlike the digital crown or aspect button, it isn’t hard-coded to do anybody factor. Instead, you possibly can program it to do something you need. Sort of.

Apple positioned the button on the aspect of the watch reverse the digital crown, proper subsequent to the speaker grille. And it’s designed to be arduous to overlook: it’s extremely orange. Not simply any orange, both — it’s worldwide orange, which is utilized by the aerospace trade to visually distinguish objects from their environment. It’s a selection that implies the button ought to face out and is supposed for adventurous folks.

In my case, I arrange the Action Button to mechanically launch a customized 3.5-mile interval run. It’s a small addition to the watch, nevertheless it’s made a noticeable distinction. For occasion, this previous weekend I made a decision to buck up and run regardless of the depressing climate. While it was technically 50 levels Fahrenheit, the rain and wind made it really feel prefer it was at the very least 10 levels colder. The Action Button is an enormous purpose why I didn’t name it quits as quickly as I walked out the door. Because urgent the Action Button instantly begins a exercise, I didn’t have an additional 10 seconds to record all of the the explanation why I ought to go one other day. It wasn’t precisely a enjoyable time, however I used to be relieved that I’d stayed on observe with my coaching. After all, I’ve acquired a race arising, and so they don’t cancel races due to just a little rain.

Not solely do I recognize that the Action Button solved a really particular drawback of mine, nevertheless it’s additionally nice to make use of. It lies flush with the case and doesn’t stick out a lot. That’s nice, because it limits unintended presses, and a groove within the heart of the button makes it simpler to search out by contact. When you do press it, there’s a satisfying click on. Normally, I’d must decelerate or veer to the aspect of the street to correctly pause a run, skip an interval, or mark a phase. I don’t have to try this with the Action Button, and it’s been a refreshing change of tempo.

Most importantly, I can use the Action Button whereas carrying working gloves. While my gloves are touchscreen-compatible, they’re not tremendous dependable after I’m making an attempt to work together with a smartwatch show mid-run. Touchscreens are nice for on a regular basis use, however they’re simply foiled by gloves or sweaty fingers. Physical buttons work no matter what gear you’re carrying — a significant purpose why athletes are usually card-carrying members of Team Button. For the Ultra to be a flexible health watch, it wanted so as to add one other bodily button.

That stated, it’s not just like the Action Button is revolutionary. Physical buttons have been on smartwatches (and analog watches) for an extended, very long time. Garmins, Polars, Fitbits, and Samsung smartwatches all have a button (or buttons) for navigating menus and programmable hotkeys. (They’re nice!) What’s intriguing concerning the Action Button is that you would be able to program your individual actions outdoors of presets through Apple’s Shortcuts automations. For occasion, one of many instance choices is a Shortcut to inform everybody at your subsequent assembly that you just’re working late. I doubt most customers will put within the effort, nevertheless it hints the Action Button may someday be extremely customized outdoors of health monitoring and adventuring.

Unfortunately, that is additionally the place the Action Button falls quick. Not solely can programming Shortcuts be tedious, however utilizing them with the Action Button isn’t as intuitive because it may very well be. Personally, I’d adore it if the Action Button may begin a five-minute timer, however I don’t have the persistence or will to aim constructing a Shortcut for it. I’d even be thrilled if the Action Button did various things relying in your Focus Mode. Imagine the Action Button seamlessly switching between dropping waypoints throughout a Hiking Focus and beginning timers in Cooking Focus. This looks as if an apparent, pure extension of each Focus Modes and Action Button, however you possibly can’t try this. (Yet.)

It’d even be good to see extra third-party apps make use of the Action Button. There’s a handful that do, however proper now you’re largely restricted to the choices Apple supplies. Even so, the Action Button remains to be helpful sufficient that it shouldn’t be gatekept to the Ultra. It needs to be added to the Apple Watch Series 9 and the next-gen SE, particularly if Apple provides extra non-fitness choices.

Even with out all that, the Action Button remains to be a novel tackle bodily button controls for smartwatches. It’s not a house button, neither is it a again button. Frankly, it has nothing to do with navigating by menu choices. On different smartwatches, hotkeys are sometimes a button’s secondary perform. Conversely, that’s the Action Button’s sole objective — and for probably the most half, it’s simple to program and doesn’t require memorizing a number of button combos. It’s a delicate distinction, nevertheless it’s the sort that may be rapidly modified or tailored to finest fit your wants. Of course, I hope Apple provides extra customizable choices down the road. But for now, I’m content material that I don’t must shiver within the chilly.