New iPhone 15 Pro feature leaves people divided over safety concerns

One of the new features on the iPhone 15 Pro has left Apple users divided after seeing someone use the action button to lock and unlock the door to their house.

Among the fancy bells and whistles bolted onto the latest model of iPhone is something called the action button, basically a little switch just above the volume controls which can do any number of things.

The action button has replaced the little switch you had to set your iPhone onto silent back when you first got it and never flipped it back up again.

Apple's pretty excited about this new feature, probably more so than the switch to USB-C charging which they were kind of forced into and got a bit grumpy over.

If you dig around in the iPhone 15 Pro's settings you get to choose what the button is for, including using it as a toggle for silent mode.

You can use the button to turn on a specific focus, quickly activate the camera, use the phone's camera flash as a flashlight, begin recording a voice memo for yourself or use it as a shortcut to a plethora of different apps or accessibility features.

That all sounds pretty nifty, and a new iPhone 15 Pro owner has been playing around with their action button and posting the results onto TikTok.

They appeared to show that they'd linked their phone to the Home app and were thus able to use the action button to lock and unlock their front door at the touch of a button, which split the opinion of viewers.

Some thought it was a cool feature, commenting that it was 'pretty neat' and they 'would be doing that' if they could.

However, others were a bit more skeptical of the benefits, and started to lay out the ways unlocking the front door to your house with one button press could go wrong.

One person said it 'feels like a bad idea' while a second wondered 'does it even check face ID' and wanted to know if anyone could use a person's iPhone as a key if they'd set the action button to unlock doors.

A third said 'wait for the day your phone is dead and you forgot the unlock code of your door'.

Someone else pointed out that when it came to locking and unlocking doors 'my key can do that too'.

This isn't the first time people have been able to open locked doors with their iPhones, but now the action button adds a certain level of dynamism and risk to it.

Opening doors at the push of a button on your phone sounds cool but if you can do it easily then other more nefarious sorts could also give it a go.

Still, don't let that put you off having fun with your new phone.

UNILAD has contacted Apple for comment.