How to Add Shortcut to Action Button on Apple Watch Ultra 2

April 14, 2025 6:27 PM

All of the instructions I can find online for adding a shortcut to the Action Button say to go into Settings on the Watch, then hit Actions, and then choose Shortcuts. There is no Shorcuts option on that menu for me. Any suggestions?

Same thing when I go into the Watch app on the phone and choose Action Button from the menu.

Thanks.

posted by dobbs to Technology (4 answers total)

It’s just SETTINGS / ACTION BUTTON on the watch, then click the action. Shortcuts appears lower.
posted by soylent00FF00 at 7:32 PM on April 14

Response by poster: Thanks, but there's no Shortcuts there, either. I see Workout, Stopwatch, Waypoint, backtrack, Dive, Flashlight, voice memo, translate, accessibility, recognize music, and none.
posted by dobbs at 4:57 AM on April 15

Huh. On mine Shortcut is between Flashlight and Voice Memo. WatchOS 11.4
posted by soylent00FF00 at 7:21 AM on April 15

Response by poster: The weird thing is that it used to be there and I did a factory reset and then it was gone so I asked this question.

I just now did another factory reset and it’s back. Weird.

To not waste the question… I have an app called Voicenotes which records audio notes. It has an Apple Watch element which you can attach to a complication. This works fine. I want to attach it to the Action Button, however, and wanted to use a shortcut for that. I chose “show on Apple Watch” in the shortcut creation.

However, when I push the action button, it launches the app on the phone rather than the app on the Watch.

Is there a fix for this or is this something I’d have to contact the app developer for help on?
posted by dobbs at 7:32 AM on April 15