4 Things I Do with the Action Button
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- Опубликовано: 13 июл 2024
- After 5 months of experimenting with the iPhone Action Button, I've settled on one daily use that stands out above the rest. Discover the top 3 alternate uses that almost made the cut and why simplicity won the day for my action button setup.
📺 Videos Mentioned
13 Action Button Shortcuts
• Action Button Shortcut...
15 Essential iPhone Shortcuts
• 15 Essential iPhone Sh...
BIG Changes in iOS 17.4
• iOS 17.4 is OUT - Big ...
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Chapters ➡
00:00 Introduction
00:31 Action Button Theory
01:28 Clipboard Saver
02:48 Live Translate
03:33 Smarter Voice Assistant
05:39 My Action Button
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Since the day it came out, I've been using it as a shortcut to resume my last played podcast, so I can resume immediately no matter what I'm doing, and it's great for me as an avid podcast listener!
What app Shortcuts action are you using? Overcast?
@@beardfm I use Pocket Casts, I swear by that app lol
This is good idea 🫣😁
@@flodavid1556 yeah it's really useful to be able to resume my podcast regardless of what else I'm doing :)
I've had it on the camera since day 1. I remember avidly watching a lot of action button idea videos but thought all the different ways to use the action button involving shortcuts and menus, while fun and creative, were way too complicated for practical use, as you pointed out just now. It's been nice being able to activate the camera instantly no matter what I'm doing.
I work a medical job so using your menu shortcut I have things like medical calculators, shortcuts to hospital numbers, guidance for microbiology prescribing all in one place as my ‘work click’ and it just has everything in there I’ll ever need when I’m at work. Clears space on my first page where I keep my most used apps before to a menu which is specific and used most days of the week. Cheers for the shortcut!
Ive used it as a flashlight. Use it multiple times a day, to quick find something. Live translate is a great to know for when I travel!
Flashlight is a great use case too! I sometimes set my Apple Watch Ultra action button to Flashlight
I keep it selected to the mute function. My problem with it is…muscle memory, i keep pressing it when I’m trying to press volume up. I can see how it would be useful for other users, hasn’t been for me.
Yeah the muscle memory, and it forever being a mute switch before this, is hard to break
I'm a photographer with too many camersa apps, so I have it mapped to a list of the ones I use the most. Really handy to be able to quickly choose the right camera for whatever situation has come up.
mine’s a shortcut menu to either camera, ring/vibrate, google maps, my apple music playlist, or adding a grocery item. it’s a really helpful button for me and i love it. thanks for your help with making that shortcut! :)
Thanks for sharing. Blessings on your day!
I use it to launch the shortcuts folder as it makes turning on the lights or boosting the heating when I get home much easier
I use mine to start the car. VERY useful in winter, and pretty nice in summer too.
Cool what car allows that
@@kamranurrahman6434 Subaru, among others. If there's an app for the car, you can probably do it.
starting your car by accident must be rough sometimes. thats why i avoid the smart home stuff with the action button
@@dRiv-cb7ih Hasn't happened. It's a long press, to start with, but all that does is open the app. I still have to do the action for the app and confirm with face ID.
Excellent advice as always. 🤝
Yes I have combined and made a custom shortcut command from a few different RUclipsrs, and from their learned to make my own so now I have a custom menu pop up based on my focus mode and I have the focus modes actually geolocated to my home and work and now it just has what I need when I need it, even sleep focus is set to limit my screen time, and encourage me to fall asleep to podcast or music and not staying up to videos all night. And i was able to integrate s-gpt, it helps me with making professional emails at the desk and now I have my little ai buddy on the go!
Great video! Still rocking the 14 pro max but I do have an Ultra with action button and use it with a shortcuts folder. Mostly related to scenes in the smart home. When I get time, I’d like to modify the shortcut to provide different menus based on time of day or location…but just haven’t had time.
I’ve just mapped it to flashlight, which I use a lot keeping an eye on my dog in our yard. Other use cases are cool, but this is the one that’s actually useful (for me), which matters more.
Haha I use it as the silence button still. Maybe I’ll change it to something else one day.
Daily use. Shortcuts for nested lists for system toggles, timers, playback, and opening apps.
I found your channel recently, but even though I'm late to the party - I'm glad I made it. Subbed pretty quickly. Keep up the great work.
Means a lot, thank you!
I use action button a lot, I created a shortcut which changes the Current Cellular Data sim. Which is very helpful in my usecase.
Since nobody mentioned it, I use it as a toggle for my Tailscale connection. Tailscale is a battery hog, and having to go into the app to connect and disconnect was creating considerable friction. The action button is perfect for that. I also tried with a ton of other use cases, but this is the first that I actually find myself using all the time.
I ended up using a shortcuts folder, the 3 shortcuts I use the most through this folder are toggle always on display, toggle silent mode and start my favourite spotify playlist without having to open the app (did this through a siri command).
I also have a few frequently used messages pre programmed to send to my girlfriend.
And what I also found handy was a shortcut for restarting the phone, instead of manually turning it off and waiting to turn it on again
Set mine to start up and open my Apple TV remote as a test, turns out I’ve used the action button for that way more than I thought. Did have the folders shortcut but like ye said, it’s an action button and not actions button, so creating a shortcut script just gets longggg
I’ve had the shortcuts folder since launch. I use some shortcuts more than others, like silencing/allowing unknown numbers, so I’ll stick with that folder and a couple of other things for now
Nice to know the folder thing is useful for you! The silence unknown caller toggle is nice
Damn, that’s super useful. Sponsorblock button.
I use mine a few times every day! It’s my baby nap time button, when I need to put my baby down for her nap, it turns off the bedroom light and turns on the sound machine, and when she wakes up it turns the sound machine off and the lights on 😊
I use it for My Find. Also I 👀 that N64 rumble pak
Not crazy but I have the action button set to camera video. Never miss a shot now.
Been 1 month with my 15 pro
Programmed the action button to show me a menu for like Call family-food apps-E shopping-Mute toggle
Been useful for me honestly for like calling certain family asap
Oh nice! I should try some communication Shortcuts like that...
Reminders and notes are really the only use
Solid use case for sure
Mines set to do not disturb, just to quickly mute notifications when I’m gaming!
as a camera button, yes
all the time
That's a pretty solid use case, though the Lock Screen shortcut is pretty handy too
It will be great, if we could apply action button and Shortcut to make circle to search like S24 Ultra 😊
I use the Action Button to open the Camera app.
I use it for Pocketcast’s “Resuming Current Episode” shortcut. Now, if a podcast pauses due to me playing a youtube video, or due to an auto-playing video on a web page, I don’t have to go back to the so to resume the podcast.
Can we have a studio tour please? Camera, lighting, microphone. It always looks amazing! :)
Appreciate it! Here's my tour when the studio was first built: ruclips.net/video/a_DNy9byYh0/видео.htmlsi=6GanwJc6A-htJVfJ and an update on some of the gear: ruclips.net/video/Wgeg_TnndnY/видео.htmlsi=VHD9bY8epe8N2yLR
That was awesome, thank you 👍🏻 @@beardfm
I have actually found an incredibly useful. Unfortunately, the functionality is still limited, but I think future software could really make it insanely awesome.
What did you program the button to do?
Duuuuuuuuuuuude!!! Stephen, that's genius!!! Thank you, the camera has not been working out for me ... that button is in the wrong spot for that. However, it's in the perfect spot to feel like one of those mini-tape recorders of the past. -- Ok, this is exactly what my button is going to do until Apple matches ChatGPT with Siri. (Hopefully that happens this year, but then what will I use this button for ... I dunno but Stephen will probably tell me!!!). -- You have now been promoted to my new tech hero Stephen!!!
Appreciate that! And you know whatever iOS 18 changes are coming I’ll be covering here on the channel 😉
Lots of people setup that ones that’s it. flashlight,Mute switch or camera
I use it to launch my home assistant app
Might be time I check out Home Assistant...
Love your content. Thanks for helping with my iOS illiteracy.
Can you help me with setting up a shortcut to connect to a Bluetooth device? I have two cars with Apple CarPlay but my phone doesn’t automatically connect. I would like to set my action button to run a shortcut to connect to a Bluetooth device (A), and if it’s not available then connect to another device (B). So depending on which car I’m driving, my phone will connect to either CarPlay. Thanks for your help.
Thanks for watching! Will see if I can figure that out 🤔
Hey Stephen
Is there any shortcut to mute the incoming call to just put your phone facedown?
If you click the sleep button it should mute an incoming call automatically
I use it for Voice memos
Mine is my garage door controller since day 1. Use it multiple times a day. Can’t live without the action button now 😅
It's pretty fun as a garage door opener, but ever accidentally press it?
@@beardfm I think it happened once because I wasn’t concentrating while I was using the phone. Otherwise you have to look at the phone to authenticate to run the shortcut so it never accidentally opens 🙂
I wish the action button had a different action you could set depending on what app you are using. Like in every apps settings you could pick what the action button does for that particular app. Now that would be pretty sweet..
That would be cool! You can program it per orientation of the device and a few other parameters, but not based on what app is open.
hi @stephenrobles, I am trying to add the apple live translator shortcut to the orientation trigger short cut but I can't seem to figure out how to to build the same live translation. do you know how ?
I show how to build translation shortcuts here! ruclips.net/video/JFb1xODsbYc/видео.htmlsi=_Taqw68Do_CvN0PO
Perhaps unintentional but Stephen's action button example with '"GPT" voice assistant/conversation made me spew what I was drinking and made me laugh unexpectadly about how long to defrost/cook a frozen breakfast sandwich. 🤣🤣🤣
I mean if humanity is at a point where needing your phone to assist you on how to cook/defrost something and then it tells you to read the instructions on the package....I find software in apps are often like this. The next new thing is great for about a month but if you can already achieve the desired result before the app, what makes it really an improvement? I often want to use shortcuts, but I can get to any app on my phone faster. Anyway thanks for the perspective and video and I wish everyone well!
I use it as a Shazam button. When out and about, it’s good to recognize music on the spot before music changes or you get too far from the source of music.
Oh nice!
Do I need the app with Supermute to enable the If silent is not toggled to vibrate to confirm silent is on? Are the instructions (for newbs) for that somewhere?
All good. Worked it out that it uses Actions app to get silent mode status.
That’s it! I also build it here: ruclips.net/video/opw5u7L3x6Y/видео.html&si=biGVKsmBXPa8eh9c
I use a folder of actions but find I still mostly use it for a mute switch. lol
haha I get it! I had it as a folder forever, then went to mute. But the 120 second skip forward has been useful the past week or so
Use it for the flashlight and it’s actually very useful
That’s a great use case
What was that Chat GPT you used there with the animation, etc.?
It’s the voice conversation action for ChatGPT!
Mine is boring as well
If I’m in/on (sorry, not my first language) my own WiFi it starts/ends sleep focus. If not it starts the camera
That's a nice if Shortcut though!
I use it everyday for the flashlight
Hopefully in the future Apple allows us to quick click or double click for different actions instead of just holding it for one action.
100% Would love a double and triple click option. And for some of the actions to run even with the screen locked
Position oriented button - upside down is toggle torch. Landscape one way is toggle landscape. Landscape the other way is open the camera. Portrait normal brings down a context menu - if it is the home screen, brings down a drop-down list of e.g. compass, Shazam etc. If there is an app open, it will open an app context specific folder
Phew! And you use it often??
I use the orientation-specific ones but no longer really use the app-specific ones and now the only reminder that they are there is that Shortcuts throws an error every once in a while because my method of creating and deleting a file to record which app is open isn't very robust. I should really get round to sorting that out 😅🤦🏻♂️
@@beardfm I use the orientation-dependent functions every day at some point. The app-dependent functions I no-longer use, and the only reminder that they are there are the errors that Shortcuts sometimes throws up because my method of recording when an app is open and closed, by creating and deleting a file, is not robust. I think at some point I'll delete it - for the time being it's there to remind me to improve my Shortcut-designing skills
I don’t use the one on my apple watch
Yes, daily. It’s setup to activate screen reader.
Oh great use case!
I got frustrated. I just wanted a shortcut to turn on and off the 4 Phillips hue lights in my fan.
Well if you'd like to try again, I show how to setup a smart home toggle here! ruclips.net/video/CNLo26EVUu8/видео.htmlsi=gJuSeCgWCZ6S_XLB&t=506
Mine is still set to mute/silent. 😂
I get that! I had mine set that way until recently
Dont u think skipping 120s is a bit much?
For most podcast ads, it's usually just right.
The best for me pre condition Tesla
Need to get a Tesla to try 😉
This button should be above the Power button
Or on the 15 Pro Max, I'd even prefer below!
That's right if you consider the size but it might get in the way of the power button, so above is fine, even the slider would be better above the power button just like OnePlus. @@beardfm
I use the Action Button to mute the phone, I can send a text to my family members making them aware of different types of severe thunderstorm watches and warnings, to access Radars, NOAA Weather Radio, turning lights on and off, open the calculator and as a shortcut to the grocery list in Reminders.
tbh I put a ton of actions on the action button, some I made some I grabbed from yourself…BUT I have to be honest despite (for example) having an action that will open every type of photo/video th3 iPhone will do I still use the photo icon … utter fail.
Yeah, when you have infinite possibilities sometimes it's hard to figure out what it's best used for!
Flashlight to see where my dog pooped on night walks…true story.
Yep, it's programmed to video camera for me.
Oh nice!
It’s a mute button still.
Encore encore
Of course I use it - it's the mute button.
I default to that pretty often too
First bruh!
😂
cognitive overload - this is the word I am searching fr
Applies so much
No. Never. It’s disabled.
I will say the accidental press, depending on what you have programmed, can be a concern. I get it!
Second bruh 😜
It‘d be a nice action-button shortcut with the translator, IF IT WOULD WORK. I mean, just try it with a little bit of english slang and FORGET ABOUT IT, it‘s garbage
Greetings from Switzerland 🇨🇭
Interesting, will try some slang and see what it picks up.
@@beardfm I’ve tried like: I‘ll ride shotgun. And haha it actually translated: I ride on a shotgun, which isn’t really the meaning of this expression
Nope, out of reach out of mind.
Chat GPT quick access. I don’t use it a ton, but I still use it more than I ever used the vibrate switch
Great use case for sure
Translation won’t work on my language…..this is the only thing useful for me ! The only inconvenience is I can’t speak English properly 🫣😅. I keep on mute, good for hangup 😁
Wait what language won't it support??
Garage door opener or front door unlock
Yeah works great for the garage!
I use mine for Accessibility and to lower the White Point at night, it makes the "night stand clock" mode more bearable.