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!
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 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.
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!
I've been humming/whistling/tapping melodies/beats on voice memos for years, so when I upgraded to the 15 Pro Max, I put my action button to that. I'm still getting used to instinctively tapping that instead of going to the Home Screen, finding the folder, and opening the app, but it's very helpful when I remember, and I think it'll save a lot of time going forward
@@vistadriv 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.
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.
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’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
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.
Yes I have combined and made a custom shortcut command from a few different TH-camrs, 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!
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
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
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 😊
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! :)
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.
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.
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 have actually found an incredibly useful. Unfortunately, the functionality is still limited, but I think future software could really make it insanely awesome.
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..
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.
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.
I don’t have an iPhone with the action button yet, but if you reprogram the action button to do something else, how would you mute the phone? I usually leave my phone muted most times but not always. I can see the usefulness of the action button, but I still want to be able to mute the phone quickly.
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?
@@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 🙂
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!!!
I use the action button to Shazam music I hear in TV shows, movies, or in a cafe. Music’s everywhere these days and if you love music this is great and fast.
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
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
Appreciate it! Here's my tour when the studio was first built: th-cam.com/video/a_DNy9byYh0/w-d-xo.htmlsi=6GanwJc6A-htJVfJ and an update on some of the gear: th-cam.com/video/Wgeg_TnndnY/w-d-xo.htmlsi=VHD9bY8epe8N2yLR
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
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.
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.
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 🇨🇭
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 😁
![13 Useful iPhone Shortcuts YOU Requested! [Part 6]](/img/n.gif)
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 :)
Do you reckon this would also work for audiobooks? I’m listening to a few on Spotify right now but I might get Audible at some point in the future
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 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
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 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!
I've been humming/whistling/tapping melodies/beats on voice memos for years, so when I upgraded to the 15 Pro Max, I put my action button to that. I'm still getting used to instinctively tapping that instead of going to the Home Screen, finding the folder, and opening the app, but it's very helpful when I remember, and I think it'll save a lot of time going forward
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
@@vistadriv 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.
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.
I feel like you're the ideal customer for the 15 Pros
I use mine for Accessibility and to lower the White Point at night, it makes the "night stand clock" mode more bearable.
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’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
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.
Yes I have combined and made a custom shortcut command from a few different TH-camrs, 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!
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...
Daily use. Shortcuts for nested lists for system toggles, timers, playback, and opening apps.
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
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 😊
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! :)
If you program the Action Button, how to you still control ring/mute?
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.
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 🤔
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
Is there any way to set it to seek forward through all media like youtube videos?
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!
Reminders and notes are really the only use
Solid use case for sure
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 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?
Haha I use it as the silence button still. Maybe I’ll change it to something else one day.
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.
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!
I use action button a lot, I created a shortcut which changes the Current Cellular Data sim. Which is very helpful in my usecase.
How to create a screenshot shortcut with the action button without capturing the status of the Dynamic Island?
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.
I don’t have an iPhone with the action button yet, but if you reprogram the action button to do something else, how would you mute the phone? I usually leave my phone muted most times but not always. I can see the usefulness of the action button, but I still want to be able to mute the phone quickly.
Control Center has a button for that still!
Not crazy but I have the action button set to camera video. Never miss a shot now.
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: th-cam.com/video/opw5u7L3x6Y/w-d-xo.html&si=biGVKsmBXPa8eh9c
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 🙂
as a camera button, yes
all the time
That's a pretty solid use case, though the Lock Screen shortcut is pretty handy too
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 😉
I use the action button to Shazam music I hear in TV shows, movies, or in a cafe. Music’s everywhere these days and if you love music this is great and fast.
I use the Action Button to open the Camera app.
I use it to launch my home assistant app
Might be time I check out Home Assistant...
Lots of people setup that ones that’s it. flashlight,Mute switch or camera
Dont u think skipping 120s is a bit much?
For most podcast ads, it's usually just right.
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
It will be great, if we could apply action button and Shortcut to make circle to search like S24 Ultra 😊
Thanks for sharing. Blessings on your day!
Use it for the flashlight and it’s actually very useful
That’s a great use case
I use it for My Find. Also I 👀 that N64 rumble pak
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
What was that Chat GPT you used there with the animation, etc.?
It’s the voice conversation action for ChatGPT!
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: th-cam.com/video/a_DNy9byYh0/w-d-xo.htmlsi=6GanwJc6A-htJVfJ and an update on some of the gear: th-cam.com/video/Wgeg_TnndnY/w-d-xo.htmlsi=VHD9bY8epe8N2yLR
That was awesome, thank you 👍🏻 @@beardfm
Mines set to do not disturb, just to quickly mute notifications when I’m gaming!
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!
Yes, daily. It’s setup to activate screen reader.
Oh great use case!
Excellent advice as always. 🤝
I use it for Voice memos
Damn, that’s super useful. Sponsorblock button.
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
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! th-cam.com/video/CNLo26EVUu8/w-d-xo.htmlsi=gJuSeCgWCZ6S_XLB&t=506
I don’t use the one on my apple watch
I use it everyday for the flashlight
The best for me pre condition Tesla
Need to get a Tesla to try 😉
Mine is still set to mute/silent. 😂
I get that! I had mine set that way until recently
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
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!
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.
Flashlight to see where my dog pooped on night walks…true story.
Yep, it's programmed to video camera for me.
Oh nice!
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
It’s a mute button still.
Of course I use it - it's the mute button.
I default to that pretty often too
Encore encore
cognitive overload - this is the word I am searching fr
Applies so much
First bruh!
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.
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??