The iPhone 15 Pro’s Action button will soon get a travel-friendly bonus
The action button on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max can do a lot, with a range of different functions available for the customizable button. Now we can add another tool to the list, and it could be perfect to help you when you’re on holiday abroad.
It’s not mentioned in Apple’s official release notes for the new iOS 17.2 beta, but so 9to5Mac spotted the action button has been given a new function: translation. That means you can quickly start translating text, voice or images right from your iPhone with just the touch of a button.
Better yet, the Action Button starts a translation session on the Dynamic Island, instead of opening the Translate app itself. That should make things a little faster and easier when you’re on the go.
Everything happens on-device thanks to the iPhone’s Neural Engine, so you don’t have to worry about your voice being uploaded to Apple’s servers either.
Action-packed
This upcoming addition to the action button means it can perform one of ten different tasks. These are:
- Enable or disable silent mode (this is the default)
- Start a focus mode
- Open the Camera app
- Turn on the flashlight
- Record a voice memo
- Open the Magnifier app
- Run a shortcut
- Start an accessibility feature
- Do nothing
- And now start translating
Despite this list of capabilities, the action button is still somewhat limited, as it can only perform one action at a time. For example, you can’t double-tap it to do something else. Although some smart users have found ways to do that assign multiple actions to itthis is not standard behavior.
But with Apple clearly willing to add more features to the action button, there’s hope that it could become more powerful over time. Adding the ability to perform different tasks depending on how many times you press the button could presumably be made possible through a software update, so we’ll hope for further improvements at a later date.
And in any case, the action button is certainly more useful than the old mute switch. Now let’s hope that Apple continues to develop it with many new and interesting ideas.