iOS 17.2 Beta Adds Translate Option for Action Button

[DesignTime]

This action button might be useful for those who have it, but seriously why didn't Apple just make the flashlight and camera buttons on the lock screen customizable? I almost never use my flashlight so that one is a waste of space. And depending on your device/settings, the camera can be accessed 3-4 different ways from the lock screen. Who needs that many ways to access their camera? Let me pick one way and use the lock screen buttons for something useful.

 

[Surf Monkey]

Press needs to be long press to prevent accidental trigger.

Good point. I forgot about that.

So, long press, double click and triple click. Or alternately click and press as the third option.

Regardless, the point is that this physical button should be doing a lot more work than it’s allowed to do right now.

 

[Surf Monkey]

This action button might be useful for those who have it, but seriously why didn't Apple just make the flashlight and camera buttons on the lock screen customizable? I almost never use my flashlight so that one is a waste of space. And depending on your device/settings, the camera can be accessed 3-4 different ways from the lock screen. Who needs that many ways to access their camera? Let me pick one way and use the lock screen buttons for something useful.

Multiple ways to do a single task is an Apple hallmark and one of the reasons their software tends to be so useful. But I agree that the camera triggers are too numerous.

 

[genovelle]

“Mister Spock, analysis please”

“Well Jim according to my calculations, Siri is still just as bad.”

I use Siri a lot and it works very well for me. I do notice the capabilities change when I’m in the car. Almost like there are two Siris

 

[AlexJaye]

So glad I didn't drop like $2000 to upgrade from my 14 Pro for THIS. A cute little button.

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

First awesome use for the action button I've seen. If only they'd added the action button, instead of replacing the incredibly useful mute switch. Why not have both?

 

[AppleTO]

This action button might be useful for those who have it, but seriously why didn't Apple just make the flashlight and camera buttons on the lock screen customizable? I almost never use my flashlight so that one is a waste of space. And depending on your device/settings, the camera can be accessed 3-4 different ways from the lock screen. Who needs that many ways to access their camera? Let me pick one way and use the lock screen buttons for something useful.

I use the flashlight a lot. In fact, I wish I could customize the mute switch in my 14 pro to instead be an on/off switch for the flashlight. That would be awesome. My phone is almost always muted anyways.

 

[sos47]

nice for travelling.
i would also like a camera based translation instead of a speech based translation.
imagine you are in a restaurant and the iphone translates the menu on the fly or any information at bus stop, metro, airport etc
with a single tap on the action button

 

[matrix07]

It’s so ridiculous that this is something that would be “in the works” for a simple button that was in development for a year or so. And yes, having a secondary function would be so much more useful. What a waste of a button, otherwise.

It's not that ridiculous if you put Vision Pro in the perspective. I bet a lot of iPhone people working on that.

 

[svish]

Nice to have a new option for the Action button. I have set mine to Camera

 

[Amplelink]

I’ve used my action button for something other than mute a grand total of zero times. And I’m sure there are lots of people like me.

 

[Mikeske]

The language app is nice but it still does not have and has never had the Tagalog language of the Philippines. I really like to see it added as I frequently hear that language here in the greater Seattle area

 

[madeirabhoy]

any way to sort of replicate this on 14pro? i know it hasnt got an action button but how would one say set this up to work from a treble tap? Shame you cant change the action of holding down the power button which has to be siri, or indeed have a double press of the volume controls.

 

[Shirasaki]

nauseating amount of apps and phone dependency pictured in the photo

Apple and the entire tech industry requires users to be dependent on their phone to best manipulate general population, whether they admit it or not.

 

[chalkdiesel]

My bad I sent a messed up link. For some reason I can’t find a good one even with reverse image search, here’s the highest res version I found.

View attachment 2302622

Absolute hero, better than the action button itself. Thank you!

 

[Taylors3]

iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max users can select a new "Translate" option for the Action Button with the new iOS 17.2 beta. Apple promised that a Translate option was coming for the Action Button, but said that it would not be available right when the new iPhones launched in September.

When the Action Button is set as Translate, pressing to hold causes the iPhone to pop up a Translate window that listens for spoken text. It is able to translate from one set language to another, using the languages that you have previously set up in the Translate app.

The languages you translate between can be changed by selecting different languages in the Translate app. The Translate app supports Chinese, English, Dutch, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Spanish, Korean, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.

To choose the Translate option for the Action Button, open up the Settings app, scroll down to Action Button, and then swipe through until you get to the Translate function.

Article Link: iOS 17.2 Beta Adds Translate Option for Action Button

I have iOS 17.2 beta and I installed it just for this Translate feature. When I hold the action button down and it turns on, it doesn’t work, but it doesn’t work at all.