iPhone Motion button: Every little thing you are able to do with iPhone 15 Professional

What are you able to do with the iPhone 15 Professional’s Motion button? A number of issues, if you happen to customise it: You may make a fart sound, or get ChatGPT that will help you write an electronic mail.

Apple helps you to assign the iPhone’s Motion button to one in every of eight preassigned issues — however if you happen to set it to Shortcut, you are able to do much more. Shortcuts are a method so that you can attain inside an app and robotically run a function with out opening it. With the Motion button, you’ve gotten a bodily button you possibly can press regardless of the place you might be, including an additional layer of comfort.

Let me present you what some energy customers are doing with Apple’s newest {hardware} innovation — and how one can trick your cellphone into assigning two or extra shortcuts to the one Motion button.

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8 issues you are able to do with the iPhone 15 Professional Motion button

As a recap, listed below are the usual choices Apple offers you for customizing the iPhone 15 Professional’s Motion button:

• Silent mode turns your Motion button again into a hoop/mute change, similar to earlier than.
• Focus helps you to toggle Do Not Disturb or a customized Focus you’ve gotten arrange.
• Digicam launches the Digicam app. You may select whether or not it launches in Picture, Selfie, Video, Portrait or Portrait Selfie mode. Click on the Motion button once more to take an image.
• Flashlight toggles the flashlight on the again. Kinda just like the button on the Lock display, besides you possibly can flip it on and off from anyplace in your cellphone.
• Voice Memo begins recording or stops a voice memo.
• Translate opens Apple’s Translate app so you possibly can simply keep it up a dialog with anyone in one other language. Good for journeys overseas!
• Magnifier opens Apple’s Magnifier app, a particular accessibility digicam that may “flip your iPhone right into a magnifying glass to zoom in on and detect objects close to you.”
• Shortcut launches a shortcut — yow will discover particulars on superior issues you are able to do with that within the checklist under.
• Accessibility launches an accessibility function of your selecting. Right here’s a roundup of all 25 of them.
• No Motion does nothing. You simply have a button you possibly can press to fidget with, I assume.

Add these cool shortcuts to the iPhone’s Motion button

What are you able to do once you select the  Shortcut possibility? Right here’s a roundup of the good shortcuts I’ve discovered up to now:

1. Set off Google Assistant and/or Amazon Alexa
2. Add to grocery checklist
3. Discuss to ChatGPT
4. Name/textual content somebody
5. Lock/unlock your home or automobile along with your iPhone’s Motion button
6. File scanner
7. Web page flip button in Books
8. Play a sound impact

Add a number of shortcuts to the iPhone’s Motion button

And you probably have a tough time choosing simply one in every of these shortcuts to maintain helpful, listed below are three methods to action-pack your Motion button. These strategies will allow you to add a couple of shortcut.

Word: After establishing any of those shortcuts, you will have to assign it to your iPhone 15 Professional’s Motion button. Try this by opening the Settings app and tapping Motion Button. This can open an uncommon picker. Swipe by way of the inventory choices till you get to Shortcut, then faucet the Select a Shortcut button to open the Shortcuts app. Then faucet the shortcut you wish to assign to your iPhone’s Motion button.

1. Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa

Should you take problem with Siri’s usually unhelpful responses to primary questions, you’ve beforehand had no different possibility. Siri has system-wide entry by holding down the facet button; all the opposite voice assistants have to be launched from an app.

With the Motion button, different, extra highly effective voice assistants could be accessed simply as simply.

Obtain Google Assistant from the App Retailer. Then, open the Shortcuts app. Faucet + within the higher proper. Faucet Add Motion and seek for Ask Google. In the long run, you need to have a Shortcut with simply that one motion, just like the screenshot above.

The Amazon Alexa app doesn’t have a Shortcuts motion. As an alternative, you possibly can select Open App and set it to open the Alexa app. This provides an additional step as you could button press after which faucet on the display to ask, however if you happen to’re good buddies with Alexa, it’s higher than nothing.

Assign the Motion button to your new shortcut, and voila! Your most well-liked assistant is only a button press away. Not do you could endure by way of Siri.

2. Add to grocery checklist

Think about this state of affairs: You’re within the pantry otherwise you’re cooking and also you suppose, “Oh, I ought to add this to the grocery checklist.” Naturally, because you’re in the midst of one thing else, the lacking ingredient by no means will get added. You don’t wish to interrupt your self and pull your cellphone out, unlock it, open the  Reminders app, open your checklist and kind it in.

Properly, you possibly can assign this activity to the Motion button. Simply open the Shortcuts app and create a shortcut with the Add New Reminder motion. Faucet Reminder, faucet Ask Every Time after which faucet to specify your grocery checklist. (Don’t overlook to convert your Reminders checklist right into a grocery checklist so it’ll robotically categorize objects.)

3. Discuss to ChatGPT

You don’t want to attend for Apple Intelligence to offer ChatGPT prime placement in your iPhone 15 Professional. With the S-GPT shortcut, you possibly can summarize web sites you’re taking a look at, make an Apple Music playlist and suggest when to schedule occasions based mostly in your calendar knowledge. You can also use ChatGPT’s conversational interface that will help you write emails and ask for info — the form of stuff OpenAI’s chatbot is thought for.

Earlier this 12 months, Federico Viticci from MacStories made a small ChatGPT shopper that runs inside a shortcut. You may obtain it right here. You will want to set it up by creating an API key and plugging that into the Shortcut, however Viticci has detailed directions.

After you set it up, assign it to your iPhone’s Motion button, and you may get the ability of ChatGPT on the press of a button.

4. Name/textual content somebody

Should you want the quickest potential approach to textual content your accomplice, you may make a button for it. First, open the Shortcuts app and create a shortcut with the Ship Message motion. Faucet Message, then faucet Ask Every Time. Faucet Recipients, then enter within the contact identify(s) and faucet Performed. (In order for you the button to make a name or begin FaceTime, select the Name or FaceTime motion as a substitute, after which choose the contact you need.)

Assign your new shortcut to the Motion button and you’ll shoot a textual content on the push of a button.

5. Lock/Unlock your home or automobile along with your iPhone Motion button

Should you personal a wise house lock or an app-connected automobile, you possibly can set your Motion button to lock and unlock your door. In case your good lock is HomeKit-compatible, and is linked to the Residence app, it’s very easy. Simply open the Shortcuts app and create a brand new shortcut. Add the Management My Residence motion and choose the gadget you wish to automate. Different good device-specific apps could supply Shortcuts help, too — faucet the Apps tab to see if there’s an automation for it.

Tesla helps shortcuts too; search for the Lock/Unlock motion when creating your shortcut.

6. File Scanner

The iPhone’s high-resolution digicam is greater than adequate for scanning in primary paperwork with out going by way of the rigmarole of utilizing a printer/scanner. If that is a necessary a part of your each day work, you possibly can launch the file scanner within the Recordsdata app from the Motion button.

Create a Shortcut with the Scan Doc motion from the Recordsdata app. It’s extremely quick and simple to seize multi-page paperwork, get a PDF out of it, give it a file identify and throw it in iCloud Drive. (And from there, you possibly can electronic mail or add it to a distinct service of your selection.)

Should you didn’t learn about this function, you possibly can entry it contained in the Recordsdata app, too. Simply hit ⋯ > Scan Paperwork.

7. Web page Flip button in Books

Devoted e-book readers just like the Kindle and Kobo have bodily page-turn buttons, however the iPhone, after all, doesn’t. Until you’ve gotten an iPhone 15 Professional. If you wish to add one, open the Shortcuts app. Then create a shortcut and add the Flip Web page motion from the Books app. Then assign your new shortcut to the Motion button. You now have a bodily page-turn button in your iPhone. (Should you click on the button once you’re not studying a ebook, it’ll open the Books app.)

Should you’re a giant reader, this may very well be a sport changer for studying in your cellphone.

8. Play a sound impact along with your iPhone motion button

If you wish to flip your Motion button right into a noisemaker, obtain the Thwip soundboard app from the App Retailer (free, no in-app purchases, no monitoring knowledge). Then you possibly can assign the Motion button to play a sound impact of your selecting. Thwip comes with a number of requirements: a rim shot, unhappy trombone, snigger observe, crickets, bell, air horn, and so on. You may even add your individual audio recordsdata.

Then, open the Shortcuts app and create a shortcut utilizing the Play Sound motion. Kind within the identify of the sound you wish to set off, and assign it to your Motion button for sound results on demand.

Add a number of shortcuts to your iPhone 15 Professional’s Motion button

As you possibly can see, assigning the Shortcut possibility on your iPhone’s Motion button opens up a world of potentialities. Should you can’t decide on only one shortcut to set off, the next workarounds allow you to add much more shortcuts to the Motion button.

Run completely different actions in portrait and panorama

It is a cool trick you possibly can allow with a bit little bit of setup. Whenever you maintain your cellphone vertically you possibly can launch one Shortcut, and once you maintain it horizontally, you are able to do one thing else, like launch the Digicam — or any app chances are you’ll already wish to use horizontally. For instance, in vertical, you possibly can ship a textual content message; in horizontal, you possibly can launch a sport.

First, you could obtain Actions from the App Retailer. It’s free with no in-app purchases and has a clear privateness report. This app is what you could determine your cellphone orientation.

Second, obtain this Shortcut I made. (It’s vital you’ve gotten the app downloaded earlier than you get the Shortcut.) My “Telephone Orientation” shortcut is annotated with feedback that make it simple so that you can assign completely different actions within the vertical and horizontal orientation.

By default, clicking the button vertically will activate the flashlight, and clicking the button horizontally will open the Digicam. To alter both of those, faucet the × to take away the motion, add one other from the search discipline and drag it beneath the remark block.

Lastly, assign Telephone Orientation to your Motion button.

Add a ‘double click on’ for a second shortcut

What if you happen to can’t determine on only one factor?

The MultiButton shortcut from Federico Viticci (sure, him once more) helps you to assign two shortcuts directly. Should you click on your iPhone 15 Professional’s Motion button as soon as, it runs the primary shortcut. Should you click on it a second time inside a number of seconds, it’ll launch a second shortcut of your selecting. You can simply use MultiButton as an app launcher for 2 completely different apps you may wish to toggle between: Mastodon and Twitter, Digicam and Photographs, Safari and Notes, and so on.

Viticci wrote up detailed directions on MacStories about how you can arrange this insanity after you obtain the sMultiButton shortcut.

For further credit score, attempt to mix MultiButton with Telephone Orientation to pack 4 options into the identical button. When your cellphone is vertical, you possibly can click on as soon as to compose a textual content and click on twice to put a cellphone name; when your cellphone is held horizontally, you possibly can toggle between Apple’s Digicam app and one other like Halide.

Choose from a listing

If these automations are a bit a lot for you, you possibly can pare issues all the way down to a easy checklist of shortcuts. Then, once you press the Motion button, you possibly can merely select from a menu of what to do subsequent.

To set this up, create a shortcut and faucet Add Motion. Faucet Scripting and choose Select from Menu. Give every merchandise within the checklist a reputation within the block on high; add extra decisions by tapping + Add new merchandise. Under that, add the actions you need and drag them beneath every part. You may even launch one other shortcut utilizing the Run Shortcut motion in order for you a button for one of many shortcuts I’ve linked to above.

Should you like 4 or extra of the choices above, you possibly can add each single one in every of them to the menu for simple entry once you press the Motion button. You additionally may need extra specificity — as a substitute of utilizing Apple’s Digicam shortcut, you possibly can construct a menu with shortcuts to particular digicam modes, like Picture, Portrait, Video, Selfie as a substitute of choosing only one.

Have extra iPhone Motion button concepts?

Inform us what you’re utilizing the Motion button for! We’re on Fb, X, Mastodon and Threads.

We initially revealed this text on the iPhone 15 Professional’s Motion button on September 30, 2023. We up to date the data.