In today's issue of Ethan Mollick's One Useful Thing, I learned that the iPhone 15 has a unique button I hadn't paid any attention to - the action button. He mentioned how the action button can be used to launch a voice chat with ChatGPT, and I found instructions at TechCrunch. But I only have an iPhone 12!
I knew the iPhone has a feature called Shortcuts, but I'd never really found a use for them. I also recalled that there are a couple of accessibility features on the iPhone that allow actions to be performed by, for instance, double-tapping the back of the phone. I asked Perplexity how to recreate the action button thing on my older phone, and got the following excellent instructions:
Based on the search results provided, here's what you can do with the Back Tap feature on your iPhone 12 to launch a voice chat with ChatGPT:
## Using Back Tap to Launch a ChatGPT Voice Shortcut
The search results indicate that the Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap feature on iPhone allows you to assign various actions to a double or triple tap on the back of your device. [3]
You can use this to launch a custom Shortcut that starts a voice conversation with ChatGPT, without having to unlock your iPhone or use Siri. Here's how:
1. Create a new Shortcut in the Shortcuts app called "ChatGPT Voice" that includes the "Start Voice Conversation" action from the ChatGPT section. [1][2][3]
2. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap. [3]
3. Select either "Double Tap" or "Triple Tap" and choose the "ChatGPT Voice" shortcut you just created. [3]
Now, whenever you double or triple tap the back of your iPhone 12, it will automatically launch the ChatGPT voice conversation mode, allowing you to speak your questions and get responses from ChatGPT without having to unlock your device or use Siri. [1][3]
This provides a quick and hands-free way to access ChatGPT's voice capabilities directly from your iPhone 12, using the built-in Back Tap accessibility feature. [3] The search results provide detailed steps on how to set this up.
Citations:
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3fOIE_CJXI
[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/shortcuts/comments/181uy7r/chatgpt_voice_shortcut/
[3] https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/how-to-replace-siri-with-chatgpt-iphone/
[4] https://www.reddit.com/r/iphone/comments/1702w4p/how_to_replace_siri_with_chatgpt_as_your_voice/
Works like a charm! (though as I read that response, I do have to admit it's not actually a hands-free way to access ChatGPT's voice capabilities, but I'm just fine with that.)
