These iPhone Features Changed How I Use ChatGPT
All these features work on the iPhone 17, 16 and 15. Some work in older models
The iPhone 17 has just been released, and I’m already putting it to work to get the most out of ChatGPT.
After a year of using the ChatGPT app on my previous iPhone, I’ve identified some features that have boosted my productivity. Here are three that have changed how I use ChatGPT on my phone.
#1 Start chats quickly with iPhone’s action button
The iPhone has an action button located on the left side, just above the volume buttons. By default, pressing and holding it toggles between ring and silent mode, but you can customize it to perform other functions like launching the camera, turning on the flashlight, etc.
If you use ChatGPT often, customize the action button to start chats quickly (if you don’t have the action button feature #3 can help).
Just go to Settings → Action Button → Shortcuts, and then tap on Choose a Shortcut. You’ll see a list of apps. After selecting ChatGPT, you’ll see actions such as ask ChatGPT, web search, dictation, and, my favorite, voice mode.
“Ask ChatGPT” opens a pop-up, so you can type a prompt without leaving the current app, while “Open ChatGPT” launches the ChatGPT app. After selecting an action, you’ll see the image below. You can test the action by holding the action button.
The built-in ChatGPT actions are nice, but I don’t like starting new chats every time I use the action button. If you don’t want to clog up your chat history with one-off questions, just create an action that starts temporary chats.
To create an action, open the Shorcuts app (or download it), tap on the + button located on the upper-right corner, search for ChatGPT → Start conversation with ChatGPT, and turn on Temporary chat.
After that, repeat the previous steps. Settings → Action Button → Shortcuts, and choose the shortcut you created.
The next time you hold the action button, you’ll start a new temporary chat.
#2 Write prompts quickly with Text Replacement
iPhone users have a built-in text replacement feature that works as a text expander. This saves a lot of time when typing prompts!
On your iPhone, go to Settings → General → Keyboard → Text Replacement. To create a new prompt shortcut, tap on the + button located in the upper-right corner. You’ll see the image below. Just paste your prompt and come up with a shortcut for it.
It’s a good idea to start your shortcuts with a non-alphanumeric character, such as an exclamation mark, colon, or semi-colon. In my example, every time I type !prompt, my prompt template will be expanded.
This is a great feature that also works on Mac ( → System Settings → Keyboard → Text Replacement). That said, I mostly use it for simple iPhone prompts, since it’s complicated to manage numerous prompt shortcuts with this built-in feature.
If you want to take text expansion to the next level on your Mac, I recommend using Alfred. In this guide, I help you set it up and how I use it with ChatGPT.
#3 ChatGPT Widgets and Siri Integration
Besides the action button, there are two more ways to quickly access ChatGPT on the iPhone. The first, and my favorite, is through widgets. Hold on the lock screen for a couple of seconds, tap on “Customize” and select “Lock Screen.”
Three rows will be highlighted. We have to tap on any element in the third row and then look for the ChatGPT icon. ChatGPT has 2 widgets: start new chats and voice chats.
You can access these widgets whenever you’re on the lock screen or notification center.
The second way to quickly access ChatGPT on the iPhone is via Apple Intelligence. To set it up, go to Settings → Apple Intelligence & Siri → Extensions → ChatGPT and enable “Use ChatGPT.” You can use it with or without a ChatGPT account.
After setting up the ChatGPT extension, use Siri to get answers from ChatGPT by saying “Hey Siri, ask ChatGPT …“ or just “Ask ChatGPT …“ Even if you don’t say those phrases, in some requests, if Siri determines that ChatGPT would be helpful, it asks if you want to use ChatGPT to fulfill the request.
The only issue with this second option is that ChatGPT’s answers via Siri aren’t as thorough as in the app. It’s more useful for simple and quick questions that pop into mind.
That’s it for now! For more, check out how I use the ChatGPT phone app in my everyday life.