- Tenable Announces the Passing of Chairman and CEO Amit Yoran
- The best mini Gaming PCs of 2025: Expert recommended
- iOS 18.2 was killing my iPhone's battery until I turned off this feature
- Linux filesystems: Ext4, Btrfs, XFS, ZFS and more
- I test smart home devices for a living, and this is my favorite smart thermostat
How to program your iPhone's Action Button to summon ChatGPT's voice assistant
How often does a simple tweak of your phone settings deliver a glimpse of the future?
OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft all are launching AI-powered voice assistants; OpenAI’s iteration — Advanced Voice — boasts one major advantage: understanding your surroundings.
Also: The best AI chatbots: ChatGPT, Copilot, and notable alternatives
Early last year, ChatGPT’s Voice Mode was upgraded with video, screen share, and image uploads; last month, OpenAI brought that enhanced experience to Plus and Pro users. For the $20 per month, users can take advantage of video and on-screen awareness, which helps the assistant understand their surroundings and use that context to provide more informed and relevant answers. The assistant also has access to the internet, allowing users to fulfill nearly all of their voice assistant needs with one tool.
Despite the latest iPhone’s Siri having access to ChatGPT to some capacity for answers that ChatGPT can better assist, there is no native iOS integration for accessing the Advance Voice experience.
However, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 users can tweak their Action Button to activate Advance Voice Mode when clicked, creating an experience almost as seamless as that of using Siri. As AI expert Ethan Mollick, professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, shared in an X post, this quick adjustment can give users a glimpse at the future of voice assistants.
If you have an iPhone and want to get a sense of the future of AI as an assistant, you can map your action button to Advanced Voice on ChatGPT
The addition of video (it can “see” what your camera sees) & internet search (it can look up website info) make it suddenly very useful pic.twitter.com/1tM13oXDFx— Ethan Mollick (@emollick) January 2, 2025
The best part: Setup is easy. Here are some quick instructions.
How to access ChatGPT’s voice assistant right from your iPhone’s Action Button
Before you even get started, there are a few things you’ll want to make sure you have, including an iPhone with the Action Button, which includes the iPhone 15 Pro and the entire iPhone 16 lineup.
Also: How to use Gemini Live on Android as your AI voice assistant – for free
You will also need a ChatGPT Plus, Pro, or Teams subscription to access the video feature and to have unlimited access to advanced voice audio. Free users only have access to a monthly preview to try Advanced Voice. For most users, the ChatGPT Plus $20 per month subscription will suffice, although there is the Pro subscription, at $200 per month, for mega users.
Once you have that out of the way, here’s how to get started:
The ChatGPT app is free to download from the App Store. You will want to make sure you are installing the one from OpenAI, as there are many fake, copycat app listings. For reference, I included a photo below.
Once the app is downloaded, go to your Settings and personalize the Action Button as you regularly would. The exact steps are: Settings > Action Button > Shortcut.
Also: How to use ChatGPT’s Voice Mode (and why you’ll want to)
When all your apps come up, you can select ChatGPT and pick the option you want it to do for you when tapped. The selection includes “Ask ChatGPT,” “Start a new chat,” “Start voice conversation,” “Open ChatGPT,” and “Open ChatGPT Search.” For the purposes discussed in the article, you’ll want to click “Start voice conversation.”
You’re all set. Now, when you click the Action Button, the Advanced Voice assistant will automatically open within the ChatGPT app. You can use it in any scenario where you typically use a standard voice assistant, such as answering questions about the weather, news, trivia, history, etc.
Is ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice free?
Yes, but only a very limited preview of the voice capabilities is available for free users. The unlimited ChatGPT Advanced Voice — as well as access to video and on-screen awareness — is available only for ChatGPT Plus subscribers.
What can I do with ChatGPT Voice Mode?
ChatGPT Voice Mode can do everything an ordinary AI voice assistant can do, just in a more conversational way. Some standout features include the fact that it can be interrupted, understand emotions, and have multi-turn conversations.
Are there ChatGPT Voice Mode alternatives?
Yes, there are two major alternatives: Gemini Live and Copilot Voice. To access Gemini Live, you need an Android device and the free Gemini app; no subscriptions are required. Copilot Voice is free to all users, and accessing is as easy as downloading the free app.
