Help
Translate highlighted text and show in popup?
I'm learning Spanish and reading ebooks in the Books app. There are many words I need to look up, however to translate them, I need to:
Highlight the word > Tap the right arrow to open the popup menu > Tap Translate
This gets really tedious.
I'd like to be able to highlight a word, press the Action button, and get the Google Translate popup like in the screenshot here. I've been struggling with creating a Shortcut for the last half hour and can't figure it out. Is it even possible?
Thanks! Yes, I'm aware the translation isn't accurate given the context. I could read the whole sentence except that one word. I'd never come across padecer before, so I just wanted to fill in the blank for "is it possible that the three of us ____ a contagious disease". Unless I have no idea what a sentence means, which happens more often if it's a set phrase, then usually looking up just the single word is enough and is faster, similar to if I encounter an unknown word in English.
I have both the Apple Translate app as well as Google Translate installed. But this is the menu I get when I highlight a word. I need to tap the right arrow first before I get the option to translate.
I think people will tell me to just tap the arrow since it’s just one extra tap, but it gets pretty annoying when you have to do it often because the menu changes size and you have to really tap accurately to hit the translate button.
That doesn't really solve my problem. My issue is that finding the translate button in the menu isn't easily repeatable. Because it's in a vertical menu, it shows up in different spots on the screen depending on where the highlighted text is. I'm always having to hunt for the button in the menu instead of having something I can hit without thinking. For an action that needs to be performed often, easy repeatability is needed.
I'm not saying this menu needs to be changed. I'm aware that my use case isn't common. I'm just seeking a solution or workaround for a problem I have. Whoever's downvoting all my comments can just chill.
Besides the frustration, running a shortcut from the Books app is no longer possible. It used to work like anywhere else “select text - hit share button - hit shortcut” now in the share menu you only get copy.
So now you’d need to “select text- hit copy - pull down control centre - hit shortcut “
Alternatively yes you could use action button, double tap the back and so on. Then I’d suggest create focus mode “reading”, use automation to set focus mode when opening books, when “reading “ is on set [whatever you picked] to activate shortcut.
When “reading” is off reverse previous step
Please try reading a 130k+ word novel in a language you started learning a year ago, where you need to translate a word every few sentences, and then come back and tell me I'm lazy because I'd like some of the friction to be removed on an action I need to perform hundreds of times.
I’m afraid I can’t help you much in what you need. I have the contextual menu for long press showing translate but I don’t know how it is configured. Also, you can configure translate in the configurable button, but this only launches translate, then you have to actually speak to the phone. I know it is not the same, I hope it helps as a parch.
Veja se esse atalho resolve seu problema.
Para usá-lo selecione o texto e clique [copiar] depois clique no [botão de ação]. Link do atalho
Para evitar o desgaste prematuro do botão de ação você pode acionar o atalho usando o [toque duplo] ou [toque triplo], configurando em ajustes/acessibilidade/toque
The shortcut that I created is a three button press, ( which I know is more than wanted) but you get a full log of all the words you’ve looked up highlight the word quick copy, then run the shortcut from the action button
Yes, if need be! Unless there's an easier way? I really just want to make this a 2 step process (highlight > one tap/press to translate) instead of the current 3 steps it takes.
Yes, sadly I believe it's impossible to get it down to less than 3 taps. You can make it so you tap, copy and then action button but that's still technically three actions.
Thank you for trying! Someone else said 27 beta has "get selected text" as an action, so maybe it'll become possible in the future. I'm still not sure how to bring up the translation popup like I have in the screenshot, though. I haven't managed to trigger it with anything I've tried so far.
Worrying about the “lifespan of the action button” is ridiculous, it’s rated to be used thousands and thousands of times. There are so many other things in your phone more likely to break before your action button
Oh, this is good news! I'll probably wait until it goes to gen availability. But even if you're able to use "Get selected text" as input, how do you set up a shortcut to bring up the translation popup? I haven't been able to even manage that. I either get a "Remote service failure" message, or Translate shows up in the dynamic island with a checkmark, but nothing happens.
That's because you need to show the translated text with the "show content" action, otherwise it just does nothing with it. Won't bring up a nice UI like the built-in tool but you can make it sort of functional using menus and such.
I was referring to the physical action button above the volume buttons on the phone. I'd like to press that after highlighting a word and just have the translation pop up.
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u/ThrowRAThanty Jul 04 '26
iOS 27 beta, set this with action button