What are VoiceOver actions?
When VoiceOver finishes speaking some items it may add the phrase "actions available". This is to inform you that a menu of actions is available that can be performed on the current item and can be accessed by swiping up or down with one finger. You should only hear this if the "speak hints" VoiceOver verbosity feature is turned off but I have found VoiceOver's behaviour to be a little erratic in this area. If "speak hints" is turned on, instead of hearing "actions available", you should hear VoiceOver speak the hint "swipe up or down to select a custom action then double tap to activate". Actions must always be selected by swiping vertically with one finger. As you swipe up or down you will hear the available actions one by one and when you reach the one you want, you can perform it with a one finger double tap. An example is found in the mail app. When VoiceOver finishes speaking a summary of an email in your inbox it will speak either "actions available" or the alternative hint. If you swipe up with one finger, you will hear actions including delete, drag item, flag and activate. If you continue swiping vertically in the same direction you will eventually return to the first item you reached and then go through the available actions again. The list of actions is circular; when you get to know a particular actions list, you can decide whether it is quicker to swipe up or down to reach the action you want to use. Actions are very useful in apps like Mail, Messages and Notes and in many other locations. When you first hear "actions available" or the alternative hint following an item it's always worthwhile to swipe up or down to discover what choices you have. You may not understand all the actions but it's likely that some of them will make sense; you can return to explore the others later. The actions offered will vary widely depending on the app and the context within the app.
You will hear the word "default" spoken after one of the actions in each actions list. This is the action that will be performed if you don't swipe up or down to select a different action and double tap with one finger straight away. If you remember that actions are available in your current position, there is no need to wait for VoiceOver to speak "actions available" or the alternative hint. You can swipe up or down while VoiceOver is still speaking as soon as you are certain of your position, for example as soon as you've identified an email from the spoken summary and know that you want to delete it, swipe up with one finger to hear "delete" and then double tap to delete the message..