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Why You Should Embrace iOS Shortcuts

You’ll be amazed by what your iPhone can do all by itself

By Charlie Sorrel Charlie Sorrel Senior Tech Reporter Charlie Sorrel has been writing about technology, and its effects on society and the planet, for 13 years. lifewire's editorial guidelines Published on September 2, 2020 01:36PM EDT Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email Software & Apps Mobile Phones Internet & Security Computers & Tablets Smart Life Home Theater & Entertainment Software & Apps Social Media Streaming Gaming

Key Takeaways

Shortcuts are an easy way to automate boring, repetitive tasks.Shortcuts can run automatically at a set time, or when you reach a location. Creating your own custom mini-apps is easy. Apple Remember the iPod Music Quiz game? It played snippets of songs from your library, and you had to guess the tune. Now, the same game is available on your iPhone. Where? It’s a shortcut inside the Shortcuts automation app. Shortcuts lets you automate pretty much anything on your iPhone, iPad, or your HomeKit devices. Just by dragging a few steps into the order you want them to play back, you can make awesome, and surprisingly powerful, automations. Many people take a look at the Shortcuts app and dismiss it as too complex, but it’s just the opposite. Using shortcuts actually makes things simpler, quicker, and easier. You can even download shortcuts created by other people. “The best shortcuts are always the less complicated ones.” “It’s interesting to stop up and look for patterns in your [everyday life],” Simon B. Støvring, developer of Shortcuts companion app Scriptable, told Lifewire via direct message. “Whenever there’s a behavioral pattern, something you do everyday, there might be an opportunity to build a shortcut that makes it easier.”

How Shortcuts Work on iOS

Shortcuts is an iPhone (and iPad) app that lets you build simple or complex automations by dragging “action blocks” into a list. These action blocks are provided by your apps, and many are just built in. When you trigger a shortcut, it runs these blocks in order. Let’s take a simple example to get the idea. Below is Apple’s own Text Last Image shortcut. This shortcut grabs the latest photo you took and sends it to the person(s) of your choice. You add the list of names by tapping the “Recipients” button, then choosing from a list. Every time you run the shortcut, it will instantly send the photos to those people. You can run Shortcuts in many ways. You can put an icon on the home screen, just like an app. You can run them from share sheets (the little slide-up panel that lets you send things via other apps and services, like Messages and AirDrop), and you can even have them run automatically at a specific time, or when you arrive or leave a location. And while it’s possible to make insanely complex shortcuts, it’s not at all necessary. “The best shortcuts are always the less complicated ones,” shortcuts author Jordan Merrick told Lifewire via email.

Why Bother With Shortcuts

“When done right, automation can save you time and effort,” says Merrick. “Automating a task that contains several steps means you don’t have to do them yourself.” It may take a short while to come up with the shortcut, but once you do, you never have to perform those boring, repetitive steps again. That’s what computers are for, after all. “Once you have a task automated to make it more efficient, it’s typically also more convenient for you,” says Støvring.

Getting Started

This is easy. Open the Shortcuts app on your iPhone or iPad right now (or download it from the App Store), then take a look at the example shortcuts inside it. Go ahead and check out Apple’s Music Quiz shortcut while you’re at it. You can dig into the “code” of the shortcut to see how it was built, which is a great way to learn. Another good place to find shortcuts is on this subreddit.

What Can You Do With Shortcuts

The iPhone can read NFC tags, so you can tap a sticker on a Bluetooth speaker, then a Shortcut could connect your iPhone to it. You could even put stickers on cards of favorite albums, then play them by tapping the iPhone. Here’s one I use. When I launch my movie-watching app on the iPad, it automatically connects to a speaker, turns on Do Not Disturb, and sets the screen brightness to 100%. All without my intervention. Now take another look at that screenshot above, the one with the neat iPad frame around it. The frame around the image was added in moments, using a custom shortcut. Let’s finish with Simon B. Støvring’s favorite shortcut. “I’m almost always the last person in my household to go to bed,” says Støvring, “so I have a shortcut that I run every time I go to sleep that ensures all lights in my apartment are off and starts sleep tracking with the AutoSleep app.” Now that sounds pretty handy. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Subscribe Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit More from Lifewire How to Schedule a Text Message on an iPhone How to Use Google Assistant on iPhone How to Change the Instagram Icon in iOS and Android How to Open Zip Files on iPad or iPhone How to Change the Color of Apps on iOS 14 How to Save a Live Photo as a Video on iPhone 18 Best Shortcuts for Apple's iOS Shortcuts App The 4 Best Photo Editor Apps of 2022 macOS Monterey: What You Need to Know How to Stop iTunes From Opening When an iPhone Is Connected to a Mac How to Find a Wi-Fi Password on an iPhone How to Create a 'Hey Siri, I'm Getting Pulled Over' Shortcut for iPhone Is an iPad Worth It? 5 Reasons Why You Should Buy One How to Customize an iPhone's Home Screen How to Use Siri Shortcuts How to Combine Photos on iPhone Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. Cookies Settings Accept All Cookies