you may have You’ve seen the Apple Shortcuts app installed on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, but it might not be immediately clear what it is or how to use it. This app can streamline your routines and free up precious seconds on repetitive tasks. A shortcut is simply a way to do something with your apps via a single tap or word to Siri. You can create a simple shortcut to navigate the top news of the day, for example, or a chain of actions to close your smart blinds, play sounds to sleepand turn off the lights at bedtime.
The Shortcuts app arrived with iOS 12 in 2018. It grew out of an automation tool for iPhones called workflow that Apple had acquired the previous year. It’s supposed to make everyday tasks a bit easier, but understanding how to get the most out of it can be a challenge. That’s why we’ve compiled this handy guide on how to use the Shortcuts app.
What do you need
To use shortcuts, you need an iphone either iPad running iOS 12 or later (some features are only available on iOS 13 or later). There is also a Shortcuts app for Mac running on macOS Monterey (12.0.1) or later. And many shortcuts will work with apple watches running WatchOS 7 or later.
If you’re signed in to the same account on all of your Apple devices, shortcuts created in the app on one device will appear in the Shortcuts app on your other devices. The Shortcuts app is probably already installed on your device, but if not, you can download it from the app store.
Getting started with shortcuts
All of your shortcuts reside in the Shortcuts app. When you first open the app, you’ll see a handful of examples to try out. Any shortcuts you add or create later will appear on your shortcuts eyelash. We’ll cover how to create shortcuts in a moment, but the easiest way to get started with shortcuts is to tap the Gallery tab, where you’ll find categorized lists of shortcuts for all sorts of tasks.
Navigate through the shortcuts in the Gallery and tap any shortcut you’re interested in to see what it does, where it appears, and how to activate it with a Siri voice command. If you want to try it, touch add shortcut or tap the plus icon at the top right of each shortcut on the Gallery eyelash.
Before creating any shortcuts, go back to the shortcuts tab and touch the Ellipse (three dots) at the top right of any shortcut to see how it works. Until you master the various options, reverse engineering shortcuts are the best way to understand them.
How to create shortcuts
Once you’ve tried some of the pre-made shortcuts and have a feel for how they work, you might want to create your own. That is how:
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