Apple Releases iOS 12 Shortcuts App for All Users, Update Replaces Workflow

[grobik]

So much of what the app does is redundant to what Siri already does. Travel time, tip calculator (hey Siri, what's 20% of $X)... A lot of actions still require user input thus making it more of a task, like the where was this photo taken action cannot pull the currently viewed photo so you are prompted to scroll through all photos and select what photo you want the location for. Or you could just swipe up on the currently viewed photo. I find Siri shortcuts to be way more useful than this app.

 

[Jaekae]

"So, for example, you can create a shortcut to do something like turn on the thermostat at home using the Nest app"

This is literally something I'd love to set up a shortcut for as I own a Nest thermostat. I've been trying to do this in the app for 5 minutes. Either this is false advertising or not intuitive.

The third party apps need to add support for it so maby that nest developer havent added support yet

 

[BrandonR2017]

Here's my question and I don't think it would be too complex.
Lets say I have an AppleMusic Playlist titled "Playlist1". What would be idea is when Bluetooth automatically connects to X ("Honda") > Play > Apple Music "Playlist1" automatically. Hopefully that makes sense, and I'd think it'd be a valid (and useful) shortcut for a lot of people seeing how some of these workflows are super complex.

 

[tehStickMan]

So this is essentially the same buggy Workflow beta app from a year+ ago, with some Siri voice triggers, and an 'API' that like 5 third party apps are currently using. Uhh?

Does anyone have a list of some really good Shortcuts? Even the featured ones suck.

 

[writevli]

I'm running the latest public beta release of iOS 12 on iPhone X. I can't seem to find the shortcuts app; I've never seen it since the first iOS 12.
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I'm running the latest public beta release of iOS 12 on iPhone X. I can't seem to find the shortcuts app; I've never seen it since the first iOS 12.

Nevermind, I downloaded it from the App Store.

 

[adrianlondon]

So much of what the app does is redundant to what Siri already does.

Try the barcode app (the UPC one) from https://sharecuts.app/. I think it's great! I travel quite a lot and have separate (reminder) lists for shopping lists in different places. With this shortcut I can get it to scan an item and prompt me which list to add it to.

Even if you find no use for that shortcut, and to be honest I'm not sure if I'll use it much either as I tend to just type in what I need to buy, it showcases what can be done.

 

[dbrewood]

Guys one question concerning a difference I’m seeing comparing the Workflow and Shortcut apps. In the old Workflow app there were options within the workflows to show them within the complications on the Apple Watch. In the updated Shortcut app these seem to have vanished completely. Is this correct or am I missing something somewhere?

 

[Kabeyun]

Interesting. So the workflow I have works in the browser and can save as video, audio or gif. Indeed I've just tried it on a couple of music videos and instead of the content I get a small text file called videoplayback. It still works for other content though. I wonder if the heuristic for finding the content url can be changed for these.

Hmm. Sounds like a worthwhile project for someone with the time and ability (when I look at the steps I’m blown away that you need all those things just to download a video). Meanwhile it looks like I don’t have to worry about screwing up the Download YouTube workflow by upgrading to iOS 12; it’s already screwed up. Don’t know if it was Apple or Google, but it’s broken. If you fix it, please do share.

 

[grobik]

Try the barcode app (the UPC one) from https://sharecuts.app/. I think it's great! I travel quite a lot and have separate (reminder) lists for shopping lists in different places. With this shortcut I can get it to scan an item and prompt me which list to add it to.

Even if you find no use for that shortcut, and to be honest I'm not sure if I'll use it much either as I tend to just type in what I need to buy, it showcases what can be done.

Yeah, I guess there are niche reasons someone may find a workflow convenient. But I think it's a lot like smart lights. It's way quicker to just flip the switch than it is to pull out your phone, open an app or tell Siri to turn on the lights. (This is why I like the lutron switch rather than a smart bulb). For most workflows I've seen in the gallery, there is already the ability in Siri without adding another app to do the action. The Siri shortcuts however is pretty useful.

 

[Regbial]

Well, this is complete crap. I simply removed “vibrate” from the Brush Teeth Timer and, after the screen turns off past the minute, the whole process dies. What’s the point of these things if they don’t run when the device goes to sleep automatically?

Does Apple expect us to touch the screen constantly to keep it awake? Ugh... so dumb and useless... -_-

 

[funy]

im actually astounded by the amount of stupid negative comments, just because you don’t understand something doesn’t make it bad. Hell I don’t understand how they research cancer but I wouldn’t slag it off!

Do you research there is plenty of material out there for workflow which all applies here.

It was never advertised as an easy everyone can do this only that it was there and be used with a bit of work. Also many are confusing the shortcuts app with Siri shortcuts you can do much without even touching this.

You could do a lot worse than read Federico Viticci‘s work he has done a lot with workflow and even does a q&a in his weekly newsletter

 

[gfbane]

How could they not bring the Watch App forward to shortcuts? That really made the watch a lot more useful.