Handy iPhone and iPad Shortcuts You Should Check Out

[MacRumors]

With the launch of iOS 13, Apple introduced Shortcuts support and the Shortcuts app, adding a whole range of new functionality to the iPhone. Shortcuts have continued to be popular since their debut, and in iOS 14, the addition of Home screen widgets made it even easier to get to your Shortcuts, so we thought we'd round up some of our most useful Shortcut options for iPhone and iPad.

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• Photos Toolkit - Photos ToolKit is an all-in-one shortcut that can resize images, convert images to different formats, rotate images, combine images in a collage, make GIFs, and more.
• Make PDF - As the name suggests, the Make PDF shortcut can turn documents and webpages into PDFs.
• Apple Frames - Apple Frames from from MacStories' Federico Viticci adds frames to screenshots taken with your iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch and makes them look nicer. It's a favorite that we use often here at MacRumors.
• Dictate to Notes - With Dictate to Notes, you can use voice dictation to create a note in the Notes app, which is useful for jotting down quick thoughts without having to type something out.
• YouTube PiP - If you want to be able to watch YouTube in Picture in Picture mode on the iPhone, this is the app for you. With an app called Scriptable, when you run YouTube PiP through the Share Sheet, it will open a YouTube video in a floating window.
• Music Finder - To identify a song that's playing nearby you can use Shazam, but Shazam saves music to Apple Music, which is not ideal if you're a Spotify user. Music Finder identifies a song and saves it to your Spotify playlist.
• Set AirPlay - Set AirPlay makes it easier to swap between your iPhone and your other AirPlay devices, saving you a few taps if you want to switch sources quickly.
• Url Shortener - URL Shortener makes long and unsightly URLs shorter, which is useful when you need to share a naked URL. It lives in the Share Sheet, so all you have to do is select the Shorten URL option when viewing a website and it will generate a short URL. Alternatively, you can copy a link and run it from the Shortcuts app, which will shorten the last copied URL.

Do you have a favorite Shortcut? Let us know in the comments and we may feature it in a future video.

Article Link: Handy iPhone and iPad Shortcuts You Should Check Out

 

[Apple_Robert]

I have been using the Notes shortcut for a good whole. It works well. The PDF shortcut does not always work as it should. Often time, it will create a blank page PDF or something that is unreadable.

 

[k1im]

I have to admit, this is a pretty handy selection. Thanks! Guess I’ll give Shortcuts another try

 

[Jurgen37]

Todays birthday. We linked to a shortcut automation you can automatically send a text message your contacts birthday.

Today’s Birthdays - Siri Shortcuts

This little shortcut looks at your contacts for anyone with a birthday today & offers to text “Happy Birthday” to them. It then repeats for each. No Birthdays today? You’ll get a notification for that too.

shortcutsgallery.com

 

[ericgtr12]

One thing I really miss is the ability to force touch to move the cursor around, it feels like removing that was a step backwards.

 

[pdaholic]

One thing I really miss is the ability to force touch to move the cursor around, it feels like removing that was a step backwards.

It’s still there, just press and hold on the space bar.

 

[ericgtr12]

It’s still there, just press and hold on the space bar.

Dude! Thanks so much, tip toes out with dunce cap on

 

[Ghokun]

These are my shortcuts. They are basically combinations of steps below. They turn bluetooth and wifi completely on/off instead of "Disabled until tomorrow..."

 

[Jett0516]

I need a shortcut that auto rotate video on a website.

Apple keep refusing to add a rotate/fullscreen video button.

 

[macsareveryinteresting]

Pretty decent shortcuts. I would suggest checking them out.

 

[thisismyusername]

I wish I could find a good use for shortcuts on either my iPhone or iPad. The only one I ever used regularly was texting my wife "on my way" when I left work, which I haven't used in roughly a year. I'll have to check some of these out.

 

[Jandalf]

Don’t use shortcuts at all and strangely I after watching the video I feel like I have to spend all weekend to get these to work...
Am I getting old? 😅🙃

 

[santaliqueur]

I wish I could find a good use for shortcuts on either my iPhone or iPad. The only one I ever used regularly was texting my wife "on my way" when I left work, which I haven't used in roughly a year. I'll have to check some of these out.

Check out Christopher Lawley on YouTube. He's got a bunch of great iOS productivity videos, and he talks a lot about Shortcuts.

 

[RedWing512]

I love, love LOVE Siri Shortcuts. Among the shortcuts on my phone:

• Speed Dial, which allows me to quickly call someone from my contacts.
• Shuffle Playlist, which brings up a list of all my Apple Music playlists and allows me to shuffle it in a single tap
• Toggle Lights, which is probably my favorite of the bunch. I have multiple smart lights from Hue and Nanoleaf. With a single tap of the shortcut, the lights will either turn on, turn off, or switch to a random theme depending on the time of day. Way more handy than digging through an app or HomeKit settings to do the same thing.

Best of all, I have all of these shortcuts within my Today view, so I can have quick access to them from the lock screen.

 

[SDJim]

I wish I could find a good use for shortcuts on either my iPhone or iPad. The only one I ever used regularly was texting my wife "on my way" when I left work, which I haven't used in roughly a year. I'll have to check some of these out.

Hahaha, I could have written this comment myself! Maybe this will make me take another look.

Stay safe!

 

[Canyda]

I have several shortcuts that I use regularly:

1. The apparently hugely popular "Coming home" text (I have 2 versions of it, depending on my mood)
2. Log my weight, which saves my weight to the help app - I usually invoke this on my Watch
3. A custom one that takes a newsletter I subscribe to, converts it to PDF and mails it to my Kindle app (although iOS 14 busted it, so it's now a "convert to PDF" and then me manually invoking the Share sheet and clicking on the Kindle app to send it that way)
4. The "Hey Google" shortcut which serves as the backbone for my triple-back-tap to invoke Google Assistant

I set up a bunch of other ones involving Overcast and Google Maps and stuff that I would use on my way to work but they didn't function consistently and so I gave up.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Don’t use shortcuts at all and strangely I after watching the video I feel like I have to spend all weekend to get these to work...
Am I getting old? 😅🙃

Yes, you are old man.

 

[wbeasley]

so the concept sounds great but then you see very few comments about how life changing these are... too much effort?
do i really want a button to "phone home i'm running late"? which you can pretty much do even with a quick chat to Sire.

it sort of feels like a solution looking for a problem.

widget are in the same boat.
i have a few on an Android phone.
but do i want to move all the icons around to whack a few space grabbing widgets?
anything I use often I put on the bottom app tab or the home page.

 

[tigertazz]

I use Weather Wallpapers. I didn't build it but damn do I love it.

change wallpaper depending on current conditions and time of day.

 

[2013.1]

​

The killer shortcut is making calls. From your lock screen.​

I still liked Apples favorites widget more ..

 

[iGeneo]

I use Weather Wallpapers. I didn't build it but damn do I love it.

change wallpaper depending on current conditions and time of day.

I had a little trouble with that one... I had the images in the proper folder on iCloud but it would also fail. I settled on:

How To Use Weather Wall Shortcut iOS 14 - The iDevice Blog

Here is a quick demo on how to use weather wall shortcuts to put live weather onto your wallpaper! No jailbreak required works on iOS 14.

theideviceblog.com

It works, but I like the idea of a fun screen image instead

 

[Foxxus]

Anyone know how to write shortcut that will cull podcasts meeting defined criteria from my podcast library (or seen anything like this)? I used to use podcast addict on android, and enjoyed this functionality (to cull or not download based on criteria). I would like to just use the regular Apple podcasts if possible.

 

[dknepprath]

With the launch of iOS 13, Apple introduced Shortcuts support and the Shortcuts app, adding a whole range of new functionality to the iPhone. Shortcuts have continued to be popular since their debut, and in iOS 14, the addition of Home screen widgets made it even easier to get to your Shortcuts, so we thought we'd round up some of our most useful Shortcut options for iPhone and iPad.

Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.​

• Photos Toolkit - Photos ToolKit is an all-in-one shortcut that can resize images, convert images to different formats, rotate images, combine images in a collage, make GIFs, and more.
  
• Make PDF - As the name suggests, the Make PDF shortcut can turn documents and webpages into PDFs.
  
• Apple Frames - Apple Frames from from MacStories' Federico Viticci adds frames to screenshots taken with your iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch and makes them look nicer. It's a favorite that we use often here at MacRumors.
  
• Dictate to Notes - With Dictate to Notes, you can use voice dictation to create a note in the Notes app, which is useful for jotting down quick thoughts without having to type something out.
  
• YouTube PiP - If you want to be able to watch YouTube in Picture in Picture mode on the iPhone, this is the app for you. With an app called Scriptable, when you run YouTube PiP through the Share Sheet, it will open a YouTube video in a floating window.
  
• Music Finder - To identify a song that's playing nearby you can use Shazam, but Shazam saves music to Apple Music, which is not ideal if you're a Spotify user. Music Finder identifies a song and saves it to your Spotify playlist.
  
• Set AirPlay - Set AirPlay makes it easier to swap between your iPhone and your other AirPlay devices, saving you a few taps if you want to switch sources quickly.
  
• Url Shortener - URL Shortener makes long and unsightly URLs shorter, which is useful when you need to share a naked URL. It lives in the Share Sheet, so all you have to do is select the Shorten URL option when viewing a website and it will generate a short URL. Alternatively, you can copy a link and run it from the Shortcuts app, which will shorten the last copied URL.

Do you have a favorite Shortcut? Let us know in the comments and we may feature it in a future video.

Article Link: Handy iPhone and iPad Shortcuts You Should Check Out

How closely are these shortcuts reviewed for security/privacy?

I quickly skimmed the Photos Toolkit shortcut and it’s doing things with contacts and your IP Address.

I don’t understand why a shortcut with the stated features needs to have anything to do with either of those things?

 

[chas_m]

I wish I could find a good use for shortcuts on either my iPhone or iPad. The only one I ever used regularly was texting my wife "on my way" when I left work, which I haven't used in roughly a year. I'll have to check some of these out.

I have a handful, but the one I use the most is one of my own creation: saying "where to next?" triggers directions to my next appointment in Maps. Wildly useful for what I do, especially using CarPlay. Easy to create, but I really should post it in one of those shortcuts sites so others can adapt it to their needs.

 

[Abazigal]

I wish I could find a good use for shortcuts on either my iPhone or iPad. The only one I ever used regularly was texting my wife "on my way" when I left work, which I haven't used in roughly a year. I'll have to check some of these out.

I have a couple of shortcuts that I am using pretty regularly on my Apple Watch (playing music and calling), but I guess that goes to show just how cumbersome certain basic tasks still are on iOS.