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iOS 16.4 and macOS 13.3 Gain Multiple New Shortcut Action Options

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Apr 12, 2001
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The iOS 16.4, iPadOS 16.4, macOS 13.3, and watchOS 9.4 updates add a long list of new actions and improvements to the dedicated Shortcuts app that is available on Apple's iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watches.

shortcuts-app-1.jpg

There's now a Find Books action for locating content in the Books app, along with an Intercom action for sending announcements to HomePods in your home through iOS devices. There are dedicated actions for activating always-on display on supported devices, and on the Mac, there are options for logging out and putting a Mac to sleep.
  • Find Books searches your library for books or PDFs matching a given title, author, genre, purchase date, or content type on iOS and macOS
  • Intercom broadcasts announcements to your home on iOS and watchOS
  • Set VPN connects, disconnects, or sets the On Demand setting for any VPN on iOS and macOS
  • Set AirDrop Receiving sets the AirDrop Receiving preference to Everyone, Contacts Only, or Nobody on iOS and macOS
  • Set Stage Manager enables or disables and changes the settings for Stage Manager on iPadOS and macOS
  • Set Announce Notifications toggles the Announce Notifications setting on iOS and watchOS
  • Set Silence Unknown Callers toggles the Silence Unknown Callers setting on iOS
  • Set Night Shift and Set True Tone toggle the display settings on iOS and macOS
  • Set Always-On Display toggles the Always-On Display on supported iOS devices
  • Find Apps finds and filters apps installed on macOS
  • Find Displays finds and filters displays on macOS
  • Shut Down, Restart, and Lock Display are now available on iOS and macOS
  • Log Out, Sleep and Put Display to Sleep are now available on macOS
Several actions have also been updated. Find Photos, for example, can be used to find screen recordings, and the Get Device action can now show the OS build number.
  • Move Window now allows moving a window to a display on macOS
  • Ask for Input has a new "Allow Multiple Lines" option, which can be disabled for single-line text input
  • Find Photos can now find screen recordings
  • Find Contacts now filters by birthday more accurately
  • Get Device Details can now get the OS build number
  • Get Device Details now rounds numbers, including the current battery level, volume, and brightness, to remove unnecessary decimal digits
  • Set Playback Destination now works when run from Siri
  • Play Music once again resumes currently playing music if no music is passed as input
  • Run AppleScript can now produce dictionaries as output from AppleScript records
  • Nothing now produces a variable with zero items, instead of producing no variable at all
  • Repeat can now be set to run 0 times
These actions and updated action options can be found in the Shortcuts app on iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watch models running iOS 16.4, iPadOS 16.4, macOS Ventura 13.3, and watchOS 9.4, respectively.

Article Link: iOS 16.4 and macOS 13.3 Gain Multiple New Shortcut Action Options
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2023/03/27/ios-16-4-macos-13-3-shortcut-actions/
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Will OpenAI / GPT-4 disrupt Apple’s ecosystem if Microsoft ships a mobile device built around advanced AI features?
 
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I'm still waiting from Shortcuts the ability to run network-related automations directly on the watch. That is, being able to, say, schedule Airplane Mode to enable and subsequently disable at specific times independent of the network state on, or connection to, the phone.
 
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It's great that they are adding functionality to shortcuts. Especially for somebody like me, who likes to tinker around an hour to automate something that would have taken 5 minutes to actually do.

Seriously, shortcuts is a cool tool, but still limited. Good to see it getting some love.

mooger83 said:
Will OpenAI / GPT-4 disrupt Apple’s ecosystem if Microsoft ships a mobile device built around advanced AI features?
Click to expand...

Maybe? If their hasty implementation of GPT into Bing is any indication, this will probably take some time. Otoh, when I read about new shortcuts features, I wondered if an assistant based on something like chatgpt wouldn’t make shortcuts obsolete soon. Also, can you prompt chatgpt to ”write” a working shortcut? I’d bet you can (only it’d be limited to 2021 shortcuts).
 
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I'm not seeing any of these new shortcuts. I checked on my Mac as well as my iPhone. Are they supposed to be in the gallery?
 
mooger83 said:
Will OpenAI / GPT-4 disrupt Apple’s ecosystem if Microsoft ships a mobile device built around advanced AI features?
Click to expand...
GPT is not Microsoft exclusive. Apple can easily adopt and internally integrate it in to Siri..... and **cough** **cough** "Siri enabled" futuristic AR/VR device TBA in WWDC :)
 
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Did they finally make it so disabling notifications actually disables notifications?

I have automations that I set up to run without notifications… and it still notifies me that they’ve been run. STUPID.
 
cosmogfd said:
All I want is to be able to make a shortcut to automatically set Do Not Disturb if I have a calendar appointment 😭
Click to expand...

I've been asking for this feature for YEARS. It's so important now with hybrid work and too many meetings on multiple calendars.

You can hack around it with Shortcuts now, but it's so complex and breaks every other iOS update.

Apple, make Focus Modes a tiny teeny bit more intuitive. They're such a mess and this one feature would be so beneficial to anyone that is constantly moving.
 
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Razorpit said:
Can you do that when you're on a call?
Click to expand...

Or in an event. But it's so manual. Requires 3-4 taps just to get it configured and hope you remember before every event on this calendar.

Should be an automatic feature, like automatic brightness.

Shortcuts are where good ideas get a 0.60 implementation that requires manual maintenance every other iOS update.
 
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Waaaaaaaaay back in the day when I used to JB my phone, it was largely just so I could have a toggle that would turn on/off location services. That was pretty much the only reason. Can we please get a shortcut, or something in the control center that would allow this? I have a shortcut now that will open the location services screen in my settings, but I still have to turn it on/off. I'd love to just be able to run a shortcut from my home screen that turns toggles location services... as my battery gets older it needs all the help it can get!
 
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Finally VPN automation support. Such an obvious thing have based on your location but it took until now to do it.
 
MacRumors said:


The iOS 16.4, iPadOS 16.4, macOS 13.3, and watchOS 9.4 updates add a long list of new actions and improvements to the dedicated Shortcuts app that is available on Apple's iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watches.

shortcuts-app-1.jpg

There's now a Find Books action for locating content in the Books app, along with an Intercom action for sending announcements to HomePods in your home through iOS devices. There are dedicated actions for activating always-on display on supported devices, and on the Mac, there are options for logging out and putting a Mac to sleep.
  • Find Books searches your library for books or PDFs matching a given title, author, genre, purchase date, or content type on iOS and macOS
  • Intercom broadcasts announcements to your home on iOS and watchOS
  • Set VPN connects, disconnects, or sets the On Demand setting for any VPN on iOS and macOS
  • Set AirDrop Receiving sets the AirDrop Receiving preference to Everyone, Contacts Only, or Nobody on iOS and macOS
  • Set Stage Manager enables or disables and changes the settings for Stage Manager on iPadOS and macOS
  • Set Announce Notifications toggles the Announce Notifications setting on iOS and watchOS
  • Set Silence Unknown Callers toggles the Silence Unknown Callers setting on iOS
  • Set Night Shift and Set True Tone toggle the display settings on iOS and macOS
  • Set Always-On Display toggles the Always-On Display on supported iOS devices
  • Find Apps finds and filters apps installed on macOS
  • Find Displays finds and filters displays on macOS
  • Shut Down, Restart, and Lock Display are now available on iOS and macOS
  • Log Out, Sleep and Put Display to Sleep are now available on macOS
Several actions have also been updated. Find Photos, for example, can be used to find screen recordings, and the Get Device action can now show the OS build number.
  • Move Window now allows moving a window to a display on macOS
  • Ask for Input has a new "Allow Multiple Lines" option, which can be disabled for single-line text input
  • Find Photos can now find screen recordings
  • Find Contacts now filters by birthday more accurately
  • Get Device Details can now get the OS build number
  • Get Device Details now rounds numbers, including the current battery level, volume, and brightness, to remove unnecessary decimal digits
  • Set Playback Destination now works when run from Siri
  • Play Music once again resumes currently playing music if no music is passed as input
  • Run AppleScript can now produce dictionaries as output from AppleScript records
  • Nothing now produces a variable with zero items, instead of producing no variable at all
  • Repeat can now be set to run 0 times
These actions and updated action options can be found in the Shortcuts app on iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watch models running iOS 16.4, iPadOS 16.4, macOS Ventura 13.3, and watchOS 9.4, respectively.

Article Link: iOS 16.4 and macOS 13.3 Gain Multiple New Shortcut Action Options
Click to expand...
Well this needs a ChatGPT LLM engine. This approach is OUTDATED. In its current form, why spend the time when you should be able to write a prompt and get the intended action. Time to really power Siri as an assistant, otherwise, they will lose to MSFT
 
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I'm a geek, but old. I really haven't spent time to learn how shortcuts work, and I'm a bit depressed that these sort of things aren't simple. But as I said, I'm no longer a young geek and just don't want to spend time learning.

Just a mild rant. Don't mean to offend anyone. In the old days the QT scripting stuff that very few people investigated was so important to me. Times change.😀
 
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Shortcut to restarting my iPhone & iPad is great. Long overdue but where is a shortcut to call someone and having audio out through speaker. Please Apple it shouldn’t be hard.

Edit: the restart shortcut won’t restart my iPhone 14 Pro. It simply shut it down. WTH Apple!?!
Edit 2: After a few tries now it restarts.
 
Last edited:
What is realy missing for me? Option to triger shortcut by phone shortcode or Phone app: „when i’am calling to”, „when i end call with..” and „when X call to me”.
 
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