Hopefully it will write it's own bug reports and submit them too so they get thing working properly in shortcuts.
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iOS 27 Shortcuts App May Write Custom Actions for You Using AI
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hybrid_x
macrumors 6502a
Just give us Calendar events as automation triggers. Please. It's not that hard.
Event start. Event end. Event duration. Which calendar it's in. The event name.
All of these could be used to create incredibly useful automations that currently require ridiculous workarounds or third-party products and services to enable. I don't understand why Calendar integration wasn't included from day 1 with Focus modes, Shortcuts and Automations.
Event start. Event end. Event duration. Which calendar it's in. The event name.
All of these could be used to create incredibly useful automations that currently require ridiculous workarounds or third-party products and services to enable. I don't understand why Calendar integration wasn't included from day 1 with Focus modes, Shortcuts and Automations.
indefinite
macrumors regular
hybrid_x
macrumors 6502a
More like SIRI... Something Imperceptibly Resembling Intelligence.
klasma
macrumors G4
It’s not so obvious because you can’t reliably prevent AI from making mistakes when writing the shortcut, like including commands that cause data to be deleted or that mess up your settings. The user either has to review the shortcut and accept responsibility for what it does (not many people will be able and willing to do that), or all potentially destructive actions have to be confirmed when the shortcut runs (inconvenient, and incompatible with certain use cases).
Therefore I’m a bit skeptical they’ll include it without considerably limiting the scope.
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klasma
macrumors G4
Yeah, the worst thing about Shortcuts is that Apple doesn’t maintain backwards compatibility for them. They tend to break sooner or later on some upgrade, in particular if you’re doing anything remotely complex.
hybrid_x
macrumors 6502a
Indeed. Most of my shortcuts seem to work okay, but whether they get triggered correctly by automations is another story altogether. I was working on some new workflows early last week, which were working nicely, then 26.4 dropped and I'm back to the drawing board, pulling my hair out trying to figure out why they're not working.
CATiNTHESTORE
macrumors 6502a
atotic
macrumors newbie
I hope that AI integration will make more app features scriptable. Right now, the app actions available to shortcuts are very incomplete, almost everything I've tried to implement cannot be done, because the actions do not exist.
In Remainders, I wanted to trash deleted ones every week (because deleted remainders slow down the app, another annoyance). I implemented the shortcut, but it could not run autonomously because there was an unskippable confirmation dialog: "Do you really want to delete"
In Messages, I'd like to automatically delete messages from unknown senders after a week. No way to do it, for some reason Apple prefers everything in Messages to be done manually, the actions are brain dead.
In Podcasts, I'd like to get all subscriptions from Podcast app. No way to do it, I assume as an anticompetitive measure.
In Alarms, I'd like to say, "Mute all alarms for next 12 hours". There might be a clunky way to do it, but I have not bothered.
I wonder whether AI will have the power to do these things. And if it does, could we create AI actions for it? If AI could do all actions I can as a user., that'd open the door to useful automations.
Security implications of this are very interesting.
In Remainders, I wanted to trash deleted ones every week (because deleted remainders slow down the app, another annoyance). I implemented the shortcut, but it could not run autonomously because there was an unskippable confirmation dialog: "Do you really want to delete"
In Messages, I'd like to automatically delete messages from unknown senders after a week. No way to do it, for some reason Apple prefers everything in Messages to be done manually, the actions are brain dead.
In Podcasts, I'd like to get all subscriptions from Podcast app. No way to do it, I assume as an anticompetitive measure.
In Alarms, I'd like to say, "Mute all alarms for next 12 hours". There might be a clunky way to do it, but I have not bothered.
I wonder whether AI will have the power to do these things. And if it does, could we create AI actions for it? If AI could do all actions I can as a user., that'd open the door to useful automations.
Security implications of this are very interesting.
jimscard
macrumors 6502
jimscard
macrumors 6502
There's actually far more AppIntents available than you'd ever imagine, but only AppIntents that meet a specific set of criteria are shown in Shortcuts and macOS Spotlight unless the developer explicitly adds them.
Looking through the code in the latest beta, for example, I identified where Siri is maintaining a list of all the Tools that are available -- nearly 2000 of them, including almost 1600 AppIntents on my devices.
jonnysods
macrumors G3
Back in the day Google Maps would keep my phone on to present the upcoming directions on the device while the map would display in CarPlay - for the last few OS releases it won't keep it awake despite many efforts, I just like to know what is coming up, nothing nefarious.
jimscard
macrumors 6502
Shortcuts would be easier if there was an official way to write code in addition to the drag and drop interface. But I've been writing pretty useful shortcuts since they enabled access to Apple Intelligence in Shortcuts last June. Simplifies a lot of the flows that you'd have to otherwise do tons of steps for.
And the ability to run one Shortcut from another has enabled me to take a modular approach. So I have one shortcut "Explain This" which takes input -- via Share Sheet, via a Prompt for text it puts up, or even on-screen contents from apps that have implemented that (such as Safari) -- and generates an explanation "like I was seventeen". It displays it, and then copies the results to the clipboard.
I have another "Clipboard Markdown to Notes" that takes what's on the clipboard, converts it to Rich Text, and saves it to a new Note in Apple Notes. As part of that process, it runs another shortcut of mine "Suggest Title" that uses the on-device model to generate an appropriate title for the note.
Similarly, I have scripts on my Mac that do various things. A lot of them will copy their output to the clipboard with `pbcopy` and then run a script `clip2notes` that runs the aforementioned "Clipboard Markdown to Notes" shortcut to create a note with the results.
jimscard
macrumors 6502
You can display the upcoming directions in CarPlay. It won't keep the phone unlocked (Driving Focus) if the phone is in the same app that CarPlay is. Especially since the expected scenario is that you have an Apple Watch and the upcoming turns etc. are displayed there (and haptically notified ahead of the turn.)
My phone is usually in the Music app showing lyrics to the folks in the back seat while I'm driving using Maps on CarPlay. It stays awake to show those.
Frantisekj
macrumors 65816
There has to be official place to post/share shortcuts or store. there is many skilled people who can build shortcuts. For ppl like me to use 😁
Frantisekj
macrumors 65816
You are lucky one. I have tried with AI help year ago and was partially able to create only one working shortcuts. otherwise got lost at passing data through pipeline or performing what I wanted. Sometime lucky to find one who did someone else.
Instead of that lousy nested logic that Shortcuts uses now just fix the if..then statements by adding an 'else if' option.
i.e.:
if this1 .. that1 ;
else if this2 .. that2 ;
else if this3 .. that3 ;
else if this4 .. that4 ;
else that5 ;
end if.
i.e.:
if this1 .. that1 ;
else if this2 .. that2 ;
else if this3 .. that3 ;
else if this4 .. that4 ;
else that5 ;
end if.
It's no different than downloading Shortcuts off the internet. Shortcuts already pops up a message saying you should review the contents before running.
H_D
macrumors 6502
Not sure about Apple development of such a tool, but this. Maybe not as replacement for Photoshop, Indesign and other classics… but a tool that seamlessly blends manual design UX work and AI input plus output of working code for Prototyping Apps and Sites would be a killer product.
klasma
macrumors G4
Except that users will complain when Apple Intelligence generates faulty shortcuts, and will (rightfully) say that the feature doesn’t work reliably. That’s different from a third party providing faulty or malicious shortcut on the internet.
AI-generated shortcuts can easily be provided by a third party, by the way, in the sense that no secret knowledge or support from Apple is required. There are already some offerings like Shortcutbuilder and ShortcutStudio, but they are pretty hit and miss. It shows how difficult if not impossible it is to implement in a way that works reliably.
When you pop up a message warning "Apple Intelligence may make mistakes" that's really a non-issue. ChatGPT/Gemini/Claude make mistakes, Apple already has a bad reputation for AI, and the user already complains about third party shortcuts not working reliably.
The prevention of introducing a feature out of fear of people complaining about something that's already not expected to work 100% of the time doesn't make sense.
Google Maps can easily be provided by a third party too. As well as email, chatbot, music, tv etc...Never really stopped Apple from making their own.
"It's a revolutionary new thing that we think you're going to love, and we're announcing that we're going to release it next year." Followed by a two year delay. After which it will be some combination of forgotten and a token implementation.