Here at TeachMeiOS, we’re going to be kicking off a new series of articles and videos that show off Apple’s new hardware and software features that have been added to iOS 12 and macOS Mojave this fall – covering the new stuff that will be most useful for you as you use your Apple devices this next year.
To get the festivities started, today we’ll be showcasing what I think is one of the most powerful new features in iOS 12 – Siri Shortcuts. In a number of ways, this feature is a missing link that has the potential take Siri from being a decent personal assistant to being a customizable automation powerhouse. Let’s take a look!
What are Siri Shortcuts?
Enhanced automation
Siri Shortcuts allows you to take just about any action you perform commonly on iOS and create an audible shortcut – allowing you to ask Siri to perform it for you automatically. You can even string multiple actions together under one shortcut.
So, for example, you can tell Siri, “Heading to work,” and she can respond to you with your ETA, recite your upcoming calendar events, and start playing a music playlist for you. Or, you can tell Siri, “I’m heading to bed,” and she can turn off your HomeKit enabled lightbulbs, lock your door that’s equipped with a HomeKit smart lock, and set a two-minute timer for you to brush your teeth.
Integration with third-party-apps
Siri Shortcuts works with iOS’ built in features and apps, and also with third-party apps from the App Store that utilize the Siri Shortcuts API. If the developer of your favorite app uses the API in the development of their app, you can create custom Siri Shortcuts for that app as well! The result is that iOS’ built in systems and apps can now communicate and interact with third-party apps in some powerful ways.
Here are a couple examples of shortcuts I’ve loaded on my iPhone that utilize third-party apps.
When I say to Siri, “Fire the shutter,” she opens Halide (my go-to camera app) and takes a picture. This is super useful for taking staged family photos remotely when I use my travel tripod and phone mount.
Another shortcut, or set of shortcuts really, that I use are related to Overcast, my favorite podcast player. When I tell Siri, “Overcast The Daily,” she’ll open Overcast and start playing that podcast. This means that, without even unlocking my iPhone, I can start playing the podcast I want to listen to on the way to work using just my voice. In this case, and in many others, Siri Shortcuts removes a little bit of friction and makes using iOS just a little easier.
One feature, many functions
Siri Shortcuts actually offers a few different functions combined under one feature umbrella. They are:
Siri Suggestions – “Hey thanks, Siri!”
It’s helpful to think of Siri Shortcuts as having a couple different modes – passive and active.
Siri Suggestions represents the passive mode. This function of Siri Shortcuts is something that your iOS device does on your behalf. As you use your iOS device, Siri pays attention to common tasks you perform, remembers them, and then suggests a shortcut to you. It does this in two ways – by showing you a notification prompt on your Lock Screen or in Search (this is the search function you can perform by swiping down from the center of your device’s screen). In my day-to-day use of iOS 12 over the last few weeks, I’ve yet to see a suggestion for a commonly performed action pop up on my lock screen, but I’ve definitely noticed them appearing in Search. These actions in search have been things like creating a new note in my favorite note taking app, Bear, or opening a commonly visited URL in Safari.
Siri Shortcuts Proper – More Power to Ya
The active mode of Siri Shortcuts is represented by what I’ll call Siri Shortcuts proper. These are shortcuts that you and proactively create and run yourself, either for iOS’ built in apps and system functions or third-party apps.
How to create a Shortcut
There are a couple ways to create Siri Shortcuts.
The first way is in the Settings app. To create a shortcut this way, open Settings and navigate to Siri & Search. You can choose one of three suggested shortcuts or see every shortcut available to you by tapping All Shortcuts. In All Shortcuts, you’ll be presented with a list of all the shortcuts available to you in third-party apps and iOS’ embedded apps and functions. If you know you’d like to create a shortcut for one particular app or function, you can use the search bar at the top to narrow down the list, or simply scroll through the list to browse what’s available to you. Once you settle on a shortcut you’d like to create, tap it. An Add to Siri screen will slide into view with a red Record button at the bottom. Tap the Record button and speak the phrase you’d like to associate with this shortcut. Then, if you’re satisfied with the phrase as it appears you can tap Done to add the shortcut to your collection. Finally, speak the phrase to Siri and your shortcut will run!
Running Shortcuts
Shortcuts are very flexible, you can run them from just about anywhere in iOS – the Lock Screen, the Home Screen, or inside an app. I find that the most useful thing to do in many cases is to use Hey Siri to activate a shortcut while my phone is locked. This often allows me to perform an action without even needing to touch my phone, such as starting a podcast, playlist, or series of actions involving a timer. Also, thanks to iCloud and with a few caveats, you can also run shortcuts you’ve created from your other iOS devices, Apple Watch, or HomePod.
Shortcuts App – One More (Huge) Thing for Power Users
Back in March of 2017, and much to the dismay of iOS power users, Apple acquired an app called Workflow. Workflow was one of the most powerful apps available on the App Store, allowing users to have more control over their devices and string together and automate different actions. Often, when a third-party app gets acquired it spells nearly certain doom for a great product. Remarkably, in this particular case it was the best possible thing that could have happened to Workflow and, frankly, to iOS. Instead of sunsetting Workflow, Apple continued its development, took it, and baked it right into iOS – changing its name to Shortcuts.
While the Shortcuts app isn’t included by default in iOS 12, it can be downloaded for free on the App Store and unlocks even more granular control over your device’s automation. In the Shortcuts app, you can build custom workflows that string together tons of different steps. You can brew your own workflows, adding them to your Library by creating them step by step, or choose from tons of pre-built workflows in the app’s Gallery.
By way of an example – one pre-built workflow I downloaded recently is called Tea Timer. This workflow lets me start a timer of an appropriate length for different kinds of tea ranging from black to green to oolong.
Once you’ve added a workflow to your Library, you can then create a corresponding Siri Shortcut for as mentioned above to activate it using only your voice. For those who like to have more control over their devices, the Shortcuts app rounds out the features of Siri Shortcuts, providing an extremely solid and customizable platform of automation within iOS.
Conclusion
Siri Shortcuts brings something to the table that iOS was previously criticized for – intensive customizability. The inclusion of this feature marks a great new beginning for iOS and is a foundation that I’m sure Apple will continue to build on for years to come. With Apple’s current focus on machine learning and customizability, the future of iOS and Siri looks a lot brighter than it did even just a short time ago.
If you haven’t downloaded iOS 12 yet, I strongly encourage you to do so. It’s a great release and brings a ton of useful features to the table. And by supporting iOS devices back as far as the iPhone 5s with improved performance, breathes new life into older iOS devices.
What about you? Have you created any useful shortcuts that you’d like to share? Feel free to let us know in the Comments section below!
