Try IPhone Automation With This List of 150+ IOS Shortcuts
I’ll admit I haven’t touched much on iOS shortcuts since the feature’s big debut last September, but don’t let my laziness discourage you from messing with them. If you’re just starting out, you should find some great ready-made shortcuts to integrate into your device instead of spending too much time figuring out how to create your own. It’s fun too, but you don’t have to jump to the deep end just yet.
We’ve previously covered a few shortcuts that other Lifehacker users found interesting, but this is just an iOS appetizer versus a main course recently made by Federico Viticci of MacStories. He has been working on shortcuts – former workflows – since 2014 or so, and has compiled a huge list of his creations (151 shortcuts and how many) worth exploring.
It’s a pretty tricky number, so I went through the list and highlighted a few favorites so you can get started.
Save app to Trello
If you’re like me, you browse the App Store regularly and come across a lot of things you might want to download, but you pause because you don’t want to overload your device with too many apps. While you can save your checkout apps list to Notes or Reminders , you can also use this shortcut to send them directly to Trello.
Redeem iTunes Code
It’s great. Copy your iTunes redemption code to iOS, then click this shortcut to automatically enter it into the App Store redemption page, saving you the trouble of navigating it yourself.
Time to the place of an important event
Instead of looking at your calendar and then asking Siri to remind you x hours or minutes later to get ready for an event, you can use this shortcut to tell you how much time is left until events on your calendar.
(And if you just want to see a short list of upcoming events, view the next five events on your calendar using this shortcut .)
Post Last photo
Use this shortcut to send any contact on your iOS device the most recent photo you took – also screenshots if you like.
Merge letters
I haven’t tried this at all, but the simple fact that someone created a working mail merge feature using an iOS shortcut is pretty amazing.
File loader
Copy the URL to your clipboard, tap that shortcut and you’ll automatically start uploading it either to your iCloud Drive or any other storage services you’ve set up on your device (via the iOS Files app).
Backing up shortcuts
Never again accidentally lose your shortcuts! Tap that shortcut and whatever you’ve created will be uploaded to the iCloud Drive shortcut directory.
Compress Dropbox Files
Wrap a bunch of Dropbox files in a simple ZIP archive for easy sharing. (And if you want to do it with anything else on iOS, check out this shortcut .)
PDF extraction
Cut text from any PDF on your device and automatically copy it to the iOS clipboard.
Time to sleep
How much did you sleep last night? Get your answer straight from HealthKit.
Glass of water
Tell HealthKit when you have a cup of delicious water. Only 8-12 cups left ! (Use this shortcut to find out how much water you’ve already drunk.)
Get (or sleep ) your Mac
Assuming your Mac is on the same network as your iPhone or iPad, you can use any of these shortcuts to wake it up or put it to sleep. (If you also want to log into your Mac after waking it up, which is a little less secure, check out this shortcut .)
Find lyrics
Automatic Google search to find the words of the song you are currently listening to.
Apple Music in packaging
If you’re a big Apple Music fan – essentially a subscriber – use this shortcut to create a year-end report (or a top 25 playlist) for everything you’ve listened to.
On this day
What have you been doing on this particular day for the past few years? Use this shortcut to recreate Facebook’s “Memories” feature on your iOS device.
Live photo in GIF
Sometimes the labels don’t even need to be explained.
Delete completed reminders
As you complete tasks on your big to-do, use this shortcut to quickly delete whatever you’ve done.
Dictate Note
Launch this shortcut and start a conversation; whatever you say will go on a new note.
Hourly forecasts
You can ask Siri for the weather every day, but if you want a more detailed report, use this shortcut to see what the next few hours will look like.
Postpone for 1 hour
Don’t let annoying coworkers bother you in Slack with this shortcut. It requires the Slack API to work, but setting it up is worth every second of sweet silence.
Do Not Disturb Menu
No, you’re not rolling with the new Dungeons & Dragons character . Instead, this shortcut lets you set the duration for iOS Do Not Disturb: until you manually turn it off, until a specific time, or until a specific calendar event ends.