Check Out Our Favorite IOS 12 Shortcuts Submitted by Readers

Posted on September 20, 2018 by resourcefulman

Just two days ago – just after the official launch of iOS 12 and the grand ~~renaming of~~ the Apple Shortcuts app – I asked Lifehacker readers about your favorite shortcuts you’ve been working on. I realize that we all didn’t have much time to play with labels, but surely you came up with one or two gems during this time. Yesterday I shared my own little trick to get Siri to generate directions in Google Maps , not Apple Maps.

In no particular order, this is what you worked on:

“Get directions to calendar events today (start Google Maps)» and «The simple addition of medical and other meetings in the personal and work calendars with the indication of the location and travel time» – Publius1974

While this person did not explain how they created any shortcut, I think I have a suspicion of both. The first looks something like this:

Obviously, you can customize it however you want to use any calendar you want (or pick from the list when you open the shortcut) as well as any mapping app you want (and how you want to get to the meeting) … Please note that this shortcut only works if you have specified a location for your calendar events. If you haven’t, it will be difficult for your iPhone to read your mind to determine direction.

As for the second shortcut, here’s my quick hit on it. It’s pretty straightforward – just select the Add New Event option and select Ask at Startup in the input field for any information you don’t always want to use.

Then make another “Add New Event” shortcut under the first one. For any text fields you plan to use for the first – and that’s probably all of them – tap the field in the second label and it will refer to what you entered in the first. It will look something like this (links can be confusing):

Now everything that you enter once will be duplicated in both calendars. Yes Yes.

“I created a shortcut for Spotify that allows me to instantly jump to one of the following options:

-spotify search page

-my daily mixes

-My opening page

-many of my favorite playlists

These actions now take exactly two clicks: the first is to click on the shortcut widget in my today’s view, the second is to select where I want to go. Saves a few clicks and a little scrolling. nothing crazy. “ – Andrew Zoer

This seems obvious at first, but it’s a bit tricky as there is no Spotify integration in Shortcuts at the time of this writing. I believe Andrew does a similar trick when his list actually pulls the URLs of specific pages or playlists he wants to visit:

I haven’t tried it myself, so YMMV. However, here’s another great list of Spotify shortcuts you can try, and here’s a second one that might get you closer to what you’re looking for.

“[I also made] one called ‘Sexy time,’ which dims the lights, dims the phone, turns on Do Not Disturb, and launches a playlist on the bedroom speakers.” – Techsticles

Great name Kinja. Very suit. It was fun. The commands are simple, but you must remember to play the music you “get” from the playlist. Also, I gave you a six-minute window for sexy time, after which your device turns off Do Not Disturb (and your epic soundtrack).

“I created Easy Button. I have set several shortcuts for different times and places where I am on a daily basis and want to enable or disable something. Then I installed a shortcut that launches the correct one based on time and place. “ – Dalmuti

Oh my God. I have a vague idea of how you can get this to work, but I would love to see screenshots of your shortcut. Could you convey a little? I would be happy to add more details to this article. Otherwise, here’s my quick takeaway: I think you’ve nested “If” commands to compare your inputs – time and your location – to set values. Since different variables are the same, depending on where you are and what time it is, you have configured the output to trigger different shortcuts. Right?

These are all the main shortcuts I saw in the comments on my post. If you have others you’ve worked on, leave them in the comments on this post and I’ll take a look! And if you need some inspiration to get started with shortcuts, here are some helpful resources (and a few shortcuts to try):