How to use the iPhone Shortcuts app

The Shortcuts app has lengthy been one particular of Apple’s lesser-applied offerings, and that is a shame, simply because it can supercharge your iPhone’s capabilities. With a single tap, you could turn on your clever lights, raise the temperature on your clever thermostat, and commence an energetic playlist—and that is just one particular instance.

Like the macOS version, the mobile Shortcuts app is primarily an automation tool that can combine numerous tasks into one particular action that you launch with a tap or a word to Siri. Introduced in 2018 alongside iOS 12, the app is constructed into the iPhone’s operating method, so you will obtain it on one particular of your property screens or in the App Library. From the app’s Shortcuts tab, you can commence manually creating your personal shortcut, or set up a prebuilt one particular from the integrated shortcut gallery or the net.

1. Get your self in the mood to concentrate

The Reading Mode shortcut begins by asking you how lengthy you’d like to study for. David Nield

A excellent way to commence employing Shortcuts is to set up one particular created by a person else—you can normally open the tool up to see how it performs and adapt it to your requirements if vital. Go to the Gallery tab in the app, appear for a shortcut known as Reading Mode, and set up it by tapping the plus icon on the shortcut’s thumbnail.

Reading Mode is a good instance of how shortcuts combine various actions: It turns on Do Not Disturb, switches to dark mode, opens your reading app of option and even begins the Apple Music playlist you specify. Tap the 3 dots on the shortcut entry when it is installed to customize any of these actions.

two. Edit pictures in batches

Shortcuts can swiftly apply the very same edits to various pictures. David Nield

As you get far more confident with Shortcuts, you can commence creating your own—it aids to assume about tasks and groups of actions you do repeatedly on your telephone. To make a shortcut from the Shortcuts tab, tap the plus icon in the leading correct corner and hit Add Action to get began.

[Related: Edit gorgeous photos right on your phone]

If you want to, say, automate a series of photo edits you do once again and once again, pick out Apps, Photographs, then Choose Photographs. From the All Actions list, choose Resize Image as the subsequent action, and enter the preferred size. The final action is Save to Photo Album. Tap Completed to save your shortcut.

That is a standard instance, but there are lots of other image editing actions readily available, which includes the capability to take away backgrounds and rotate pictures, so you can combine them as you have to have.

three. Use ChatGPT with Siri

Place ChatGPT on your iPhone, with enable from Siri.

It is tricky to steer clear of ChatGPT at the moment, and the AI chatbot can be applied in tandem with Siri on your iPhone. Initial, register a cost-free account with ChatGPT developer OpenAI, then grab an API important from its internet site. API (application programming interface) keys are basically identification codes that let one particular plan (Shortcuts) operate with one more (ChatGPT).

With the important in hand, open the SiriGPT shortcut in your iPhone’s net browser and tap Get Shortcut. In the Shortcuts app, choose Set Up Shortcut, paste or variety in your API important, and pick out Add Shortcut.

If you’d like to launch this shortcut employing your voice, you will almost certainly want to rename it to a thing simpler—do so by pressing and holding it, then selecting Rename. Launch the shortcut with a tap or a voice command, and ChatGPT will be at your disposal.

four. Let a person know when you will be property

Shortcuts can text on your behalf. David Nield

1 of the added benefits of operating shortcuts on your iPhone rather than your Mac is that it supplies a significantly far more precise repair on your place. That can come in handy for all types of automations.

Head to the Gallery tab and appear for the Residence ETA shortcut. When you set up and run it, it’ll operate out how lengthy it should really take you to drive property, and then text your estimated time of arrival to the speak to of your option.

[Related: 14 tricks for getting more out of the underrated Apple Maps app]

Open the shortcut from the Shortcuts tab by tapping on the 3 dots on its entry, and you will be capable to simply alter the address the shortcut defaults to, as properly as the speak to(s) who get the message about your ETA.

five. Appear back on your day

You can pick out the inquiries and responses to enable you reflect on your day. David Nield

If you tap Gallery in the Shortcuts app and use the search function, you should really obtain a shortcut known as Reflect on the Day that does specifically what its name suggests. You will be asked to answer inquiries about how your day has been, and you can also set targets for tomorrow.

Your responses will be stored in the Notes app, so you can track your progress more than time, and the shortcut will also set reminders for the subsequent day so you do not overlook your targets. To edit the inquiries the shortcut asks you at the finish of each and every day, open it up by tapping the 3 dots on its thumbnail.