The Shortcuts app, which is installed by default on iPhone, is an app that can automate various things.
This time, we will explain what you can do with the iPhone Shortcuts app, the conditions for the automation function, and how to actually create recipes.
You can automate operations using the iPhone Shortcuts app.
With the iPhone Shortcuts app, you can create a single shortcut by combining multiple operations and app actions.
You can automatically execute the registered action with just one tap of the created shortcut.
What you can do with iPhone shortcuts
What you can do with the shortcut app is:
- Open apps in order
- Automatically send messages
- Image resizing
- convert pdf to image
There are a wide variety of such things.
Automation function allows automatic execution under specific conditions
The Shortcuts app has a feature called “Automation” that allows you to automatically run shortcuts under certain conditions.
Certain conditions include
- Time (e.g. at 8:00 on weekdays)
- Alarm (e.g. when the alarm stops)
- Sleep (e.g. when you start getting ready for bed)
- Arrival (e.g. when you arrive at the gym)
- Departure (e.g., after leaving work)
- E-mail (e.g. when I received an e-mail from my father)
- Message (Example: When I received a message from my mother)
- Airplane mode (e.g. once Airplane mode is turned on)
- Wi-Fi (e.g. once connected to your home Wi-Fi)
- Bluetooth (e.g. once connected to AirPods)
- NFC (e.g. once you scan an NFC tag)
- CarPlay (e.g. once connected to CarPlay)
- App (e.g. when you open the weather app)
- Wallet (Example: When you touch Suica)
- Workout (e.g. once you start working out)
- Battery level (e.g. when battery level exceeds 50%)
- Charger (e.g. once charging starts)
- Low power mode (e.g. once low power mode is turned off)
- Do not disturb mode (e.g. when Do Not Disturb is turned on)
- Blockage Reduction (e.g. once Blockage Reduction is turned on)
- Sound recognition (e.g. when the door chime rings)
There are things like this.
Create a recipe with iPhone’s Shortcuts app
Here I will explain how to actually create a recipe using the Shortcuts app.
This time, we will create shortcuts that open apps in order.
The author has about 5 mobile-based POI-katsu apps, and some of these apps require you to open the app before they will be counted and you will not be able to get points.
It’s tedious to start those apps one by one, so I use shortcuts to make it more efficient.
If the Shortcuts app is not installed, search for Shortcuts in the App Store and install it.
How to create a shortcut recipe that opens apps in sequence
First, open the Shortcuts app, select the “Library” tab, and tap the “+” in the top right corner.
First, tap “Search for Actions”, enter “app” and select “Open app” to add an action.
Once the action has been added, tap “App” in blue and select the app to open first. (Powl is selected in the image)
When selected, the app name will be included in the action.
Next, we will set the wait time to wait for the app to fully start.
Tap Search for Actions, type Wait, and select Wait to add an action.
When you tap the blue text “1 second”, “-” and “+” will be displayed, so set it to the number of seconds for the app to fully launch. (Set to 5 seconds in the image)
This completes adding the first app.
You can search for an action in the same way and add the second and subsequent apps, but since the shortcut app allows you to use a function called duplication, this time we will duplicate and add the second and subsequent apps.
Tap the arrow icon to the left of “Open 〇〇” and select “Duplicate.”
Verify that the same action has been duplicated.
Next, press and hold the right side of either “Open 〇〇” action and move it to the bottom of the “Wait for 〇 seconds” action.
Tap the blue “〇〇” in the “Open 〇〇” action at the bottom and select the second app. (LINE WALK is selected in the image)
Next, let’s also duplicate the wait action.
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Tap the hourglass icon to the left of Wait for ︎ seconds and select Duplicate.
“Hold down the right side of either of the “Wait for ︎ seconds” actions and move it to the bottom of the “Open 〇〇” action.
Tap the blue “〇 seconds” in the “Wait for 〇 seconds” action at the bottom to set the wait time for the second app. (Set to 6 seconds in the image)
Follow the same steps to add the apps you want to open in order.
Since it is convenient to return to the home screen, we will also add an action to return to the home screen.
Tap “Search for Actions,” enter “home screen,” and select “Go to Home Screen” to add an action.
The shortcut itself is now complete.
Finally, select the shortcut name and icon, and add it to the home screen.
Tap “Go to Home Screen” at the top and select “Rename.”
*The name at the top is the last action added, so it may be a different name.
To set the icon, tap the shortcut name at the top and select “Select icon”.
Choose the color and symbol you want as an icon, then swipe down on the screen to close it.
After changing the name and selecting an icon, add a shortcut to the home screen.
Tap the shortcut name at the top and select Add to Home Screen.
Tap “Add” on the top right to add a shortcut to your home screen.
Tap the shortcut icon added to the home screen to launch a shortcut that opens apps in sequence.
Source: iPhone Mania
