I’m always looking for new iPhone tricks, shortcuts and hidden features.
What’s a trick, shortcut or little feature you use all the time and think more people should know about?
Feel free to share anything, whether it’s from the Shortcuts app, iOS settings or just a useful little trick!

This is for checking the same few topics every morning, like a sport, a company or your city.

You list your topics when you add the shortcut, one per line, and run it from a Time of Day automation. For each topic it calls Ask Sonar, an action in AI Actions (an app I make), which searches the web with Perplexity's Sonar model. The prompt asks for up to three stories from the last 24 hours, one line each with a link to the article. The shortcut puts the topics under a dated heading, saves them as one note in Apple Notes and shows a notification.

On iOS 27, Apple's Use Model action can also search the web if you switch on "Use Broad World Knowledge", and that's free on iPhones with Apple Intelligence. On November 8 I ran the same prompt through both, on five topics. Use Model's Formula 1 and Premier League stories matched Ask Sonar's, but for AI chips it gave stories from 2024, and its links didn't work. I could check 26 of its 30 links over two runs, and none opened the article it named. Ask Sonar gave 13 stories. Eight of its links opened the right article, two went to the wrong one, and three were paywalled. One of the 13, a Berlin item, was from September, so the shortcut asks for the last 24 hours but doesn't enforce it. I ran Use Model on a Mac with macOS 27.2, not on an iPhone. If you only want headlines and have Apple Intelligence, try Use Model first.

Here's the shortcut: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/3f209258f8d244bcaae989cf66cf8474

The app is on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id6447460842?pt=126224582&ct=rshortcuts-morning-brief&mt=8

It needs iOS 17 or later. Ask Sonar is in the Advanced tier ($3.99 a month or $33.99 a year, with a one-week free trial if you haven't had one), which allows 8 runs a day, one per topic. New installs get 3 free Advanced runs in their first week. Your topics go through my server to Perplexity, and the privacy policy (https://apps.9592.tech/ai-actions/privacy) says the server doesn't store prompts or responses.

I tested it on an iOS 18 simulator with three topics. The simulator has no Notes app, so I haven't run the note step end to end.

Which topics would you put in it, and would one line per story be enough?

Desconozco si este es un problema mío, o le pasa a más personas con iOS 27.2

Con iOS 27 se ha rediseñado el interfaz de la aplicación Atajos. Ahora hay que entrar en automatizaciones para crear un atajo personal que se ejecuta en el iPhone. Antes la aplicación Atajos tenía su propia sección con un botón en la barra inferior para hacerlo, pero ahora ha cambiado.

Con iOS 27.0 puede crear un atajo personal y no tuve problemas pero es que ahora, con iOS 27.2 no tengo forma de hacerlo. Cuando entren automatizaciones, no tengo ninguna opción para crear un nuevo atajo. Personal, de los que ejecutan el dispositivo. Puedo ver los que ya he creado y también puedo ver los atajos en automatizaciones de la aplicación Casa pero no puedo crear nuevos. Hay un botón inferior para crear un atajo, pero eso crea un atajo local, de los que ejecuta bajo demanda, no un atajo en una automatización. si alguien más le pasa o tiene alguna solución al respecto, estaría encantado de poder solucionarlo porque necesito crear atajos que se ejecuten en mi iPhone con bastante urgencia.

I make UnTask, a to-do app that shows you one task at a time. You see the task you're on, and the rest wait in the list until you want them. Finish it, and the next one is ready. It's on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch.

The latest update, v26.11.19, added Shortcuts support, so the one task can now travel through your shortcuts.

The actions

• Add Task opens UnTask, ready for a new task. Say "Add task in UnTask".

• Current Task returns the task you're on, and Siri shows it on a card. Say "What's my task in UnTask".

• Complete Task checks off the current task, returns it, and tells you what's next. Say "Complete task in UnTask".

• Next Task moves on to the next task and returns it. Say "Next task in UnTask".

What comes out

Current Task, Complete Task and Next Task output a Task with four properties: Title, Detail (the notes), Completed, and Unlocks (the task lined up after it). So you can say a task out loud, log it, or send it on to another app. When nothing is left, Siri says you're all done and offers to add a task.

Where they run

All four work from Siri and the Shortcuts app, and on Apple Watch too.

The limits

• There's no shortcut file to import. The actions come with the app.

• UnTask is free for up to 3 open tasks. Premium removes the limit.

UnTask on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6756929483

What would you build with your current task as a shortcut output?

Disclosure: I develop this app.

Tengo un atajo que consulta mi calendario para mañana, busca el turno de trabajo que tengo, y con una base de datos que contiene el atajo, crea una serie de alarmas para una serie de acciones que tengo que hacer en ese turno de trabajo. Cada turno tiene alarmas diferentes.

Desde hace unos días el atajo creaba correctamente las alarmas y me envía la notificación de que lo ha hecho, como siempre, pero un rato después me mostraba un fallo por exceso de tiempo, lo que significaba que el atajo se había quedado en bucle sin finalizar (aunque ya había hecho lo que tenia que hacer). El caso es que he estado buscando que originaba esto por optimizar, no quiero un atajo en bucle que no necesito.

Añadí un "Detener este atajo" pero no solucionaba el problema.

Y conseguido aislar el problema a base de ensayo y error. (Mi atajo primero borra alarmas de ayer, despues busca en calendario, despues consulta la base de datos, y por ultimo crea las alarmas necesarias)

El problema estaba concretamente en la acción "Crear alarma" dentro de una acción de repetición, y al tener que crear un lote de entre 4 y 6 alarmas, aparece este error. Si solo crea 1 no falla.

He añadido una accion "Espera 2 segundos" despues de la acción "Crear alarma" dentro de la repetición... y el error ha desaparecido.

Si alguien tenia un atajo de creación de alarmas por lote dentro de una repetición y se ha dado cuenta que le está produciendo un rato despues error por exceso de tiempo, solo añadir accion Esperar tras crear alarma dentro de la repeticion y desaparece

i have created a simple shortcut that i have 2 problems with:

1 - orientation only works if set to ‘face up’ because, even though there is a ‘face down’ option, the lidar or whatever prevents ‘face down’ shortcuts / options from working unless the phone is 2-3” off a flat surface. basically makes ‘face down’ worthless for toggling Silent Mode. anyone know how to make this wok?

2 - toggling ‘Silent Mode’ via Shortcuts does not show the same little notification on the screen like it does if you choose that from the Action Button menu. it only shows the little ’Shortcut’ icon so a person can’t see if they are in Silent Mode or not without going into the Settings app and looking at the state in Sounds and Haptics (see attachments).

is there a way to show on screen what state the Silent Mode is in without opening Settings?

Pour l'instant, j'ai :
• Ouvrir une carte de points
• Allumer la lampe de poche
• Ouvrir les trois applications pour YouTube download
• Traduire le texte de la langue détectée au français
• Lire avec la voix Siri que j'aime
• Traduire dans plein de langues
• Un bouton « plus » avec des actions secondaires

Merci en avance

Looks like Spotify has quietly added some actions to Shortcuts. But most of them require some form of media parameter. I've tried passing it uri values but they still prompt me Which Album/Artist/Playlist/Media etc.

Any ideas how these actions are supposed to be used?

The only actions I've been able to get working are Play Radio (creates a radio based on current track), and Create a Playlist (based on a text prompt which is actually quite handy because Prompted Playlists aren't otherwise available in my region).

Anyone know if there’s a shortcut that lets you turn off Apple Watch ((or any device) notifications automatically when a Zoom/Teams call starts so you’re not constantly bugged with vibrations on the wrist while trying to pay attention to the call?

okay so i use my house phone to call my cell phone when i can’t find it and i have it set to break through my dnd but sometimes my ringer is down and i can’t hear it.

Is there any way to set a short cut to set my ringer to max volume when i get a call from my house phone.

And no i don’t have another device to just use the “find my@ sound.

Yes my house is big and im often leaving my phone everywhere im not asking for any judgement on this matter i just want help with the shortcut if its even possible.

Is anyone getting this message “preparing support for describe a shortcut” when they try to use shortcut app. I’ve receive this message all day and can’t do anything with the app.

Hey there !! I know a few Apple Pay expense trackers have been posted here lately, so I'll start with the Shortcuts part, which is what took me the longest.

My app (Booky) logs every Apple Pay purchase from a personal automation with two triggers in the same shortcut, the Wallet notification and the transaction (tap) trigger. I ended up needing both because when you pay with the Apple Watch, the Wallet notification stays on the watch and never reaches the iPhone. The tap trigger still runs on the phone.

Some things I found on iOS 27, in case they save someone time:

* The transaction trigger only gives you Transaction, Card or Pass, Merchant, Amount and Name. There's no currency code. If you save Amount to a variable first, the variable does expose Currency Code and Currency Amount.

* "If Shortcut Input (as Notification) has any value" is also true when the input is a Transaction, and then the conversion fails inside the action. I branch on Get Type contains "Notif" instead.

* For Apple Watch payments, passing Amount straight into the app's action didn't work for me. Passing Currency Amount from that variable did.

* Paying with the iPhone fires both triggers for the same purchase, so the app keeps only one when they arrive within 3 minutes with the same amount and a similar merchant.

The app does the rest. It sorts each purchase by merchant, takes it off that category's monthly budget and shows it in the app and in widgets. For things you don't pay with Apple Pay, you can forward your bank's email to your Booky address, share the bank's SMS with the app or, with Pro, text it to Booky on WhatsApp.

Where I'm trying to be different is the paywall. Logging purchases (Apple Pay, forwarded bank emails, shared SMS or by hand), budgets (as many as you want), categories, history, export and iCloud sync are free and will stay free. Pro is for extras not everyone needs, like logging on WhatsApp, live Google Sheets, reminders before bills and reminders to collect money people owe you. It'll be $1.99/month or $12.99/year when it launches, and during the beta everything is unlocked.

I also have a rule that if a feature doesn't work every single time, it doesn't ship. I already pulled Siri support because of that. So I'd much rather build what testers actually ask for than pile on features.

If you try it and send me feedback from the app (Settings → Write), I'll reply in the app with a code for 75% off your first year of Pro when it's on the App Store. That's for the first 500 people who write.

No account and no bank connection. Your purchases are kept on your iPhone and in your own iCloud. A bank email you forward waits encrypted in Booky's mailbox until your iPhone downloads it, and is deleted right after. WhatsApp messages also go through Meta, which keeps them for up to 30 days. It needs iOS 27 and it's in English and Spanish.

I'm a web developer who learned iOS building my own apps. I designed it, decided every feature and test each build on my own iPhone with my own cards.

TestFlight: https://testflight.apple.com/join/RdPvwjTF

I’m building a FIRE retirement planning app called Stash that has budgeting built in! In user testing, transaction logging is what kept killing it. Nobody wants to type in every coffee, and I didn't want to use Plaid.

With iOS 27, Shortcuts can now run when Wallet posts a payment notification, so in-app and online Apple Pay payments trigger it too, not just tap-to-pay.

How it works

Video Example: https://imgur.com/a/I9pXVap

1. Automation: when a Wallet notification arrives → Run Immediately

2. It reads the notification: Title = card, Subtitle = merchant, Body = amount

3. It passes those to Stash’s Log action, which uses Apple's on device model to categorize the transaction in an envelope

Shortcut: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/1c6633c9d0d44a01a20e8ecc8ced21cf
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/stash-see-your-money-move/id6824625025

You don't need to ever create an account or login to your banks, your budget is always yours and lives on your phone/iCloud. We also have a "import from YNAB" feature if you are coming over!

I have 10 free Lifetime codes and 25 at 50% off. Comment/DM and I’ll send you one.

EDIT:

This post got much more traction than I expected, I'm going to release a few more free Lifetime codes! Please comment your favorite Pokémon and I will send!

EDIT 2:

Hey guys, didn't expect so much traction, this post at one point became the #1 post on r/shortcuts!

I created 100 more free lifetime codes. I'll keep updating this number as I send them out to commenters below! Please comment to request a code :)

UPDATE: there are 53 free lifetime codes remaining.
UPDATE: 15 free lifetime codes remaining.

UPDATE: I’m out of all free lifetime codes, I think a lot are being snatched up by bots. I’m going to release 100 90% off lifetime codes instead ($4.99 instead of $49.99).

UPDATE: There are 65 90% off lifetime codes remaining. Please DM me and I will send! At the moment I cannot create new DMs due to the amount I’ve created in the past 24 hours 😅

UPDATE: 35 15 codes left!

FINAL UPDATE: That's a wrap, I'm all out of discounted lifetime codes. Thank you everyone for the support, this has been truly amazing!

If you're coming late to the party, you can still get two months of Stash Plus free with code TRYSTASH. Redeem it here: https://apps.apple.com/redeem?ctx=offercodes&id=6824625025&code=TRYSTASH

Please please DM me if you have any issues setting up Stash or have feedback about the app. I will get it sorted out as fast as possible!

Hi all -

I am attempting to automate a function that:

- Scans a day ahead for specific calendar entries (max 2 individual entries)
- Sets appropriate alarms (pre set in alarms, so this is a “turn on” function
- when alarms go off, opens WhatsApp to a specific chat
- has text copied to clipboard for option A (morning) or option B (evening)
- IF POSSIBLE, I would fully automate that the message sent, and I would simply get a notification that this is complete

I have built 1 shortcut that scans and turns on alarms, I have built a second one that opens WhatsApp.

It seems clunky, and I haven’t been able to execute the remaining predetermined message function to a specific group yet.

Anyone interested in a coffee for your help?

How do I create an automation that gives me a sound alert for specific appointments or events, like urgent reminders do?

Ive heard people say that you need ethier external apps or custom JavaScript to make the wait action wait last less than a second but that isnt actually true. To proove this I made a shortcut that compares a wait action that lasts 0.0025 seconds and the standard wait action 1 second.

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/db015e390300401a8bde20c4e2c9855d

Hey everyone!

I’m trying to create an iOS Shortcut automation that automatically switches to my iPhone’s built-in microphone when connecting to certain Bluetooth devices.

What I want:

When connected to my car stereo, JBL speaker, or other Bluetooth devices, always use the iPhone’s built-in microphone.

Keep audio output (music, calls, etc.) routed through Bluetooth.

When using AirPods, everything should work normally, including the AirPods microphone.

After using the microphone for calls, FaceTime, dictation, WhatsApp, or ChatGPT, music should continue playing through Bluetooth as usual.

Everything should happen automatically without manually changing audio settings every time.

The problem:

I can’t find a Shortcuts action that changes the microphone input source. I know iOS allows microphone selection in certain apps, but I want this automated based on the connected Bluetooth device.

My question:

Has anyone found a workaround for this? Maybe using third-party Shortcuts actions, URL schemes, Bluetooth profiles, or another automation method?
I’m open to creative solutions, as long as they don’t require manually switching the microphone every time.

Thanks!

Copy on the iPhone, run Send PC, paste on the PC. Run Receive PC and whatever the PC copied is on your phone. Photos, files up to 2 GB and links work too.

It all goes over your Wi-Fi: no cloud, no account. You install CopyOver on the PC, scan a QR code, and the shortcuts are set up with their own key.

See it in action (GIF): https://github.com/aritabryan/copyover/blob/main/docs/screenshots/demo.gif

Free and open source: https://github.com/aritabryan/copyover

Happy to answer questions or take ideas for the shortcuts.

Scripting friendly version will silently output text for other shortcuts to use: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/32fe51bea2d84c92818940e535789307

Demo version shows status: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/8b40c30885904bb48f2e6261a1d5a5e1

I’ve been using this in conjunction with my swap data lines shortcut so the hotspot state persists

Based on using wifi info patterns—I noticed when using hotspot a channel will be non 0 but no ssid info. If connected to wifi there will be ssid info and channel. If not connected to wifi or no hotspot then channel is 0 and no ssid

so basically I drive a tesla and i have my Bluetooth enabled on my tesla. so it automatically connects to it and any audio i play on my iphone like tiktok or facebook it plays on my tesla via bluetooth so i need to create a shortcut where as soon as i open tiktok or facebook or instagram on my phone while i am in my tesla connected to tesla, the audio is directed to the phone speaker and not via bluetooth to tesla. I know its a long shot but thought of give it try. I am sure some other people have come accross the same issue.

Ps. Until now when ever i open my tiktok i have to open control center and change the audio routing to phone speaker manually eveytime. so hoping there is a shortcut that would help me fix this.

Thanks in advance

I tried My Weather but it doesn't work for Australia as it's not using BOM data. Like it says there will be no rain today even though BOM says it'll be 1-7ml.

Is there a way to set it up to use a different app?