In Apple’s Shortcuts app, a shortcut is a quick way to get one or more tasks done with your apps. The Shortcuts app lets you create your own shortcuts with multiple steps. For example, build a “Surf Time” shortcut that grabs the surf report, gives an ETA to the beach, and launches your surf music playlist.
An action — the building block of a shortcut — is a single step in a task. Mix and match actions to create shortcuts that interact with the apps and content on your Apple devices, as well as with content and services on the Internet. Each shortcut is made up of one or more actions.
An Automation is a type of shortcut that’s activated by an event, rather than manually. You can use the Shortcuts app to set up a personal or home automation and then have the automated shortcut run when you arrive or depart, when you change a setting on your iPhone, at a time of day, and much more.
Here’s what’s new in Apple’s Shortcuts app for the most recent versions of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS.
This update includes new Books app actions, enhancements to existing actions, and reliability improvements to the Shortcuts editor and library.
New Actions
Books
• Open Book, Play Audiobook, Change Book Appearance, Change Page Navigation, Change View in Books, Open Collection, Search in Books, and Turn Page are now supported
More
• Switch Between Wallpapers sets the current wallpaper on iOS
• Get Wallpaper returns all of the wallpapers added to the Lock Screen on iOS
Updated Actions
For those building custom shortcuts, some actions have been updated:
• Set Wallpaper Photo can now set photos for wallpapers that use iOS 16’s new widgets and customization options
• Get Battery State can now check charging state (charging, connected to charger)
• Edit Calendar Event can now set invitee status (declined or accepted)
• Find Calendar Events can filter events by number of attendees
• Find Health Samples can now return sleep phases (core, deep, REM) on iOS
• Set Parked Car now accepts locations other than the current location
• Speak Text runs more reliably when a shortcut is invoked as a part of an automation
• Start Timer now prompts to select a duration when set to “Ask Each Time” and run via Siri
New in iOS and iPadOS 16.1, macOS 13.0, and watchOS 9.1
This update adds support for Share Sheet shortcuts on macOS, and includes new actions and reliability improvements to the Shortcuts editor and library.
New Actions
Clock
• Open Tab is now supported
• Create Alarm, Toggle Alarm, Get All Alarms, and Start Timer are now supported on macOS
Reminders
• Open Smart List is now supported on iOS and iPadOS
Safari
• Get Article using Safari Reader is now supported on macOS
More
• Get Current Focus enables checking current Focus status
• Configure Focus Filter actions allow setting Focus Filters for apps on macOS
• Search in Shortcuts allows starting a search in the Shortcuts app
Updated Actions
For those building custom shortcuts, some actions have been updated:
• Send Email now supports rich text on macOS
• Health actions can now run when the Health app is not installed
• Configure Focus Filter actions now support Ask Each Time
• Get Current Weather now correctly returns weather information when run from a Home automation
New in iOS and iPadOS 16.0 and watchOS 9.0
This update adds support for App Shortcuts to allow you to run shortcuts with no setup, and includes new actions and updates to the Shortcuts editor and library.
New Actions
Safari
• Open Tab Group, Create Tab Group, Open View, Find Bookmarks, Open Bookmark, Find Reading List Items, Open Reading List Item, Show/Hide Reader in Safari, Close Tab, Create New Tab, Create New Private Tab, Find Tabs, and Open Tab are now supported
Maps
• Get Parked Car Location and Set Parked Car are now supported
Clock
• Open Tab is now supported
Notes
• Delete Notes, Pin Notes, Open Notes Account, Change Notes Setting, Open Notes View, Create Folder, Delete Folders, Move Notes to Folder, Open Folder, Add Tags to Notes, Create Tag, Delete Tags, Open Tag, and Remove Tags from Notes are now supported
Mail
• Open Mailbox, Search in Mail are now supported
Voice Memos
• Search Voice Memos, Open Folder, Open Recording, Delete Folders, Play Recording, Create Folder, Change Playback Setting, Delete Recordings, and Create Recording are now supported
Reminders
• Create List and Search in Reminders are now supported
Files
• Search in Files is now supported
More
• Configure Focus Filter actions allow setting Focus Filters for apps
• Create Shortcut, Delete Shortcuts, and Open Folder are now supported with Shortcuts
• Optimize File Size of PDF compresses the images inside a PDF, resulting in a smaller file size
• Remove Image Background removes the background of images, keeping the subject only
• Set Flashlight can now control the flashlight on watchOS
• Set Personal Hotspot toggles the status of Personal Hotspot on iOS
Updated Actions
For those building custom shortcuts, some actions have been updated:
• Find Calendar Events filters events by invitee status (declined or accepted)
• Create Note and Append to Note now support Rich Text
• Find Notes no longer has a limit to how many notes can be retrieved at a time
• If conditionals now correctly match the “ends with” condition
• Shazam It can recognize music when a shortcut is invoked via Siri
• View Content Graph has an improved interface for content graph browsing
Shortcuts editor
For those building custom shortcuts, some changes have been made to the shortcut editor:
• New keyboard shortcuts are available on iPadOS for faster editing
• Icon search lets users find shortcut icon glyphs by name
• Quick controls in the shortcut document menu include: Rename, Choose Icon, Duplicate, Move, Add to Home Screen, and Export File
• Next Action Suggestions can now be dragged and dropped into a shortcut
• Improved performance and reliability
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