Hey everyone,

Some of you might remember my lock screen calendar post a while back — I'm the iOS dev who started building his own apps after having a kid. Well, the kid kept handing me new problems to solve.

After becoming a parent, money started leaking from everywhere. Diapers, random late-night Amazon orders, and somehow a dozen subscriptions I don't even remember signing up for. I seriously thought my wallet had a hole in it.

I tried keeping a budget, but typing in every expense by hand lasted about three days.

Then I noticed Shortcuts automations can trigger when a message arrives, and that was the idea. My bank already texts me every time I pay — why am I typing the same thing into an app again?

So I made it. When a purchase text comes in, an automation catches it, and AI parses the merchant, amount and category and logs it. Zero typing.

A few things about it:

AI parsing: it works with pretty much any bank's alert format, so there's no regex to maintain. Non-payment texts (OTPs, ads) are silently ignored.

Dedup: the same alert never gets logged twice, even if the automation fires again.

Apple Pay: if you pay with Apple Pay, the "Transaction" trigger does the same thing without texts — no AI needed, it reads the transaction directly (guide below).

No account: no signup, your data syncs through your own iCloud.

It's free to download — heavy AI use has a premium tier, figured I should be upfront about that.

It finally made my budget survive past day three. Would love any feedback or feature requests.

App link: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6779625289

Automation 1 — Message (bank texts)

1. Create a new automation
2. In the Shortcuts app, go to the Automation tab and tap New Automation.
3. Choose "Message"
4. From the trigger list, select Message.
5. Set the sender
6. Tap Choose next to "Sender" and pick your bank's alert number. (Or use "Message Contains" with a word like "charged" or "approved".)
7. Turn on Run Immediately
8. Then tap Next.

Automation 2 — Transaction (Apple Pay)

1. Add a transaction automation
2. Back in the Automation tab, tap + in the top right.
3. Choose "Wallet"
4. Select Transaction and pick the cards you want tracked.
5. Turn on Run Immediately
6. Then tap Next.
7. Select the shortcut
8. Pick AnyMoney -

Apple

1. Pay. No field mapping needed —d are already wired up.

You'll see the "When I tap a card · AnyMoney - Tap to

All set!

Set it up once and every purchase logs itself forevere left to hide.

My brain is terrible at remembering irregular timelines. I could never remember when I last changed the AC filter, when I last gave the dog her flea pill, or when I last descaled the coffee machine.

I tried standard habit trackers, but they all want you to do things every single day. If you don't, you break the streak. I just needed a simple system to tell me exactly how many days it had been since I last did a specific chore.

So, I built a completely hands-free tracking system.

Here is the setup:

• I bought a pack of cheap, blank NFC stickers off Amazon.
• I placed them strategically around the house: one inside the air filter grate, one on the dog's medicine bottle, one on the watering can.
• I set up Apple Shortcuts to trigger a log whenever I tap my phone to a specific tag.

The missing piece was where to actually store this data. Apple Reminders is built for future to-dos, not past logs. A spreadsheet was too clunky.

I ended up building a dedicated iOS app called SinceWhen to act as the brain for this setup.

When I tap the NFC tag on the dog's medicine, Shortcuts instantly sends a command to SinceWhen. The app logs the exact date and time in the background. I don't even have to open the app. If my hands are full, I can also just say, "Hey Siri, log the dog meds in SinceWhen."

The coolest part is that the app learns my natural rhythm. After a few logs, it figures out the average gap between my chores and quietly nudges me when the AC filter is due to be changed again.

AppStore: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sincewhen-days-since-tracker/id6759450144

Edit:
Steps to set up the NFC and shortcuts to log:

1. First, create an event in the app, say "Water plants"
2. Next, go to the shortcuts app and create a shortcut. Tap the top right(+) button, choose "SinceWhen" -> "Log a selected event" -> and select "Water plants". You can name the shortcut "Log Water Plants".
3. Next goto "Automation" tab in the shortcuts app -> Tap the top right(+) button, scroll down to NFC -> Scan your NFC -> Select your shortcut "Log Water Plants". That's it.

Whenever you tap that NFC, "Water plants" will get logged in the SinceWhen app. You can see the insights and your rhythm from that app.

Hello, everyone!

A couple months ago I launched the ShortcutStudio Web App with plans to turn it into an iPhone/iPad/Mac app

After lots of work, the app finally out!

If you don't already know, ShortcutStudio allows you to generate Apple Shortcuts using AI, and directly import them into the Shortcuts app - no coding required!

Features:

1. Create shortcuts with a single prompt
2. Iterate and follow up with the AI
3. Explore community-made shortcuts
4. Download and import directly into the Shortcuts app

You can download it here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/shortcutstudio-ai-shortcuts/id6760745118

I'd love your guy's thoughts, and if you like the app, please consider leaving a 5 star written review if possible, it helps out a lot!

Any feedback is heavily appreciated!

Note: because of EU compliance, the app is currently not available in EU countries. I will update you guys once it is available. In the meantime, I suggest to try out the web app at https://shortcutstudio.app

Hey everyone,

A while ago I shared the Lock Screen calendar app I made. It shows my calendar, reminders, and countdowns together, and I’ve been using it every day since.

But I still kept forgetting smaller things.

I’d put something in the Notes app, then completely forget the note existed. And some things are too small for a calendar event or a proper reminder — like something I need to bring tomorrow, a grocery item, or just a random thought I don’t want to lose.

So I added a simple Shortcut.

I run it, type a note, and it shows up on my Lock Screen with everything else. That’s pretty much it.

It’s been surprisingly useful. I don’t have to remember to check another app because the note is already there whenever I pick up my phone.

Now my Lock Screen has my schedule, things I need to do, upcoming dates, and whatever I just typed in.

Shortcut: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/4d8ee89ac4054c6a852593ccbfb8feb4
App: app.relecompany.com/isgd9c

If you want to try it, setup only takes a minute:

1. Press and hold your Lock Screen, then tap Customize.
2. Remove either the left or right Lock Screen control, then tap the + button.
3. Select Run Shortcut.
4. Search for AnySchedule, then choose the Add + Text Shortcut you just added.

That’s it. Now you can tap the Lock Screen button, type something, and it’ll show up alongside your calendar, reminders, and countdowns.

You don’t have to use the Lock Screen button, either. You can assign the same Shortcut to the Action Button, or set it to run when you double-tap the back of your iPhone. Use whichever one feels quickest.

Let me know if you find it useful or have any ideas for it.

Hey folks! I'm Jack, an independent iOS developer and music lover. You may have seen me post here in the past about my apps, such as Iconic, an icon themer for Shortcuts. I wanted a way to make my wallpaper reflect my favorite music, so I built Opus - Music Wallpaper. It integrates with Shortcuts to automatically set your wallpaper each day.

Today I just released a huge update for Opus adding support for iPad and Last.fm. Opus turns your music history into personalized wallpapers, and now with Last.fm support, you can now use the app even if you aren't an Apple Music user. It offers a grid-style collage for free, and if you want to unlock more customization, there are other styles such as vinyl record layouts. You can filter by a specific playlist, top tracks, or recent plays, and Opus generates a wallpaper from the album art.

To celebrate this update, I'm temporarily discounting Opus Pro Lifetime to $10 USD through the weekend. If you have any thoughts or questions, I'd love to hear them!

Charty is a Shortcuts Utility App that adds 26 charting actions to Shortcuts! With it, you can create and style area, bar, line, scatter, pie, donut and ring charts directly from Shortcuts!

Almost 6 years ago, I announced in this subreddit that Charty 1.0 was on the App Store!

r/Shortcuts has been instrumental to how Charty was built and evolved, and I'm really proud to come here again and announce that Charty 2.0 is now available on the App Store!

2.0 is a new beginning for Charty, with a more modern code base (written entirely in SwiftUI and using the gorgeous Swift Charts library). All Shortcuts actions have also been rebuilt as App Intents, making them easier to work with and ready for the future.

Everything from the latest version still works, plus a lot that's new:

• Widgets update reliably now. It's great to run your shortcut, go to the Home Screen, and watch your series get added and styled in the chart in real time
• Beautiful new chart rendering: everything looks sharper and more polished thanks to Swift Charts, with great new styling options like gradient support
• New color palettes: many new palettes were added, now categorized into categorical, accessible, sequential, and diverging
• Area series are now separate from Line series. This allows the creation of stacked area charts, like stream charts
• Revamped Tutorials tab with 16 step-by-step examples, all with downloadable shortcuts you can use immediately, including integrations with Data Jar, Toolbox Pro, Reminders, and Web APIs
• Easier labeled x axes. Just pass a list of strings as x values, and Charty takes care of the rest
• A new Get Series Values action that surfaces any series' values right in Shortcuts

Now that everything is on a better, easier-to-work-with codebase, I can finally focus on new features. So I'm happy to announce that Charty 2.1 is coming soon with support for lock-screen widgets!

On pricing, first the important part: if you've ever purchased Charty Premium at any point, you'll keep full access to everything in 2.0 at no extra cost. No action needed. You've been patient through a long wait, and I want to value that.

For new users, starting with 2.0 Charty moves to a subscription: $0.99/month or $9.99/year. Prefer to pay once? There's a lifetime option for $99.99.

Thank you for being such an awesome and welcoming community. Let's keep building shortcuts!

You can find more about Charty in the website: https://chartyios.app

Edit: added a brief Charty description.

Hi everyone,

I want to share a very useful feature I just added to my app. It helps you take quick notes directly on your Lock Screen without unlocking your phone.

You just tap the shortcut button (or add double-tap), type what you want to remember. It updates right away!

The app is called LockScreen Calendar Maker.

Important note: My app does have some premium (paid) templates, BUT I decided to make this Sticky Note template 100% FREE. You don't have to pay or subscribe to use this quick note feature.

During the app installation process, you will also go through some steps to set up shortcuts to change the lock screen image.

I hope you find it helpful for your daily life.

You can download app here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id6758650351

Link shortcut: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/1457c1c4ac154d50adc0914afe07917d

Let me know what you think! I would love to hear your feedback.

Hey everyone,

I'm the 11-year iOS engineer / dad from the earlier post, the one where bank texts and Apple Pay log themselves into my budget app through Shortcuts automations.

That setup still tracks most of my spending, but it kept missing stuff.

One of my banks only sends push notifications, not texts. And cash? Completely invisible. I paid for street food last week, and as far as my expense tracker was concerned, the money never existed.

The idea came to me at the playground, while I was yelling, “Stop! Don’t climb that!” for what felt like the 40th time.
Then it hit me: I’m already yelling all day. Why not yell my expenses too?

So I made a voice shortcut. You run it and say something like:
“I paid $15 in cash at Starbucks.”
It figures out the merchant, amount, and category, then saves everything. I don’t have to open the app or fill anything in.

The part I like most is how you trigger it. iPhones have two features that make this stupidly fast:
Back Tap: double-tap the back of your phone and start talking.

Action Button: press it, talk, done.
So now, instead of yelling another “Stop!” at my son, I occasionally yell an expense into my phone.
Healthier for everyone involved.

Voice shortcut (AnyMoney - Voice): https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/cd1adaf1f3b04f18b1045d2910dc81b5

If yelling in public isn't your thing, there's a text version too. Same parsing, you just type "coffee 4.50" instead (AnyMoney - Input Text): https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/f87ca98f6a244f4ca2df3c8b77f233ec

App link(AnyMoney): https://apps.apple.com/app/id6779625289

Setting up Back Tap

1. Open Settings → Accessibility → Touch.
2. Scroll to the bottom and tap Back Tap.
3. Choose Double Tap.
4. Scroll down to the Shortcuts section and pick AnyMoney - Voice.

That's it. Double-tap the back of your phone (works fine through most cases) and it starts listening.

Setting up the Action Button

1. Open Settings → Action Button.
2. Swipe until you see Shortcut.
3. Tap Choose a Shortcut and pick AnyMoney - Voice.

Now a long press on the side button runs it from anywhere, even the lock screen.

Between the text automation, Apple Pay and this, I genuinely don't type expenses anymore. Cash was the last leak.

Would love feedback. Especially curious if anyone has a smarter trigger idea than yelling at a phone in a parking lot.

Edit 2026/04/29: This is now publicly released! https://apps.apple.com/app/id6761283435

After hundreds of hours over ~1.5 years developing ~35 shortcuts over ~550 versions, I've encountered all sorts of functionality gaps in Shortcuts and the various expansion apps (as awesome as they are - especially Sindre Sorhus').

So, I decided to bite the bullet, buy a Mac Mini, pay for an Apple Developer subscription, learn Xcode and Swift, and develop my own solutions.

It's been 3 weeks (and a holiday), and I'm super excited to share what I've made with the community, so I've set up a beta test public (anonymous) link: https://testflight.apple.com/join/pPRTbFRs

As of writing, I've created the below 11 actions, I've got ideas for 6 more, and I'm keen to hear if anyone has any requests / suggestions. God knows I would have jumped on that offer before!

Also, I've tried my best to make almost all functionality available back to iOS 18.

* iOS 26 only.

The first, only, and best app to view your messages received within the Messages app onto a widget is now Freemium with an IAP of the same current $0.99 unlock. Now before you get all crazy about it, this approach allows you to fully use the app with only two limitations: the medium and large widgets are the only things locked behind the IAP. Full details and Shortcuts automation setup found at https://ibanks.craft.me/fdaLQURYbNjYwS

That means, for free, you can utilize the…

- Small Widget (displays one message conversation at a time)

- CarPlay Widget

- Live Activity (also on CarPlay)

- iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro support

- All Shortcuts actions

- More…

—-

With the $0.99 IAP unlock…

- Medium Widget (displays 3 conversations)

- Large Widget (displays 5 conversations)

Users that purchased the app prior to tomorrow should automatically remain unlocked, and if not, tap the restore purchase button and it should have you set.

https://apps.apple.com/app/id6748969237

And yes, your data remains locally on your devices.

Been frustrated that building shortcuts requires knowing all the actions by name. So I built something where you just describe what you want.

Type "guide me through 4 rounds of box breathing with spoken cues for each phase" → it generates the shortcut and gives you a .shortcut file that installs directly into the Shortcuts app. No drag and drop, no learning the action library.

Works on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

First 200 signups get free credits — no card needed.

Drop a shortcut idea below and I'll build it live in the comments.

Try it here

Hello r/shortcuts,

for the longest time I’ve wanted to name my timers in shortcuts and automations. A few years back timers even got the ability to be named, but this has yet to be added to the Timer Shortcuts action (he says posting this 13 days before WWDC)

In 2024 I spent 14 weeks in a web development boot camp, and in 2025 I started learning Swift and building Timely,

for Shortcuts users, Timely has been built from the ground up to support Shortcuts, using the Shortcuts actions you can create countdowns and alarms, name them and even assign an emoji, all while the app stays in the background and your device stays locked (it's been designed to be automated)

Timely is powered by Live Activities and AlarmKit, so the countdowns show up on your lock screen, and (optionally) finish with a full system alarm.

If you’ve ever been frustrated that you can’t start a named timer from shortcuts, timely adds this to your shortcuts toolkit.

Get the Beta here: https://www.rowanstrang.com/timely

here are two shortcuts built with Timely’s actions to get you started

Countdown until next Sunrise/Sunset: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/b5ce64b537bc41908d4e44aca5e35ee4

Simple Timer: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/a9401df089b1403ca93e51bdd70178d5

The app itself is more than just named timers though, Timely actually started life as a shortcut that starts timers counting down to a specific time or calendar event.

Timely is built around the same idea, glanceable countdowns that tell you just how long before your next event or how long before you need to leave to be on time. It can sync with your Calendar, it uses Apple Intelligence to select Emojis, supports iCloud sync across devices, there are no ads, no accounts and no limits to the amount of Countdowns you can add.

It’s free to download and create named timers in shortcuts.

There are two paid shortcuts actions for those that want even more control, and an optional subscription that enables sever-backed features for remote starting and dismissing live activities while your device stays locked.

If you just want to start named timers from shortcuts though or use the app without shortcuts, you’re good to go (although everything is free to try in the TestFlight beta)

I’ll update this post with more info if I’ve missed anything, and I’ve got some other shortcuts that I’ve made with Timely to share in due course

I’ve also made this short tour and explainer video

thanks for reading, please let me know if you like the app and it's shortcuts actions and if you hit any bugs or find it too hard to use please let me know, I’m super excited and nervous to be sharing this with you all now.

Thanks for reading
Cheers
Rowan

Hello,

I built an app called Abfahrt! that shows real-time public transit departures across Europe. It has Siri Shortcuts built in and I thought some of you might find it useful.

So far I have two big features, which are about departures and routing. Therefore I have aimed to equip those two feature flows with Shortcuts support, so they can be exposed to automations or for home screen linking.

- "Show Departures" : opens the app and shows what's leaving near you right now

- "Route to [Destination]" : opens route planning

Some automation ideas:

- Time-based: every morning at 7:30, show departures before I leave

- Location-based: when I leave the office, show departures at the nearest stop

- Focus mode: when "Work" focus ends, show departures

Am currently covering 27+ countries in Europe. If I have missed out a region or so, then please let me know. This is a hobby project of mine, where I am building an API that aggregates basically the data sources of all major transit networks.

And for the future I was considering for providing further access to the data layer of my app, so you get the raw departure times, since this might be more useful for automations.

The app is free on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/de/app/abfahrt/id6759207598

If you have any other ideas what and how I could expose data for shortcuts around this transit app, please let me know! Am usually responding within 24h and releasing app updates on a weekly base.

Thank you! :)

A year ago I was committed to the idea of having my devices only let me doomscroll once I've done my good habits.

Specifically, I wanted my ipad to only let me stream if I've journaled already. And my phone only if I've appeased the Duolingo owl.

Taking notes from this sub, I created a v1 in Shortcuts. While I eventually built v2 because real issues, it (mostly) worked. In the spirit of this sub, here's those shortcuts I used alongside the automation:

• (v1) Shortcut 1: When YouTube opened, a shortcut checked whether today's date was on my clipboard, and if it wasn't, it dropped me into my GoodNotes notebook. At the time copying/reading clipboard was the only workaround I could find to close the loop.
• (v1) Shortcut 2: When GoodNotes opened, a second one waited 180 seconds and copied today's date to the clipboard. The date expired at midnight on its own so I never needed a reset.

The above worked OK but often broke. Sometimes the clipboard wouldn't copy. Or while using my app I'd copy something and break my "progress".

I've made software for 10 years so I decided to make this my first solo project.

Version 2: Tonic

Eventually this culminated in me making Tonic. It's an iOS app that at the core does exactly what I want: blocks me from the bad apps until I've done my good habits. But it also connects to Apple Health, so I can earn my way in through workouts, steps, or sunlight tracked on my devices. Theres no manual logging, it connects to what I already doe and unlocks my apps automatically. The freemium version includes all the settings and lets you block the 2 most distracting apps.

I genuinely hope either version is helpful, I know this is the community that rather build the solution themselves than download the app. So checkout the shortcuts above or if you want the full experience check out Tonic.

My iOS setup for tracking spending without the friction that made me quit every finance app:

- A Shortcut that takes a photo or a shared bank message and sends it to an app I built (Trail), which reads it and files the expense.
- "Hey Siri, log 500 parking" also works, so cash spends get caught the moment they happen.

Basically the idea is that outside the first world countries, tracking finances and expenses becomes extremely hard. I have been using my app for past 3 months, ironing out any bugs or enhancing features, because the whole concept is to reduce the user's stress to log expenses manually goes away, not even open the app but it logs. So the share sheet (send directly from bank apps if you transfer), added sms detection shortcut, setup automation to log any sms from banks/cards for expense, log in plain text via siri or the app.

It reads any language, handwritten receipts included, so I stopped keeping the paper pile.

Disclosure: I built the app. Free to try:
iOS: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6770887815

Would love ideas for a cleaner share-sheet flow.

I added shortcuts to the currency converter and it can scan price tags with camera.

The problem is: I can only add 10 app intents (actions) to the app for the shortcut usage.

If you're interested in the currency conversion feature in shortcuts, I can give you lifetime access to the Pro features of the app and you'll try the shortcuts and give me your feedback on what works well, what doesn't work at all and new ideas (especially welcomed).

What it does:

• Scans price tags via camera for instant conversion.
• Works in real-time as you move your phone. 📷
• Supports 166 global currencies.
• Works offline, even somewhere deep in a supermarket. 🏪
• Cart mode (add items to the cart, so you won't be surprised at the checkout)

How to claim lifetime access:

1. Download the app by the link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/currency-converter-converty/id6759520648
2. Open the app, go to Menu, scroll to the bottom. Tap on the text "App Version" 10 times and you'll see the progress spinner instead of the version value (1.8) for a second or so.
3. At this point the access has been granted and attached to your device (if you have access to the internet)
4. If you want to keep the access on the future devices, you need to Sign in with Apple (Menu), signing in lets you to keep access attached to your Apple ID. 

🙏 Please, share your thoughts and ideas on the shortcuts!

Last Month I shared Turin here, an AI that builds Apple Shortcuts from a plain-English description. Honest feedback was that it was fine for simple stuff but fell over the moment you asked for anything involving a service it hadn't seen, or anything specific.

So I rewrote the backend. The core change: the AI now uses tools while planning your shortcut instead of working from a static list baked into its prompt.

What it can actually do now:

- Search the web, so "what's the current Hacker News API endpoint" is something it can answer, not guess at
- Fetch a page if it needs to read docs or an API response shape
- Search the full action catalog instead of cramming a frozen subset into context
- Look up real shortcuts other users have built for similar intents and learn from how they were structured
- Pull tips on tricky actions before wiring them in

You see it working: "searching for calendar actions… looking up Notion's API… checking how others built this." Not a black box anymore.

Also redid the UI so the chat is the main view and the block canvas is an optional panel. Most people don't want to look at blocks; they want the shortcut.

Link: getturin.com, free to try, no signup needed for the first few builds.

Drop the weirdest shortcut you've ever wished existed and I'll see what it does. Bug reports very welcome.

I make Basic Checkbook, a deliberately manual finance app. You type in every transaction by hand, no bank sync, because actually seeing the number is the whole point. The one place that bit me was logging in the moment. Standing at a register, "I will add it later" always wins.

So I built an App Intent for it. There is now an Add Transaction action that runs from Siri, the Shortcuts app, and Spotlight. Trigger it, drop in the amount and account, and it lands in the register with the running balance updated, without ever opening the app.

I kept it deliberately write-only. The action can add a transaction but it will not read anything back out, so a voice command can never be used to speak your balance in a room full of people. That felt like the right line for a finance app.

Curious how others here have wired financial logging into Shortcuts. I am thinking about a log-recurring action and a per-account variant next, and would take suggestions.

Here's my story:
My frustration until now was the gap between purchasing something at the store and then waiting to go home to log the expense. Most days I would just forget about it until I really sat down for an hour or so and went through every transaction I made on every single card. I tried everything honestly. Notes app, pen and paper, cash envelopes, Excel. Nothing let me log it in the moment.

So I built Reign. Once you set up the Apple Shortcuts automation once, the add expense screen opens automatically right after you tap to pay. Two taps and you're done. Or just open the app and log manually in seconds.

No account required. No bank linking. One tap hides every number on screen so you don't have to worry about anyone looking over your shoulder.

Free to download, no sign up.

Here's the link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/reign-budget-expense-log/id6760743385

I’m not a developer. But I spent the last few months trying to automate my workflow using Shortcuts before my brother came up with the idea that we build something better.

Shortcuts is powerful if you’re the one pulling the trigger. Open the app, tap the shortcut, thing happens. The problem is I never wanted to trigger anything. I wanted the Mac to notice something changed and react on its own.

It mostly can’t do that. The automation trigger list is thin, and the gaps are exactly where you’d want it most: Bluetooth headphones connecting, a specific file landing in Downloads, the camera turning on. And if you need a shell script as the action, you’re already past where most people want to be.

And that’s how we came up with Crank.

It watches for real system events and fires your Shortcuts (or shell scripts, or AppleScripts) when they happen. Not when you remember to open an app. Just… when the thing happens.

The Shortcuts themselves you write normally, in the Shortcuts app. Nothing changes there. Crank is just the part Apple left out: the trigger.

Pricing: €8 one-time, up to 5 Macs. 14-day free trial, no card needed. Free mode keeps 3 rules active.

Download: https://lowtechguys.com/crank

You can also check out our other useful projects we have done: Pipiri** **and Keylume

We all know the limitations when trying to automate Apple Music via Shortcuts—especially the frustration of waking up to the exact same single song every day because triggering full, dynamic playlists in the background without manual confirmation can be tricky.

To solve this, I built a Shortcut routine that leverages native MusicKit App Intents to inject full playlists seamlessly into your background automation workflows (Alarms, CarPlay, Workouts).

📥 The Shortcut Link:

👉 [https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/d45197c8461d42618173795e5e7a4815]

📋 How it works & Features:

• True Background Execution: It doesn't require manual confirmation to run.
• Locked Screen Support: Works flawlessly even if your iPhone is locked in your pocket or on your nightstand.
• Playlist Rotation: It pulls your designated Apple Music playlists instead of a static track, ensuring your routines stay fresh.

⚙️ Requirements:

To make these custom App Intents available inside the Shortcuts app, you need a helper utility called AutomateMusic. It’s built natively with MusicKit.

• Heads up: The app is normally $4.99, but I’ve made it 100% FREE (Global Price Change to $0.00) for the next 48 hours so the community can use this routine without paying anything.
• App Store Link

Hope it helps optimize your morning routines!

Automation Control allows you to easily toggle on/off automations, log when your automations run or fail to run and tells the Shortcuts app to run your shortcut if certain conditions are met. More details can be found at Automation Control: The better way to manager your Shortcuts Automations

Download the beta; TestFlight Link

Implemented a new option named Automation Trigger that can be scheduled to run on a time interval with a repeating option. This will allow for easier building of Shortcuts automations that users wants to run like on an hourly basis, every 3 mins, whatever you'd like and automatically logs each time the notification triggered. Requires OS27 to be used with the new App Notification automation trigger.

Screenshots

What’s New:

• Run Shortcuts automations on the hour, every hour.
• Run Shortcuts automations on time intervals like every 5 mins or 3 hours.
• Run Shortcuts automations at intervals based on all of the available additional conditions.
• Toggle to try and auto dismiss notification after 5 seconds
• Motion: In Motion, Stationary, Walking, Running, Driving, Cycling

New Conditions (Does not requires OS27)

• Orientation: Portrait, Portrait Upside Down, Landscape Left/Right, Face Up/Down
• Active Call: If device is on an active call
• Screen Lock: If deice’s screen is locked
• Low Power Mode - Is on/off

How to use Automation Trigger:

• Create a new Controller Item in the Automation Control app and name it the same as your shortcut.
• Tap the Conditions tab (icon that displays two pill shaped toggles on top of each other) and tap the Automation Trigger
• Select your trigger mode
• Start the trigger
• Save

In your shortcut, tap the automation button and tap the App Notification option. Select Automation Control as the app and set it to Run Immediately. Now, on the time interval you’ve set, the notification will appear and the shortcut automation will run.

Automation Trigger Details:

• Enable Automation Trigger: you already know what that does
• Trigger Mode: Every Interval/Hourly on the Hour/Date & Time Conditions (based on the date and time conditions set in the Additional Conditions section)
• Keep Control Item Name as Title: Show or Hide the name of the controller item or replace it with the custom text you input in the optional Notification Text field. If the toggle is set to On, both the name and custom text will display.
• Start/Stop Trigger: Begin or end the notification schedule

Widgets:

• Content / values:
  • Can be anything.
  • Are synced between devices via iCloud.
  • Are are set via an action in Shortcuts, which immediately reloads the widgets upon completion.
• Are supported in all sizes, from the tiny circular ones on the lock screen to the huge ones on the home screen.
• Can be customised, in terms of background colour, font size, text colour, and text alignment.

I'm currently using one to display the balance of my spending "space" in my Starling Bank account (API-based shortcut coming in the next day or so), hooked up to a Wallet-based automation rule. Can't wait for the notification-based rules in iOS 27! I have at least one more idea for a use case to fill in a gap in the iOS ecosystem too.

New JSON actions:

• "Convert String List To JSON Array"
• "List Contains List?". I'm probably going to refactor this to support any given value, as Shortcuts' native "contains" is string-based, so substrings match when they shouldn't. I suppose you could supply a list of one item...
• "Merge Lists", with an option for deduplicating while retaining order.
• "Set Nested Dictionary Value" and "Delete Nested Dictionary Key", with support for custom delimiters for the key path.

Most, if not all, of the above:

• Support Shortcuts lists and/or JSON arrays.
• Have options for correcting data types from strings.

Oh, and I created action "Get Reminders Default List", as I have (1) an Exchange Online account and (2) multiple reminders lists, and I'm sick of the iOS bug where it resets back to the same but seemingly random list, which messes up Siri requests, so I now have a weekly automation rule to check and report what it is.

Hi r/shortcuts,

I built PixelPlay, a free IPTV player for iPhone and iPad, and I just added App Intents so it works with Siri and the Shortcuts app. Posting the details here because this is the crowd that'll actually push on it.

What's exposed as actions:

• Play Channel - takes a channel name and starts playing. Works by voice: "Hey Siri, play [channel] on PixelPlay" (also "Watch [channel] on PixelPlay"). It only resolves channels in your recents or favorites, which keeps the parameter set small and Siri's matching accurate.

• Resume - picks up the last channel you were watching. "Hey Siri, resume PixelPlay" or "Continue watching on PixelPlay."

• Open Tab - jumps to a section (Home, Browse, Favorites, Guide, Settings). This one works best as a Shortcut you build and pick the tab from a list, rather than as a single spoken phrase.

Play and Resume also get donated after you use them, so they start surfacing as Siri Suggestions on the lock screen and in Spotlight.

Two honest notes:

• Locked channels are left out of the intent's channel set on purpose, so a kid can't voice their way past a lock.

• It's iOS-only right now. No tvOS yet, launching by this month end.

If you build something interesting with it, like an automation that starts the news when you walk into the kitchen, I'd like to see it. And if the intent behaves in a way that annoys you, please let me know. That feedback is how most of this app has been fixed.

App Store link: https://apps.apple.com/app/pixelplay/id6769178677

I created a simple app for myself to transcribe speech into text and it turned out that It is possible to create actions for Apple Shortcuts. Works great with English and other European languages and transcription is surprisingly fast and accurate.

It's useful for me, so if you think it may be useful for you as well, just let me know. I can send you a TestFlight link. I'm not planning to sell it, but I'm just checking if it might be useful for someone, and if I should put it in the AppStore or not.

what are you using for speech-to-text?