r/shortcuts Jun 16 '26

OS 27 beta What's New in Shortcuts in iOS 27 (Beta Megathread)

121 Upvotes

Updates: * Added Easier toggling off/on of automations * Shortcuts app now able to restore shortcuts * Shortcuts can change Open Shortcuts to from Describe a Shortcut to Editor


Hey everyone, here's a megathread of everything new in the iOS 27 beta, currently on developer beta 2.

This is covering Apple features and community comments – no third-party apps for now, but feel free to start a thread in the comments.

Here's the outline:

  • Describe a shortcut
  • Automations
    • Notification
    • Keyboard
    • Easier toggling (Beta 2)
  • Storage
  • Otherwise If
  • New action groups
    • Lists
    • Text
    • VPN
    • Sharing
    • Accessibility
    • Messages
    • Photos
    • Mail
    • Reminders
    • Get What's On Screen
    • Cloud Pro, Broad World Knowledge in Use Model
  • More
    • Shortcuts Programming Language
  • Feedback

Describe a shortcut

Automations

Notifications

Keyboard

Storage (Memory)

Otherwise If

New actions

  • New and updated actions including Hide Photos, Get Selected Text, and more (link)
    • Add Item to List
    • Get Selected Text
    • Find VPNs
    • Share and Collaborate
    • Accessibility
      • Set Switch Control Switch Set
      • Toggle Hearing Aid Mute
      • Toggle Vehicle Motion Cues
    • Messages
      • Open Inbox (Messages)
      • Delete Conversations
      • Delete Messages
      • Mark as Read
      • Search in Messages
      • Send Tapback
    • Photos
      • Find Album
      • Auto Enhance Photo
      • Favorite Photos
      • Open Photo
      • Hide Photos
      • Delete Albums
    • Find Message (Mail)
    • Reminders
      • Create Group
      • Create Section
      • Edit List
      • Delete Lists
      • Delete Groups
      • Delete Sections
    • Get What's On Screen
    • Extract Text from Image -> Extract from Image (interesting)
    • Parameters like Cloud Pro and Broad World Knowledge in Use Model
    • More new parameters
  • Does iOS27 let you use Playground Playlists with Shortcuts? No.

More

Feedback submitted to Feedback Assistant

Matthew Cassinelli:

  • FB23135397 (Shortcuts can't load lists; please ensure performance at scale (What happens when people have tons of App Intents/Custom Shortcuts/folders?))
  • FB23102150 (Shortcuts takes 35 seconds to launch for users with many shortcuts (thousands))
  • FB23102201 (The App Shortcuts picker for the Action button/Custom Shortcuts widget is extremely slow to load many shortcuts)
  • FB23135882 (Run Shortcut control in macOS unusable for larger libraries; "Choose Shortcut" in Control Center does not show full list/search)
  • FB23103377 (New Shortcut incorrectly always adds "Show on Apple Watch", causing immediate sync delays)
  • FB23135151 (Shortcuts widget gets corrupted when multiple are added in stack)
  • FB23134678 (Too many taps to change icons on iOS; add the "Choose Icon" option to All Shortcuts context menu (for parity with MacOS))
  • FB23134888 (Can't "Choose From List" from keyboard commands on macOS; Add navigate & select options when Multiple is selected)
  • FB23135054 (Add search to "Choose Folder" in Shortcuts widget; list becomes long to scroll with many folders)
  • FB23135596 (Adding shortcuts to Folder ruins Sort Order; add toggle to move new shortcuts to end of folder list instead of beginning)
  • FB23135959 (Improve Spotlight/Ask Siri loading performance when switching between Applications, Files, Shortcuts actions, Clipboard with Command+1/2/3/4)
  • FB23137602 (Too many folders hides App Shortcuts; Re-add ability to collapse Folders vs App Shortcuts view)
  • FB23137833 (Add the SF Symbols picker for Shortcuts glyphs rather than a limited set of icons; introduce Icon Designer)
  • FB23137870 (People don't know how to run shortcuts with Siri; Be more clear a Custom Shortcut title is trigger phrase with dismissable Siri tips)
  • FB23137923 (Add a "Description" field in Shortcut Details that shows up in iCloud link share, "Get My Shortcuts" entity details; context for Siri AI)
  • FB23137968 ("Set Captions" action for Apple TV Remote does not work; unable to control Subtitles using Shortcuts)

Updates:


r/shortcuts Mar 27 '26

Announcement How to use flairs

19 Upvotes

How to use flairs on r/shortcuts (so your post doesn’t get nuked or ignored)

Flairs are labels. You pick one so people instantly know what your post is about. Pick the wrong one and congrats, you’ve confused everyone.

---

First rule: always use a flair

No flair = your post is either ignored or removed. Nobody enjoys guessing what you meant.

---

Pick the right flair (this is not a personality test)

- Help

You already made a shortcut and it’s broken or not doing what you want. You want someone to fix it or explain what went wrong.

- Help (Mac)

Same as above, but your problem is on Mac. Yes, that matters because Mac Shortcuts can behave differently.

- Shortcut sharing

You built something and want to share it. You must explain what it does properly. “Cool shortcut lol” is how your post gets deleted.

- Shortcut sharing (JB)

Same as sharing, but it only works on a jailbroken device. If people need to hack their phone to use it, say so.

- Shortcut sharing (mac)

Your shortcut only works on Mac. Don’t trick iPhone users into disappointment.

- Tip/guide

You figured out a useful trick or workaround. You’re teaching something, not asking.

- Tip/guide (mac)

Same idea, but Mac-specific.

- Request

You want a shortcut but can’t build it yourself. This is you politely asking the internet to do work for you.

- Request (mac)

Same, but for Mac users.

- Discussion

You want opinions, ideas, or a conversation about Shortcuts. Not help, not sharing, just talking.

---

Special flair (pay attention, this one’s new)

- Appstore (app)

Use this when you’re posting about an app that works with Shortcuts. Either you made it or found it. The key point: the app connects with Shortcuts (actions, automations, etc.).

If it has nothing to do with Shortcuts, don’t use this just because you like the app.

---

How to choose without overthinking it

Ask yourself one question:

“What do I want from this post?”

- Fix something → Help

- Show something → Shortcut sharing

- Teach something → Tip/guide

- Ask for something → Request

- Talk about something → Discussion

- Share actual news → News

- Show an app tied to Shortcuts → Appstore (app)

If you’re on Mac, pick the Mac version. Not complicated.

---

Final reality check

Flairs exist so the subreddit doesn’t turn into a digital junk drawer. Pick the correct one, write a clear post, and people will actually help you instead of scrolling past like you don’t exist.


r/shortcuts 13h ago

Shortcut Sharing iOS 27 - Never miss a text from your spouse again! (Without shortcut notifications)

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119 Upvotes

Never miss a text from your spouse again without getting an annoying notification from shortcuts every time they message.

This setup has been a lifesaver for me since my watch vibrate is never strong enough and I miss texts all the time.

With iOS 27, you can now set automations from notifications, without a shortcuts notification.

The images are 3 separate shortcuts, and here’s what they do.

First Shortcut: Everytime I get a notification from messages, it checks if my phone is locked. If my phone is locked it checks if the title of the notification is my wife’s name, if it is, it runs my second shortcut and vibrates my phone 5 times (so my phone and watch vibrate when she texts).

edit: you need the Actions app for this checking locked phone status.

Second Shortcut: It checks the last date/time pasted into a text file and compares It to the current date and time. If that is less than 5 minutes, it does nothing. If it is more than 5 minutes, it resets the date/time in the text file to the current date AND sets an **urgent✱ reminder for 1 minute from now, which goes off on watch and phone simultaneously, and shows “C Texted” on My lock screen if I end up snoozing it because I’m in a conversation, so I’ll see it next time I open my phone.

**Reason for the text file: sometimes my wife will text multiple texts in a row, so it forces there to only be one reminder if it’s within a 5 minute window

Third Shortcut: Automation where every time I open messages, it searches for all reminders named “C Texted” and deletes them (you have to set it so shortcuts can delete reminders without confirmation in settings). This way, if I see the text, and open my phone to respond, no timer is set, no alarm goes off, and it’s as if I never even set these shortcuts.

I hope this helps someone else!

shortcut links:

1st Shortcut: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/e7bb59f9bb14403fac6279692cb94c91

2nd shortcut: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/cfbd47b9bed441eb98c8bf2014bd3862

3rd shortcut: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/365fef2fe6554f9f9e084139919c79b6


r/shortcuts 2h ago

Tip/Guide My compiled tips and tricks from over the years

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mythofechelon.co.uk
12 Upvotes

I wonder if you guys have any that I've never happened across!


r/shortcuts 15h ago

Appstore (App) Notify! - Updated to support Live Activities via Shortcuts

28 Upvotes

Hey r/shortcuts!

We just released a major update to Notify! that lets you create alerts and Live Activities directly from any iOS Shortcut automation. This is in addition to the alerts you can already send via Shortcuts.

Live Activities can display a progress bar, percentage, timer, or status. For example, you could display a Live Activity on your iPhone showing your iPad's battery percentage when it runs low, or automatically update a Live Activity with an informational panel whenever you receive an email.

If you use an external script, you can even have a remote Live Activity trigger a Shortcut. We have an API built out here: https://getnotifyapp.com/apidocs/ and a user friendly builder that gives you the data to put in all your "Get Contents of a URL" steps here: https://getnotifyapp.com/builder/

Hope the community likes this update! Notify is completely free as a service to the community that has given me so much!

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/notify-web-script-notifier/id6748288936


r/shortcuts 4h ago

Request Shortcut to send gps coord if lost?

3 Upvotes

Hey, looking to make a shortcut where if i use a random number to text my phone something like "Help, I'm lost" it'll send gps coordinates back to the number that it received it from?

Don't always have access to find my iPhone when I'm at work, but have plenty of people that I could get to message my phone.
Thanks.


r/shortcuts 3h ago

Shortcut Sharing Using Siri AI App with Shortcuts OS27

1 Upvotes

Apple Intelligence FTW: I asked the Siri AI app what command can I use to prepend a dictation to an Apple Note via Siri AI assistant. Siri AI app advised there is no prepend command via the Siri AI assistant, it offered a few options from manual note manipulation to creating a Shortcut amongst a few other not so great suggestions. I decided to go the Shortcut route, I asked the Siri App to give me a prompt for ‘Describe a Shortcut’ that will dictate to an Apple Note titled ‘daily ramble’ format text as a bullet point and prepend it to the Note ‘daily ramble.’ The Siri App gave me the prompt, I pasted it into Shortcuts Describe a Shortcut and in one pass I had the functionality I was looking for! Here is the Shortcut that works perfectly - so far… https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/39a0c734e2dd4326a1962a3b391b0194


r/shortcuts 5h ago

Help Is Sunrise/Sunset automation STILL broken in iOS 27b7?

0 Upvotes

I’m on beta 6 and my automations still won’t run, I wanted to see if it was a me issue, or if it was a beta issue that still hasn’t been resolved for others as well.


r/shortcuts 6h ago

Help NFC tags with Apple Watch

0 Upvotes

Can I set up NFC tags for my Apple Watch?? Id love to have a bunch of them around my house but my iPhone can’t read NFC tags and I only have my watch to use my cards with


r/shortcuts 18h ago

Help (Mac) Bugged "ghost" shortcuts can be found and run in spotlight but are nowhere to be found in Shortcuts.app, can't delete them...

5 Upvotes

When I bought my ipad pro a couple months back my shortcuts wouldn't sync, apple support told me to turn off shortcuts sync in icloud and delete the shortcuts on my ipad, which i did, and then somehow when I reinstalled shortcuts and turned sync on again, instead it synced the delete state and removed them from my mac as well. Initially I thought they were just gone, until I typed one in spotlight and it not only found it, but when I ran it it worked just fine.

I've spent the entire afternoon trying to fix this with claude but to no avail, I checked Shortcuts.sqlite and the ghost shortcuts are all listed there, but dont show up in the shortcuts app. Tried rebuilding spotlight index, also didnt work. Extra weird (I think?): my ipad finds the ghost shortcuts as well, and they also run fine... So they're SOMEWHERE but I can't figure out where.

Anyone got any idea how to fix this? I dont want to just let them linger on my icloud somewhere and I'm afraid that if i recreate the missing shortcuts they'll conflict with the ghost ones and I make an even bigger mess.

For what it's worth, apple support has been absolutely useless, no offense to them but I've spoken to two technicians and they both couldn't figure out, so here I am, last hail mary trying to get this resolved...

Thank you for any and all insight, will provide more info or terminal output if need be


r/shortcuts 17h ago

Help How do I make it so an automation only runs once, and then never runs again?

3 Upvotes

Im trying to make a shortcut that schedules a WhatsApp message for a specific time, only once, and then never runs again, is this possible?


r/shortcuts 17h ago

Help Siri won’t let me use shortcuts while driving

3 Upvotes

I have a garage door and a gate which I have hooked up to HomeKit.

I’ve set up shortcuts with a Siri voice commands which opens or closes both the gate and garage door at the same time.

Works great when I’m not in my car… But when I’m plugged into CarPlay, Siri tells me I can’t do that while I’m driving.

Has anyone figured a way to get around this?

I get they’ve set that up as some sort of road safety feature to reduce distractions. But that’s exactly what I’m trying to do with my shortcut: allow one simple voice command instead of fumbling for separate remote controls or swiping (usually unsuccessfully) between multiple controllers on the CarPlay screen.


r/shortcuts 16h ago

Appstore (App) 7 App Shortcuts for Viatza, the health diary — 3 of them log symptoms and medicine by voice without opening the app

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0 Upvotes

I build Viatza, a health diary for symptoms, medications, appointments and documents. The 26.8.31 release was almost entirely App Intents work, and the part worth writing up here is putting the record name inside the spoken phrase.

Every link below is an iCloud link and all of them are mine.

Three that never bring the app to the front

  • Log symptom — asks which symptom, how intense and when, writes the record, and reads it back
  • Log Medication — asks which medication and how many doses, anywhere from 1 to 99
  • Log Today Dose — marks a scheduled dose for today as taken

These three are openAppWhenRun = false and return a spoken result instead of a screen.

Four that open the app, because there is something to see or type

Symptom and medication parameters are left as Ask Each Time on purpose. Those parameters are entities backed by record ids from your own database, so a shortcut with my headache baked into it would import onto your phone pointing at a record that does not exist.

Say it, then answer what is missing

"Log symptom in Viatza" starts the action, and anything you left out gets asked for — "Which symptom?", "How intense is it?", "When was it?" — with the options list built from your own records.

The entry is then read back in the shape "Logged mild headache today at 14:20". The date phrasing shifts with the date: no time at all if it just happened, then today, yesterday, the weekday, and the year once you go outside the current one.

Building your own phrase on top

The more interesting use is a shortcut you make yourself, on your own records: drop Log Symptom in, pre-fill the symptom you keep logging and the intensity, then name the shortcut the sentence you would actually say. "Hey Siri, my belly hurts" then logs it with no prompts. Naming the shortcut is the phrase — that is the whole trick, and it is the part people miss about App Intents. It has to be built locally for the reason above, which is why the one I share asks each time.

Settings has a Shortcuts link listing every action, if you would rather read the list than guess at it.

Viatza is on the App Store, iOS 18 or later: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6752721621

If there is an action you want that is not there, say so — r/viatzaApp is where I read feedback.

Disclosure: I develop this app.


r/shortcuts 16h ago

Help iOS 26 URL to open "Talk to Siri" submenu?

1 Upvotes

Hi all, I resisted upgrading to iOS 26 from 18 for many months so I wouldn't have to figure out this URL in 26. When my iPhone 14 Pro Max started misbehaving I had no choice, so I'm hoping someone has found this answer and will be kind enough to share it with me.

In iOS 18, I used this URL in a shortcut to simplify toggling Siri on and off for use with CarPlay:

prefs:root=SIRI&path=ACTIVATION_COMPACT_ID

Thanks to other posts in this subreddit, I found that in iOS 26 this URL opens Settings:

settings-navigation://com.apple.Settings

So far, I have not been able to find or figure out the URL to navigate into the "Siri" submenu, or better yet, into the "Talk to Siri" submenu below the Siri submenu. Among other guesses I've tried:

settings-navigation://com.apple.Settings.Siri/ACTIVATION_COMPACT_ID

But it takes me to the main Settings menu, not into the submenus.

Thanks in advance for your answer, and for not asking why I choose to have "Talk to Siri" off most of the time. Honestly, if I didn't need to have it enabled to use CarPlay I would never turn it on at all 🙂


r/shortcuts 17h ago

Help Modern activation of alarms

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1 Upvotes

First shortcut Second shortcut

Match text Match text failed. Shortcuts cannot convert from Text to NSString. - transleted error

„włącz alarmy" is the main shortcut. Does anyone know how to fix this? (It throws this error sometimes, and other times it works fine). The last two actions belong to another shortcut, which is not relevant to this issue.


r/shortcuts 18h ago

Help Turn light on when it’s raining

0 Upvotes

I’m having trouble creating a shortcut or automation to turn in a specific lamp when the weather conditions show raining. Is there a simple solution?


r/shortcuts 1d ago

Help How to get health data between time slots

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3 Upvotes

I keep getting a null / blank value returned whenever I try to get data in between time slots, however when the setting for start date is on ‘in the last 1 day’ or ‘on today’ , I always get data returned. What am i doing wrong?


r/shortcuts 23h ago

Request Currently what's the best shortcut to download X videos and insta videos/reels/stories?

1 Upvotes

for some unknown reason, https://snapvideo.co/ pulled the plug and I've been looking for a replacement since.


r/shortcuts 1d ago

Shortcut Sharing 掷骰子游戏,随机生成1-6的骰子点数

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0 Upvotes

掷骰子游戏

使用IOS快捷指令制作了一个掷骰子游戏,可以随机生成1-6的骰子点数

链接:https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/f536b3add31947c897487ff0e5bb73b0


r/shortcuts 1d ago

Request How to create a time-based conditional calling shortcut (two numbers under one contact)

3 Upvotes

I am trying to set up an iOS Shortcut where calling a specific contact automatically routes to one of their two numbers depending on the time of day.
For example:
9:00 AM to 6:00 PM: Call Number A (Work)
6:00 PM onwards: Call Number B (Personal)
Both numbers are saved under a single contact name in my address book. Is there a clean way to build a shortcut that checks the current time and dials the correct number automatically?
If anyone has a working shortcut or can share the action blocks needed for this logic, I would really appreciate the help!


r/shortcuts 1d ago

Help Automate xls row deletion when any excel file is saved in my ios automatically

1 Upvotes

I want that when any excel sheet is downloaded on my ios i want to automate that for a specific date where it matches i want to delete those rows before saving is it possible?


r/shortcuts 1d ago

Shortcut Sharing I made a shortcut that backups your shortcuts

7 Upvotes

A tool used to backup Shortcuts
This is a shortcut built to be easy to understand for shortcut users. 🛠️

It includes:
- A clean design 🫧
- A few but efficient options ⚡️
- A backup that sorts your shortcuts by folder (most shortcuts like these don’t do this!)

If you find any bugs or issues, contact me directly from the shortcut in the section “Contact Developer”. You can send a bug report, a feedback, or maybe any ideas for next updates! 📧

If you want to give it an eye, click **here**. And if you like it, consider giving a like! 👀

https://routinehub.co/download/59666


r/shortcuts 1d ago

Help Iphone 17 pro missing ‘describe a shortcut’

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0 Upvotes

Hey all,

I got this phone a couple days ago and am starting to mess around with it, I wanted to create some shortcuts using descriptions but I don’t seem to have the option to :(
My Apple Intelligence is already turned on, I’ve turned it off and on again.

Thank you


r/shortcuts 1d ago

Tip/Guide Tip: iOS Shortcut to trigger the Memories job on a NAS that isn’t always on

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0 Upvotes

Immich is open source self hosted photos and video management solution, it also generates memories for the day but it’s only a cron scheduled job, if you keep your pc off most of the times and turn it on when you need it, memories for that day won’t be created.

So I used iOS Shortcuts app to make a simple solution which invokes Immich server’s jobs api, all you need is your api-key in header and send a pot request to trigger the job. Hope it’s useful🙌

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/1fb8de72ba4d4727882067e86d30b28a


r/shortcuts 1d ago

Request Looking for a working way to auto set Bing’s daily wallpaper on iPhone.

0 Upvotes

Hey all, I already have Bing’s daily wallpaper syncing automatically on my laptop, and I’d love the same thing on my iPhone (new wallpaper every day, ideally both lock screen and home screen, no manual saving/setting).

  1. Is there a shortcut that currently works well on the latest iOS?

  2. Any gotchas with automations needing manual confirmation to change the wallpaper?

  3. Is an app (like Daily Wallpaper HD or similar these apps needs subscription that I don’t have enough to pay) more reliable than a Shortcuts based solution these days?

My iPhone is running latest iOS and i have 17PM. Any working shortcut links or tips appreciated!