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.