Following up with the news that watchOS apps are gaining App Shortcuts support, here’s a quote from Apple’s WWDC’23 developer session “Spotlight your app with App Shortcuts” transcript (line breaks added):
Secondly, App Shortcuts are now supported on HomePod.
This requires an App Shortcut enabled app to be installed on a companion iOS or iPadOS device. Unlike running on iOS or iPadOS, where App Shortcuts can result in launching the app, on HomePod, App Shortcuts may not launch the app at all.
For example, by simply having my Demo app on my iPhone, I can say to my HomePod, “Hey, Siri. Summarize my groceries list with Demo.” HomePod support for App Shortcuts is available from version 16.2 and newer.
When designing App Shortcuts for HomePod, consider that it is a voice-only device. Make sure you are returning clear and concise dialog to be spoken by Siri, since there won’t be any corresponding visuals.
The IntentDialog class has an initializer that takes both a “full” and “supporting” string. The HomePod will use the “full” dialog, while visual devices like iPhone will use the alternate “supporting” dialog. This allows you to be more brief when a user can reference a visual output, but remain fully descriptive if no screen is available.
I’m glad Apple (and developers) are putting in the work to match the dialog to the device – and that HomePod is getting even better Shortcuts support this year.
