In the WWDC 26 session “Discover new capabilities in the App Intents framework,” App Intents Engineer Moe Mehrabi says the following:
App Intents is a framework that lets you express your app’s actions and content to other parts of the system in ways that feels natural and deeply integrated.
From Siri and the Shortcuts app, to Spotlight and Widget, App Intents is the engine behind some of the most delightful experiences on the Apple platform.
And, is now a key pillar of Apple Intelligence.
In our 2027 releases, driven by your feature requests, we’re bringing more control, more flexibility, and a significantly smoother developer experience.
Explaining what App Intents even is to potential clients has always been a challenge, because it’s much more than Shortcuts (which I’m more heavily associated with) – always helpful to have clear language from Apple to use.