Author: Matthew Cassinelli

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Automating Devices with Elgato Stream Deck via Apple Shortcuts »

From Daniel Raffel:

I bought an Elgato Stream Deck a few years ago to make it more pleasant to spend so much time on video calls. I was tired of fumbling with keyboard shortcuts and menus to turn my camera and microphone on and off. I also wanted a satisfying way to end video meetings with a physical button press!

After I got the Stream Deck, I learned that I could customize it to control physical devices in my office, such as my Apple HomeKit devices (eg lights, plugs, switches, etc.) I initially set up my Stream Deck to control my HomeKit devices using the Homebridge plugin, but I ran into some annoying issues that never got resolved. Later, I learned about the Shortcuts plugin from Sentinelite, which can trigger Apple Shortcuts from Stream Deck and switched over to it. While using Shortcuts to control my devices was significantly more cumbersome to initially set up, it added some handy features and it is way more reliable.

For instance, I have a complicated music studio, and I’ve always wanted a way to orchestrate turning on and off my studio devices in a certain order with some wait time in between to avoid loud speaker pops. Since all of my devices are connected to smart switches, I created an Apple Shortcut with some conditional logic to achieve this goal. I can now use my Stream Deck to turn on or off my music studio with a single button press, and I can be confident that everything will adjust in the right order. Here’s how the shortcut works…

You can also use AppleScript to trigger your Shortcuts, like I do.

Read the full article.

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Focus Pomodoro Timer Adds New App Shortcuts »

From Focus on Mastodon:

New App Shortcuts 🤖

Focus now offers a comprehensive set of additional App Shortcuts for adding and managing tasks! Plus, App Shortcuts for accessing your activity stats. If you love automation, this update is for you!

View the post and get Focus on the App Store.

 

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Links

If you are in danger, use this iPhone shortcut »

From FuelForTheSole on Instagram Reels:

This iPhone hack could save your life! […] If you ever travel solo, setting up this Shortcuts sequence could save you!

✍️ Here are the full instructions:

1) If you have an iPhone, you will already have the Shortcuts App installed.

2) Open it and create a new Shortcut.

3) Give it a custom name and then choose your icon.

4) The first prompt is the “Send Message” prompt. This will allow you to add any text message you want. Then, choose the recipients you want to send it to (you can add as many people as you want).

5) Then add the “Take Photo” prompt. Set it to use your back camera and toggle off “Show Camera Preview”.

6) Then add another “Send Message” prompt so it will send that photo to everyone on your list.

7) Then add the “Take Video” prompt. Set it to use your front camera and set to start recording immediately.

8) Then add another “Send Message” prompt so it sends the video.

9) Add the “Upload to CloudApp” prompt so your video is saved to your cloud and no one can delete it.

10) Next add the “Get Current Location” prompt. Set the precision to “Best” so that it pinpoints your exact location.

11) Then add a “Send Message” prompt so it will send your location.

12) Add the “Get Maps URL from” prompt. This will link your current location to a map.

13) Add a Send Message” prompt so it will send your map URL.

✨Note: For every single prompt, you need to toggle OFF the “Show When Run” button. This allows the prompts to work automatically without you having to intervene.

14) Now click the down arrow icon and add this Shortcut to your home screen. Place this icon on its own screen on the first page so that it’s easy to find.

15) If you ever feel that you are in danger or that someone is following you, just press the Shortcut icon on your home screen. Your phone will automatically text everyone on your list, it will take a photo of what’s in front of you, a video of what’s behind you and it will send your exact location and link to a map of where you are.

Watch the video.

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How to migrate from custom intents to App Intents »

From Tyler Hillsman on Mastodon:

Fairly late in the summer, but if this helps anyone, I just discovered a Tech Talk (not a WWDC session) that digs into migrating custom intents to App Intents. Very very useful and I feel silly for not knowing this was out there the whole time:

https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/tech-talks/10168

And:

TL;DW (but you really should watch if any of those words mean anything to you): keep matching var names and types, anything else can seemingly change.

View the post and watch the Tech Talk.

 

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Links

The New Dual Shortcuts Widget Could Use Some Work »

From Federico Viticci on Mastodon:

If the Home widget can show up to four buttons at once in the small size in iOS 17, why shouldn’t the Shortcuts one do the same?

In the replies, I agreed:

@[email protected] I also think it’s dumb that these are set using a folder – they should be individually-selectable.

No need to force both shortcuts to be in the 1 and 2 index in a specific folder.

View the post.

 

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News

The Shortcuts Apps Of The Late Alex Hay Will Continue With Trusted Developers

After the tragic passing of beloved developer Alex Hay last March, the question of what would happen to his apps Toolbox Pro, Nautomate for Notion, and Logger for Shortcuts remained uncertain – Alex was a fierce advocate for the Shortcuts developer community and his apps plus public repositories served as inspiration & a resource for many of the Shortcuts apps available today.

Today, I’m honored to share the news that my friend Rosemary Orchard and her development company Snailed It (with David Stephens and Dom Chester) have been entrusted by the Hay family to take over development of the late Alex’s apps. The Snailed It team is already responsible for WhenWorks, FocusCuts, and development of Pushcut, and will continue work on Toolbox Pro, Nautomate, and Logger after making the necessary development transitions.

I am confident that Rosemary and the team will honor Alex’s memory and his contributions to the Shortcuts community, and I am glad to know I can continue to rely on Alex’s work – often times his apps felt like they were built for exactly me, which I always greatly appreciated.

In many ways, Alex was the developer advocate I could not be, and I truly appreciate how he built up the Shortcuts community. I had the pleasure of video chatting with him a few times, but I am truly sad I didn’t get to spend time with him in person.

I see signs of Alex’s contributions every day in my work, and I’m endlessly grateful that he put so much of himself out into this world.

Next Friday, I’ll be playing Starfield and thinking of him.

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Links Tips & Tricks

Name This Pet Is the Best Feature of iOS 17 »

Jeremy Burge for Mobile Tech Journal:

There’s plenty of new features in iOS 17 in September, but one has barely received a mention in Apple’s promotional material. In fact, it’s not even listed.

The feature? Pets are finally join People in the Photos app. And given how much people love their pets, this is gonna be crazy popular.

The feature itself is understated. Open a photo with your pet, enter its name, and instantly every photo of Bunny, Pot Roast or Hamlet is catalogued into their own fluffy album.

Oliver agrees.

View the original.

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Apps Links

Tesla app adds Shortcuts support for vehicle controls »

Via @Tesla

From Not A Tesla App (via The Verge):

The full list of supported vehicle controls include:

  • Bioweapon Defense Mode
  • Camp Mode
  • Defrost
  • Dog Mode
  • Precondition Vehicle
  • Set Seat Heater (seat position and heat level)
  • Set Temperature (choose climate temperature)
  • Vent Windows
  • Set Media Volume
  • Emissions Test
  • Close All Windows
  • Flash Lights
  • Honk Horn
  • Lock/Unlock
  • Open Frunk
  • Open/Close Charge Port
  • Open/Close Door (Model X)
  • Open/Close Rear Trunk
  • Sentry Mode
  • Set Charge Limit
  • Start/Stop Charging

Regardless of, well, ~everything~ associated with this, I am certainly jealous of any car owners who can automate their vehicle with Shortcuts.

Having just reviewed Apple’s documentation for how to Design great actions for Shortcuts, Siri, and Suggestions, these actions could use some improvement – actions like “Set __ Mode” or “Open ___” should be grouped under single actions using parameter relationships, not have individual actions per function.

View the original article.

 

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Apps Links

How to Pin Links in Apple Messages »

From John Gruber on Daring Fireball:

When you pin a link, you can refer back to it in the profile details for the contact(s) in that thread. That’s the popover you get by:

  • Tapping the user avatar in the center of the top navigation bar on iOS.
  • Clicking the “i”-in-circle Info button on MacOS.

Scroll down in that popover and there’s a section for pins, right above the section showing all photos in the conversation.

Gruber goes on with a few updates to the post to explain all the oddities with how the feature is currently implemented – the feature is a good idea in theory, though.

View the linked post on Daring Fireball and read the original piece on AppleInsider.

 

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Links Podcasts

Guest spot — Clockwise: I Can See All the Electrons in the Universe!

On Wednesday, August 16, I had the pleasure of joining Dan Moren and Mikah Sargent as a guest along with Kathy Campbell on Clockwise to talk about:

Whether we speed up audio and video media, how we’d want Apple to change Disney Parks, our thoughts on new Apple Watch bands, and what we’re hoping to see from Apple’s Shortcuts.

Check out Clockwise in Apple Podcasts or listen to the episode below:

Continue reading “Guest spot — Clockwise: I Can See All the Electrons in the Universe!”

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Links Newsletter

What’s New in Shortcuts – Issue 99

From Issue 99 of my Shortcuts newsletter:

Since the last issue at the end of July, we’ve seen two beta releases – and with it, a major change to Shortcuts automations in the form of Location automations gaining true background support.

Plus, App Shortcuts are coming to Apple Watch and HomePod – make sure to read up on the limitations, however.

Further, the Camera app actions teased in the developer sessions are now out – I got to test them in a real-life situation at a music festival this weekend.

Also, I made Apple Music’s new Discovery Radio into a shortcut, and released a set of Keynote shortcuts I’ve been using lately for some client work.

Otherwise, we’re looking ahead at the home stretch ahead of the full iOS 17 release coming in September – I hope apps are updating their App Shortcuts for Spotlight!

Until next issue, here’s what’s new in Shortcuts:

Read the full issue on MailerLite.

 

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Apps Links

How to transfer data from Google Maps to Apple Maps »

From Justin Pot for Popular Science:

The problem, if you’re a longtime Google Maps user, is all of the places you’ve saved in Google Maps over the years. These pinned locations come in handy, and switching to another map program often means starting over. Jumping from Google to Apple Maps would be a lot easier if there were a way to grab all your pinned places and take them with you. There is, it turns out, but it’s not exactly straightforward. The process will technically work on an iPhone or iPad, but I recommend you do it on a Mac, if possible.

Spoiler alert: he uses Shortcuts to process the JSON from Google Takeout – what a great idea.

Read the full article to get the shortcut and see the original Reddit thread.

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Links News

App Shortcuts Work on HomePod in iOS 17 »

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.

Watch the Apple developer session.

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Links News

Apple Watch Apps Can Provide App Shortcuts in watchOS 10 »

Hidde van der Ploeg on Mastodon:

I’m pretty sure it’s new that watchOS-only apps can now enable shortcuts to the shortcuts app without having an iOS companion app 😍✨

I can indeed confirm this is new – Apple mentions it in their “Spotlight your app with App Shortcuts” developer session from WWDC’23. Here’s what they say in the video:

App Shortcuts now work on Apple Watch, but you should be aware of some limitations to get the best possible experience. App Shortcuts on Apple Watch must come from a watchOS app installed on the device itself. App Shortcuts from a paired iOS device cannot be run on the Watch. This means that if you have an iOS app installed on iPhone, but not the corresponding watchOS app, your App Shortcuts will not work from watchOS.

Flexible matching with Siri is not available on Apple Watch, so phrases must be spoken exactly. Apple Watch support was introduced in watchOS 9.2 and is available on all devices running that version or later.

App Shortcuts are also now discoverable on Apple Watch. Just like on iOS, the Shortcuts app on watchOS prominently features App Shortcuts available on the device.

Just to be clear, App Shortcuts will work on both standalone watchOS apps and companion watchOS apps.

Plus, you will run into issues if you’re trying to run App Shortcuts from the watch and the corresponding iPhone app doesn’t have a Watch app – developers, get to building your watch apps!

View the post on Mastodon and watch the moment from the Apple developer session.

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Links

Automating with Shortcuts and macOS Folder Actions »

From Jason Snell at Six Colors:

Folder Actions is pretty clever—you can run scripts when items are added or removed from a folder, when the folder is opened or closed, or when the window of that folder is moved in Finder.

Unfortunately, this is a feature that is wired directly into AppleScript. So in order to use a version of my existing shortcut with Folder Actions, I needed to write a three-line AppleScript script:

on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
    tell application "Shortcuts Events" to run the shortcut named "Apple Result Transcriptor" with input added_items
end adding folder items to

Pretty dumb — for those keeping score we’ve now gone from Audio Hijack to AppleScript to Shortcuts in order to get what we want. (I could’ve rewritten my Shortcut in AppleScript, but… I don’t want to do that!) And yet also pretty brilliant, because I’m using a 21-year-old OS feature to run a Shortcut, an automation system that didn’t appear on the Mac until 2021.

Neat feature – and I agree with Jason’s conclusions at the end about Automations on the Mac.

Read the full story on Six Colors.

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Apps

QReate lets you create stunning QR codes on Mac »

From @polpielladev on Mastodon:

App launch day!

Today I am releasing my first-ever solo app on the App Store: QReate. A native and fast QR code editor to make stunning QR codes

To celebrate the launch, I have set a special reduced price of £2.99 for the next two weeks!

https://www.getqreate.app/

Looks like a handy resource for generating custom QR codes – I like the ability to add your own icon in the center.

View the post on Mastodon and get QReate on the Mac App Store.

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Tips & Tricks

MacOS Sonoma Tip: Use Emoji For Custom Bookmark Favicons »

From Niléana on Mastodon:

Just noticed something neat in macOS Sonoma: as you know, #Safari now shows favicons in your bookmarks bar. But if you rename a bookmark and add an emoji, that emoji acts as a custom favicon ✨

Neat – I just updated my whole group of Favorites folders in Bookmarks.

Something to note though – the emoji works best at the end. Either way you place it, Safari appears to inherit the space as well – if you prepend it, the space goes before the emoji and just creates more space for the whole bookmark[1]; if you append it, however, the space shows before your bookmark title and it doesn’t look great.

View the original GIF on Mastodon.

1. The extra space before the emoji isn’t ideal either and Apple should automatically remove this.

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Apps

Rogue Amoeba shares test releases for macOS 14 »

From Rogue Amoeba on Mastodon:

Testing MacOS 14? We’ve got test releases:

 

Basics: https://rogueamoeba.com/support/knowled…

 

SoundSource users, click here: https://rogueamoeba.com/support/knowled…

I’m super glad to have access on the betas to SoundSource for manual control over volume from my audio interface, and Loopback for combining audio feeds while streaming – and I’ve been meaning to use Audio Hijack for my member podcast as well.

View the original post on Mastodon and read the main support article for details.

 

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Tips & Tricks

Tip: Design your own Keynote template (and create it with Shortcuts) »

Simon Støvring on Mastodon:

Finally took the time to make my own Keynote theme and it’s surprising how much joy that brings me 😄

Me, in the replies:

I’m a dork for this but once you set it up, you can create a new template using the Keynote action in Shortcuts 🙂

And again:

All you need to do is use Edit > Save Theme, then use the Create Presentation action and scroll to the bottom of the Templates list to the My Themes area!

As usual, this has prompted me to make this into a shortcut, as well as properly publish my set of Keynote shortcuts that I covered last year for iMore.

See Simon’s post and get my folder of Keynote shortcuts in the Shortcuts Library.

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Shortcuts

New in the Shortcuts Library: Keynote shortcuts

I’ve just added a new folder to the Shortcuts Library — my set of Keynote shortcuts:

  • Open Keynote: Opens the Keynote desktop app on Mac and the mobile app from iPhone/iPad.
  • Open my presentation: Opens a pre-selected Keynote presentation. I use this with any current presentation that I may be working on.
  • Open password-protected presentation: Asks you to enter the password for a locked presentation, then passes it to the file as it opens it in Keynote.
  • Open from Keynote docs: Gets the contents of the Keynote folder in iCloud, asks you to pick from a presentation, and opens it in Keynote.
  • Start presentation: Asks you to pick from your Keynote folder in iCloud Drive and opens the presentation in Show Mode.
  • Rehearse presentation: Presents your presentations in Keynote, asks you to pick one, and opens it in Rehearsal Mode.
  • Create custom presentation: Creates a presentation from your “My Themes” section, which appears when you use Edit > Save Theme in Keynote.
  • Create Basic presentation: Presents a menu of Basic themes from Keynote to create – choose from Basic White, Basic Black, Classic White, White, and Black.
  • Create Dynamic presentation: Pick from Apple’s cool movement-based Dynamic presentations in Keynote – including Light, Dark, and Rainbow options.
  • Create Minimal presentation: Asks you to choose between Miniminal themes in Keynote – pick from Basic Color, Color Gradient Light, Color Gradient, Gradient, Showroom, Modern Portfolio, Slate, and Photo Essay.
  • Create Bold presentation: Presents a list of Bold presentation themes available in Keynote – choose from Bold Color, Showcase, Briefing, Academy, Modern Type, and Exhibit
  • Create Editorial themes: Presents a menu of Editorial themes in Keynote – pick from Feature Story, Look Book, Classic, Editorial, and Cream Paper.
  • Create Portfolio presentation: Presents a menu of Portfolio-style presentations to create in Keynote – choose from Industrial, Blueprint, Graph Paper, Chalkboard, Photo Portfolio, and Leather Book.
  • Create Craft presentation: Pick from Craft presentation themes in Keynote – options are Artisan, Improv, Drafting, Kyoto, Brushed Canvas, or Craft styles.
  • Create Textured presentation: Asks you to pick from various Keynote themes in the Textured category – choose between Parchment, Renaissance, Moroccan, Hard Cover, Linen Book, Vintage, Typeset, Harmony, and Formal.

Check out the folder of Keynote shortcuts on the Shortcuts Library.