Author: Matthew Cassinelli

Shortcuts Live – Adopting App Shortcuts in iOS 16

Post author By Matthew Cassinelli
Post date September 18
2 Comments on Shortcuts Live – Adopting App Shortcuts in iOS 16

Join me live with special guest developers Emmanuel Crouvisier of CardPointers, Michael Tigas of Focused Work, and Will Bishop of Pestle, Chirp for Twitter, and Nano for Reddit as we stream about everything App Shortcuts in iOS 16.

We’ll be live on Monday September 19th at 5:00 PM PST / Tuesday September 20th at 9:30 AM ACST on YouTube:

All three guests are app developers who dove into the new “App Intents” API available from Apple this year, which power the new App Shortcuts and Focus Filters features.

Tags App Intents, App shortcuts, CardPointers, Chirp for Twitter, Developer, Emmanuel Crouvisier, Focused Work, iOS 16, Livestreams, Michael Tigas, Nano for Reddit, Nestle, Shortcuts Live, Will Bishop, YouTube, YouTube Live

Tips & Tricks

How to fix Recents in Finder on macOS Ventura by reindexing Spotlight using the Terminal

Post author By Matthew Cassinelli
Post date September 18

Ever since I installed the macOS Ventura beta on my MacBook Air, I’ve been having a weird issue where the Recents folder in Finder didn’t populate and showed as entirely empty — here’s how I fixed it.

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How Apple put its weight behind App Shortcuts in iOS 16

Post author By Matthew Cassinelli
Post date September 15

Yours truly for iMore:

Apple released iOS 16 on Monday and with it the latest update to their Siri Shortcuts feature, this time making “App Shortcuts” automatically available to users when they install supported apps. With App Shortcuts, users can speak the trigger phrases of no-setup shortcuts that are now generated ahead of time and found in the Shortcuts app, acting as pre-programmed Siri commands for everything you might want to do in that app.

As I wrote at the beginning of the summer, App Shortcuts is Apple’s big bet on Siri, switching from the top-down model of defining “intents” in specific categories that Apple needed to build ahead of time and lay out a path for certain types of apps to work with Siri. Now, the “App Intents” feature that powers App Shortcuts gives developers the control, defining every way their app might be used with Siri and automatically creating every permutation of that action as individual shortcuts for the user.

With iOS 16 now live (and our iOS 16 review ready for you to, er, review), and developers releasing their App Shortcuts into the wild, here’s how you can expect to see more Siri Shortcuts throughout your experience, plus how to best take advantage of what’s possible.

Read the full article on iMore.

Tags App shortcuts, iMore, iOS 16, Siri Shortcuts

Links

Shortcuts in the iOS 16 MacStories Review

Post author By Matthew Cassinelli
Post date September 12

Federico Viticci is back again with his 8th annual review of Apple’s primary OS, this time covering iOS 16 in 15 pages on MacStories.net.

In particular, I wanted to highlight Part 7, which deals with Shortcuts:

In iOS 16, the Shortcuts app hasn’t undergone a major redesign or technical rewrite; instead, Apple’s efforts have focused on adding more actions for system apps, extending the developer API, bringing more stability, and making Shortcuts more approachable for new users.

The last point is both important and likely the reason why some Shortcuts power users will be disappointed by this year’s update. There isn’t a lot for them in this new version of the app: as we’ll see in my iPadOS review, there’s no integration with Files quick actions, no support for Stage Manager actions, and no system-wide hotkeys still. If you’re an advanced Shortcuts user and were wishing for more system-level enhancements in addition to stability this year: I hear you, but we’ll talk about this later on.

What we do have in iOS 16 is a fascinating new feature to get newcomers started with the Shortcuts app, a grab bag of useful new actions for Apple apps, and some solid developer-related enhancements that will make third-party actions much better than before. Let’s take a look.

In the three pages dedicated to everything Shortcuts, Federico covers App Shortcuts, new actions, and other Shortcuts improvements.

I agree with most everything Federico covered, although I do suspect App Shortcuts still prove useful to power users like him and I rather than mostly aimed at new users (as he posited) — it’s nice to not have to set up basic shortcuts for my apps, and I can focus my custom shortcuts on only the more advanced use cases instead.

Read the whole iOS 16 review on MacStories.

Tags Federico Viticci, iOS 16, MacStories, Shortcuts

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iPhone pre-orders: Apple Store shortcuts to help get your order in

Post author By Matthew Cassinelli
Post date September 8
1 Comment on iPhone pre-orders: Apple Store shortcuts to help get your order in

Yours truly for iMore:

The iPhone 14 pre-orders will go live bright and early Friday morning from Cupertino, with Apple releasing the newest versions of its flagship product alongside the new Apple Watch Ultra, AirPods Pro 2, and just a few days before iOS 16 is released to customers. Folks are setting up their orders now ahead of the store going offline.

If you’re looking to secure the best iPhone for you during pre-orders and want to maximize all your options for getting in and out as quick as possible, we’ve built a set of eight shortcuts you can use with Siri, in a Shortcuts widget, or right from the Home Screen around pre-order day.

Read the full article on iMore.

Tags Apple Store, iMore, iPhone, iPhone 14, Pre-order

News

You can set the new Action button on Apple Watch Ultra to anything in Shortcuts

Post author By Matthew Cassinelli
Post date September 7
2 Comments on You can set the new Action button on Apple Watch Ultra to anything in Shortcuts

Today in Apple’s “Far Out” keynote presentation, the company released their new Apple Watch Ultra with a new dedicated Action button that can be used for physical access to key goals in apps at the appropriate time.

According to Apple engineering manager Michael Gorbach’s post on Twitter, the Action Button is powered by the new App Intents APIs that were released at WWDC and power the upcoming App Shortcuts feature as part of iOS 16 — and Shortcuts users can assigned a dedicated shortcut to the button as well:

The Apple Watch Ultra’s Action Button is powered by some awesome new App Intents APIs. You will be able to build your own apps to integrate with it, like a hockey app that uses the button to record goals! And for users, the button can kick off any Shortcut you want!

— Michael Gorbach (@mgorbach) September 7, 2022

I’m super excited to see this capability come to Apple Watch Ultra — and I hope Apple Watch gets an Action Button in the future ??‍♂️

Tags Apple, Apple Event, Apple Watch, Apple Watch Ultra, Shortcuts

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Automating the Apple keynote: 5 shortcuts to use on any event day

Post author By Matthew Cassinelli
Post date September 7
1 Comment on Automating the Apple keynote: 5 shortcuts to use on any event day

Yours truly for iMore:

The Apple keynote day is upon us and, as usual, Apple nerds will descend upon Twitter and endlessly share their thoughts for a few hours. In lieu of excitedly eating popcorn, we’re collectively leaned in toward our iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple TVs, ready to share hot takes, funny quips, and the latest news. Nothing else quite brings us all together — except maybe some fun automations.

To get the best of both worlds, here’s a set of shortcuts you can use on keynote day to get set up to watch, organize your live-tweeting apps accordingly, and take notes on anything new:

Read the full story on iMore.

Tags Apple Event, iMore, iPhone keynote

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16 ways to use Personal Hotspot with Shortcuts in iOS 16

Post author By Matthew Cassinelli
Post date September 3
1 Comment on 16 ways to use Personal Hotspot with Shortcuts in iOS 16

Yours truly for iMore:

In the iOS 16 developer and public betas — and soon the full release — Apple has introduced a new action to the Shortcuts app to control the Personal Hotspot feature of the iPhone.

Personal Hotspot enables non-cellular devices to connect to your iPhone directly and utilize its cellular connection to provide Wi-Fi to your other devices. This works great for your favorite iPad or Mac, making it easy to utilize your bigger screen when out of the home or away from your main networks.

The addition to Shortcuts presents Personal Automation opportunities for discovering new situations you hadn’t yet thought of, building new workflows in particular locations, generally while traveling and in specific connectivity situations.

In this piece, I asked for Personal Hotspot ideas from the Shortcuts community, then took their responses and found the best Personal Automations in Shortcuts to get you started:

Read the full article on iMore.

Tags iMore, Personal Automations, Personal Hotspot

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How the Shortcuts widget makes the Home Screen much more powerful

Post author By Matthew Cassinelli
Post date August 31

Yours truly for iMore:

The evolution of the Home Screen has been the most interesting change to iOS and iPadOS of the last few years, with the addition of widgets, Focus modes, and now Lock Screen changes tied to Home Screens coming in iOS 16.

With the rollout of iPhone widgets, then iPad widgets and Focus, and now dynamic Home/Lock Screens, things have changed slowly over time — and yet all at once now that everything works together better than ever.

For folks invested in the Shortcuts app, this progression has meant an ever-deeper integration of their shortcuts into the ecosystem and onto their Home Screens. That’s because the Shortcuts widget has always had special entitlements that make it interactive, something no other widget has — you can run your shortcuts right from the widget, without opening the Shortcuts app:

Read the full article on iMore.

Tags iMore, Shortcuts, Widget

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Shortcuts for Mac: Scripting your desktop with Apple’s Mac-only actions

Post author By Matthew Cassinelli
Post date August 28

Yours truly for iMore:

When Apple brought Shortcuts to the Mac in macOS Monterey, the initial set of actions available that take advantage of Mac features were ported over from Automator.

These actions were previously available (in a similar form) in Automator for users building workflows to automate their tasks — with Shortcuts for Mac, those same functions were recreated as native actions, largely located in the Scripting category.

This piece explains how to best automate your Mac with Shortcuts actions for your controlling your apps, changing window arrangements, and adding advanced functionality using the Script Editor app actions:

Read the full story on iMore.

Tags Actions, iMore, Scripting, Shortcuts

Siri Shortcuts

Upgrade #421: Summer of Automation

Post author By Matthew Cassinelli
Post date August 26

From Relay.FM:

Before the sun sets on the Summer of Fun, Jason has rounded up three Apple automation experts–Federico Viticci, Rosemary Orchard, and Matthew Cassinelli–to discuss the present and future of user automation on Apple’s platforms. Also, Myke and Jason debate the iOS 16 music scrubber.

Earlier this summer, I had the pleasure of being a guest on the Upgrade podcast on Relay.FM, speaking with host Jason Snell and fellow special guests Federico Viticci and Rosemary Orchard for a great discussion about Shortcuts.

Listen to the full show on Apple Podcasts or see the episode details on Relay.FM.

Tags Federico Viticci, Guest, Jason Snell, Rosemary Orchard, Upgrade

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iOS 16’s sleeper hit? Focus Filters might change how you use Apple devices forever

Post author By Matthew Cassinelli
Post date August 25
1 Comment on iOS 16’s sleeper hit? Focus Filters might change how you use Apple devices forever

Yours truly for iMore:

With Apple’s iPhone event just under two weeks away and iOS 16’s imminent release soon after, we’ve started to see developers share teasers for special features like Focus Filters that are being added to their apps.

And after testing the built-in Focus Filters actions for Mail, Safari, Calendar, and Messages during the beta period, I’m convinced Focus Filters will be a powerful — but slept-on — feature once iOS 16 releases.

To help people get started so they don’t miss out on this new capability, here’s how to set Focus Filters up and customize them using Shortcuts, along with three examples of apps implementing Focus Filters to customize their app’s contents when inside a Focus mode:

Read the full story on iMore.

Tags Focus Filters, Focus Modes, iMore

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Why the Menu Bar is the best way to get started with Shortcuts for Mac

Post author By Matthew Cassinelli
Post date August 20

Yours truly for iMore:

Part of the core macOS experience is interacting with the Menu Bar, whether it’s choosing from the current app’s specific commands from the top left or using Menu Bar apps that sit at the top right of your screen all day long.

That’s why it’s fantastic that Apple released Shortcuts for Mac with Menu Bar support, showing a small Shortcuts icon that can be clicked to reveal a list of assigned shortcuts.

This small spot is perhaps one of the best to place the most-important shortcuts you use on a daily basis from your Mac, giving you quick access to running them, editing them, and even working interactively with what you currently have open on-screen:

Read the full story on iMore.

Tags iMore, Menu Bar, Shortcuts

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The best ways to get started with Shortcuts on iPad

Post author By Matthew Cassinelli
Post date August 14

Yours truly for iMore:

The iPad has always provided the best experience for Shortcuts. From the much larger screen, to the drag-and-drop experience based on multitouch, and the natural opportunity for automation on a hand-held device, using Shortcuts on an iPad feels like the ultimate expression of the app.

But if you’re not familiar with good use cases for Shortcuts or don’t have a workflow based on the tablet, finding the best methods for working via Shortcuts on iPad might not immediately be obvious coming from a traditional computing experience.

That’s why we’re here to explain how multitasking, bookmarks, templates, and processing information are great opportunities for automation on your favorite iPad and how you can use Shortcuts to switch in and out of apps to get things done quickly, accurately, and without too much OS overhead:

Read the full story on iMore.

Tags iMore, iPad