Author: Matthew Cassinelli

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Shortcuts

New in the Shortcuts Library: Apple Intelligence shortcuts

I’ve just added a new folder to the Shortcuts Library — my simple set of Apple Intelligence shortcuts for the new Apple Intelligence features added to Shortcuts in iOS 26.

Use these to ask Apple’s on-device or Private Cloud Compute models, talk to ChatGPT, utilize Writing Tools, generate images with Image Playground, and create Memories in Photos.

  • Use Model: Allows you to enter a request, asks which model to prompt, then lets you ask Follow Up questions, and shows you the final response.
  • Pass through Writing Tools: For a given input, asks you to describe your change – then, creates a summary, key points, list, and table, plus proofreads, rewrites, and adjusts the tone. Produces Markdown-ready text, complete with auto-generated title.
  • Create with Image Playground: Asks you to describe an image or takes an image from input, then to choose an art style, then creates an image and shows it to you (plus saves it to Image Playground).
  • Create Memory in Photos: Asks you to describe a memory to create, then uses Apple Intelligence and the Photos app to generate a Memory for you.

Check out the folder of Apple Intelligence shortcuts on the Shortcuts Library.

Categories
Links News Siri Shortcuts

What’s New in Shortcuts for iOS 26 »

From Apple Support:

New in iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, watchOS 26, and visionOS 26

This update includes enhancements to the Shortcuts app across all platforms, including new intelligent actions and an improved editing experience. Shortcuts on macOS now supports personal automations that can be triggered based on events such as time of day or when you take actions like saving a file to a folder, as well as new integrations with Control Center and Spotlight.

New Actions (Editor’s note: shortened for sake of space)

  • Freeform
  • Image Playground, requires Apple Intelligence*
  • Mail
  • Measure
  • Messages
  • Screen Time
  • Sports
  • Photos
  • Reminders
  • Stocks
  • Use Model, requires Apple Intelligence*
  • Visual Intelligence, requires Apple Intelligence*
  • Voice Memos
  • Weather
  • Writing Tools, requires Apple Intelligence*

Updated Actions

For those building custom shortcuts, some actions have been updated:

  • “Calculate Expression” can now evaluate expressions that include units, including real time currency conversion rates, temperature, distance, and more
  • “Create QR Code” can now specify colors and styling
  • “Date” can now specify a holiday
  • “Find Contacts” can now filter by relationship
  • ”Transcribe Audio” performance has been improved
  • “Show Content” can now display scrollable lists of items, like calendar events, reminders, and more

Shortcut Editor

For those building custom shortcuts, updates have been made to the shortcut editor:

  • Improved drag and drop and variable selection
  • Over 100 new icon glyphs are now available, including new shapes, transportation symbols, and more
  • Rich previews of calendar events, reminders, and more
  • The ability to choose whether shortcuts appear in Spotlight Search

macOS Improvements

Spotlight

Shortcuts can now accept input, like selected text from an open document, when being run from Spotlight.

Automations

Shortcuts can now be run automatically based on the following triggers:

  • Time of Day (“At 8:00 AM, weekdays”)
  • Alarm (“When my alarm is stopped”)
  • Email (“When I get an email from Jane”)
  • Message (“When I get a message from Mom”)
  • Folder (“When files are added to my Documents folder”)
  • File (“When my file is modified”)
  • External Drive (“When my external drive connects”)
  • Wi-Fi (“When my Mac joins home Wi-Fi”)
  • Bluetooth (“When my Mac connects to AirPods”)
  • Display (“When my display connects”)
  • Stage Manager (“When Stage Manager is turned on”)
  • App (“When ‘Weather’ is opened or closed”)
  • Battery Level (“When battery level rises above 50%”)
  • Charger (“When my Mac connects to power”)
  • Focus (“When turning Do Not Disturb on”)

Control Center

Shortcuts can be added as controls to Control Center and the menu bar, including Run Shortcut, Open App, and Show “Menu Bar” Collection

View the full release notes from Apple Support

Categories
Links

New Apple Intelligence Features Are Available Today »

From Apple Newsroom:

Search and Take Action with Updates to Visual Intelligence

Visual intelligence, which builds on Apple Intelligence, now helps users learn and do more with the content on their iPhone screen. It makes it faster than ever for users to search, take action, and answer questions about the content they’re viewing across their apps.

Users can search for the content on their iPhone screen to find similar images across Google, as well as apps that integrate this experience, such as eBay, Poshmark, Etsy, and more. If there’s an object a user is interested in learning about, like a pair of shoes, they can simply press the same buttons used to take a screenshot and highlight it to search for that specific item or similar objects online. And with ChatGPT, users can ask questions about anything they’re viewing onscreen.

Continue playback of video: Visual Intelligence on iPhone 17 Pro

Updates to visual intelligence help users learn and do more with the content on their iPhone screen.

Visual intelligence enables users to summarize and translate text, as well as add an event from a flyer on their iPhone screen to their calendar, with a single tap.

Users can also take advantage of these capabilities by using visual intelligence with their iPhone camera through Camera Control, the Action button, and in Control Center.

And:

Build Intelligent Shortcuts

Shortcuts help users accomplish more faster, by combining multiple steps from their favorite apps into powerful, personal automations. And now with Apple Intelligence, users can take advantage of intelligent actions in the Shortcuts app to create automations, like summarizing text with Writing Tools or creating images with Image Playground.

Users can tap into Apple Intelligence models, either on device or with Private Cloud Compute to generate responses that feed into the rest of their shortcut, maintaining the privacy of information used in the shortcut. For example, users can create powerful Shortcuts like comparing an audio transcription to typed notes, summarizing documents by their contents, extracting information from a PDF and adding key details to a spreadsheet, and more.

View the full story from Apple Newsroom.

Categories
Membership Tips & Tricks

Technique: Open URLs into Mac apps using Shell Scripting

In my latest addition to the Shortcuts Library, I updated my shortcuts for the TV app with expanded functionality, including many new functions, redesigned menus, and, critically, support for macOS.

I accomplished Mac support using Shell Scripting, a technique which I’m sharing for members:

This content is marked as members-only – you’ll need a membership to access it.

Categories
Shortcuts

Updated in the Shortcuts Library: TV app shortcuts

Hey members! I’ve just updated new folder in the Shortcuts Library — my set of TV app shortcuts.

These are redesigned for my new approach to building shortcuts, which is less targeted at separate actions and includes a more-bundled approach – each shortcut provides more functionality in a targeted area.

My favorite is the new Watchlist shortcut – I’ve been working on a version of this for the year or so! Enjoy:

  • Open into the TV app: Presents a menu of sections in the TV app and opens the deep link into the app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac – options include Home, Search, Store, Sports, Apple TV+, and Library. When run from Apple Watch, opens the Apple TV app.
  • Add to my TV watchlist: Accepts a list of TV shows or movies, scrapes the results from Apple’s Marketing Toolbox, and lets you pick where to send the media – with options to open into the TV app, add to your Watchlist, send to Reminders, or copy the links.
  • Open sports in the TV app: Presents a menu of Sports sections available in the TV app, include overall Sports, plus MLS Season Pass and Major League Baseball, as well a dedicated section for your favorite home team.
  • Browse the TV Store: Presents a menu for opening into the TV app to the Store section, either directly using a deep link, using the iTunes actions in Shortcuts, or Apple’s RSS feeds for top movie and TV content – plus categories for dedicated “rooms” in the TV app for special content.
  • Open from Apple TV Plus: Presents menu options for opening into the Home, Shows, Movies, and Upcoming sections of Apple TV+ in the TV app, plus categories for genres.

Check out the folder of TV app shortcuts on the Shortcuts Library.

 

Categories
Apps Gear Links

Stream Deck 7 Adds Virtual Decks, Key Logic, Weather, and App Status

My friends at Elgato have updated the Stream Deck app for Mac for version 7.0 with new features for creating virtual Stream Decks on your computer, key logic so each key have multi-tap abilities, weather updates in a new plugin, and quality-of-life features like showing whether an app is currently open.

Here’s how they describe the updates:

🎛️ Virtual Stream Deck — your on-screen workspace controller

Create unlimited virtual keys, customize actions and layouts, then pin them in place or summon to your cursor. It’s your OS sidekick, making every workflow fast and effortless. It’s Stream Deck on your computer, anywhere you go.

[…]

👇 Key Logic — multi-tap abilities

Assign up to three different actions to a single key using Key Logic. Perform a unique action based on how the key is pressed:

  • Press
  • Double press
  • Press and hold

For example, press to play/pause music, double press to skip tracks, or press and hold to go to the previous track.

[…]

⛅ Weather plugin – stay ahead of the forecast

The new Weather Plugin for Stream Deck puts live weather updates and forecasts at your fingertips, with minimal setup and configuration. Instantly see the sky’s latest mood and plan your day without ever picking up your phone or opening a browser.

[…]

🛠️ Improvements and bug fixes

The Open Application action now displays a green dot when the selected app is running.

You can now configure the Open Application action to either do nothing, close, or force quit the selected app when long-pressed.[…]

Virtual Stream Decks are extremely cool.

Check out the Elgato Stream Deck 7.0 Release Notes and get the Stream Deck from Elgato – be sure to sure use my discount code ZZ-CASSINELLI for 5% off.

Categories
Offsite Podcasts Siri Shortcuts

Members-Only Podcast #3: New actions in the iOS 26 beta

From episode 3 of my freshly-rebooted members-only podcast:

Spoken-word episode of my article titled “Shortcuts gains actions for Apple Intelligence, Messages, and Notes checklists in iOS 26 beta,” available on MatthewCassinelli.com.

This content is marked as members-only – you’ll need a membership to access it.

View the archive of members-only podcast episodes.

Categories
News

Shortcuts gains actions for Apple Intelligence, Messages, and Notes checklists in iOS 26

In iOS 26, Apple is adding a series of exciting new actions to Shortcuts, with a heavy focus on Apple Intelligence including direct access to their Foundation Models with the new Use Model action.

Alongside that, Apple has actions for Writing Tools, Image Playground, and Visual Intelligence, plus the ability to Add Files to Freeform and Notes, Export in Background from the iWork apps, and new Find Conversation & Find Messages actions for the Messages app, among others.

Plus, new updates to current actions—like turning Show Result into Show Content—make existing functionality easier to understand.

Here’s everything that’s new – available now in Public Beta:

Apple Intelligence

 

The major focus of actions in iOS 26 is access to Apple Intelligence, both directly from the Foundation Models and indirectly through pre-built Writing Tools actions and Image Playground actions – plus a simple “Open to Visual Intelligence” action that seems perfectly suited for the Action button.

Use Model

  • Use Model
    • Private Cloud Compute
    • Offline
    • ChatGPT Extension

Writing Tools

  • Make Table from Text
  • Make List from Text
  • Adjust Tone of Text
  • Proofread Text
  • Make Text Concise
  • Rewrite Text
  • Summarize Text

Visual Intelligence

  • Open to Visual Intelligence

Image Playground

  • Create Image

Actions

Apple has added new actions for system apps and features, starting with an interesting Search action that pulls in a set number of results, similar to Spotlight.

Both Freeform and Notes got “Add File” actions, plus you can add directly to checklists in Notes now too. Apple put the Background Tasks to work with exporting from iWork apps, and nice-to-have actions for Sports, Photos, and Weather make it easier to take advantage of those apps.

Particularly nice is Find Conversations and Find Messages, the former of which works well with Open Conversation, and the latter of which is a powerful search tool.

Search

  • Search

Freeform

  • Add File to Freeform

Notes

  • Add File to Notes
  • Append Checklist Item

iWork

  • Export Spreadsheet in Background
  • Export Document in Background
  • Export Presentation in Background

Documents

  • Convert to USDZ

Sports

  • Get Upcoming Sports Events

Photos

  • Create Memory Movie

Messages

  • Find Conversations
  • Find Messages

Weather

  • Add Location to List
  • Remove Location from List

Updated

Apple continues to make Shortcuts actions easier to understand and adopt for new users, making small tweaks like clarifying Show Content and Repeat with Each Item.

Plus, existing actions like Calculate Expression, Translate, and Transcribe have benefitted from system-level improvements:

  • Show Result is now titled Show Content
  • Repeat with Each is now labeled “Repeat with Each Item” once placed
  • Open Board for Freeform now shows as App Shortcuts
  • Calculate Expression can accept real-time currency data
  • Translate has been improved
  • Transcribe has been improved
  • “Use Search as Input” added to Shortcut Input

Coming this Fall

These new actions are available now in Public Beta—install at your own risk—and will be fully available in the fall once iOS 26 releases.

There are also further improvements on the Mac, which gained Automations in Shortcuts—including unique File, Folder, and Drive automations only available on Mac—plus the ability to run actions directly in Spotlight. I’ll cover these in future stories – be sure check the features out if you’re on the betas.

I will update this post if any more actions are discovered in future betas, or if there’s anything I’ve missed here.

P.S. See Apple’s video “Develop for Shortcuts and Spotlight with App Intents” for the example shortcut in the header photo.

Categories
Shortcuts

New in the Shortcuts Library: Emoji Game for Apple News+

I’ve just added a new shortcut to the Shortcuts Library to my set of Apple News shortcuts – a new shortcut for the Emoji Game in Apple News+.

Here’s how Apple describes the game:

“The object of this logic and word puzzle is to complete several phrases with as few moves as possible. Each emoji may be interpreted directly, through association, or in combination with other emoji. When you attempt an answer or expand a clue, it counts as a move.”

You can also do any of the following:

  • Try an answer: Consider the various definitions or associations for the emoji, then drag the most appropriate emoji (or group of emoji) to complete each word or phrase.For example, a “pear” emoji 🍐 could complete “DISAP_ _ _ _,” but interpreted as “fruit” it could complete “_ _ _ _ _ FUL.”Letters relating to emoji may appear nonconsecutively in an answer. For example, dragging an “earth” emoji 🌍 to “L_ _ _N _ _E ROPES” completes the phrase “learn the ropes.”Interpret grouped emoji as a whole. For example, a single 🐠 could mean “fish,” while 🐠🐠🐠 might mean “school.”
  • Expand a clue: Tap [Eye icon]. This counts as a move.
  • Reveal answers: Tap [Three Dots icon], then tap Reveal. The answers you didn’t find are shown. The puzzle doesn’t count in your Scoreboard stats and streaks.

Get the Emoji Game shortcut, check out the folder of Apple News Plus shortcuts, and browse the full Shortcuts Library – or read about Emoji Game from Apple Support.

Categories
Links

Apple News+ introduces Emoji Game 🍎📰➕ 😀🧩

From the Apple Newsroom:

Today, Apple News+ debuted Emoji Game, an original puzzle that challenges subscribers to use emoji to complete short phrases. Emoji Game is now available in English for Apple News+ subscribers in the U.S. and Canada.

“Emoji Game is the perfect addition to the Apple News+ suite of word and number puzzles, turning the emoji we use every day into a brainteaser that’s approachable and fun,” said Lauren Kern, editor-in-chief of Apple News.

More Apple News shortcuts incoming in 3… 2… 1…

View the full story from Apple.

 

Categories
Developer

Here are Apple’s WWDC25 Developer Sessions on the Foundation Models Framework

At WWDC25, Apple expanded access to their Foundation Models to third-party developers, making intelligence features easier to implement while maintaining privacy.

With the framework, developers are able to access local, on-device models from Apple, make requests to Private Cloud Compute when needed, and can readily adopt tools like the Vision framework or SpeechAnalyzer.

In introducing these capabilities, Apple has produced the following Machine Learning & AI sessions:

Apple Developer sessions on Machine Learning & AI from WWDC2025

Intro

Foundation Models

MLX

Features

More

Explore all the Machine Learning & AI sessions from WWDC25, plus check out my recommended viewing order for the App Intents sessions.

P.S. Here’s the full list of sessions, no sections – copy these into your notes:

List of Apple Developer sessions on Machine Learning & AI from WWDC2025

Categories
Developer

Watch the WWDC2025 App Intents Developer Sessions In This Order

After announcing updates at WWDC, Apple released four new developer sessions directly related to App Intents—the API that lets Apple Intelligence understand and interact with apps—following up on sessions from years past.

Here are this year’s sessions – in my recommended viewing order:

  1. Get to Know App Intents (24:36)
  2. Explore new advances in App Intents (26:49)
  3. Develop for Shortcuts and Spotlight with App Intents (18:56)
  4. Design Interactive Snippets (7:28)

Start with the summary of the API, see what’s new this year, learn the most relevant ways users will interact with your app, and then take a look at advances in snippets – in 1 1/2 hours of focused viewing.

Enjoy – there’s lots to learn!

Check out all the Machine Learning & AI videos from WWC25 from Apple, plus check out my curated list of the Foundation Models framework sessions.

Categories
Developer Links News

Apple Supercharges Its Tools and Technologies for Developers to Foster Creativity, Innovation, and Design »

From Apple’s announcements at WWDC:

App Intents lets developers deeply integrate their app’s actions and content with system experiences across platforms, including Siri, Spotlight, widgets, controls, and more.

This year, App Intents gains support for visual intelligence. This enables apps to provide visual search results within the visual intelligence experience, allowing users to go directly into the app from those results. For instance, Etsy is leveraging visual intelligence to enhance the user experience in its iOS app by facilitating faster and more intuitive discovery of goods and products.

“At Etsy, our job is to seamlessly connect shoppers with creative entrepreneurs around the world who offer extraordinary items — many of which are hard to describe. The ability to meet shoppers right on their iPhone with visual intelligence is a meaningful unlock, and makes it easier than ever for buyers to quickly discover exactly what they’re looking for while directly supporting small businesses,” said Etsy CTO Rafe Colburn.

Read the full post from the Apple Newsroom.

Categories
Developer Livestreams Offsite

AI + iOS: The State of Apple Development Ahead of WWDC (feat. Rudrank Riyam)

From my stream with Rudrank Riyam on YouTube Live — tune in:

This week, developer Rudrank Riyam, author of the AiOS Dispatch newsletter, joins me to talk about his experiences developing for Apple platforms using AI-assisted coding, and what we’re interested in ahead of Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC).

Subscribe to the newsletter here: https://aiosdispatch.com

View the stream live or catch the replay on YouTube.

Categories
Developer Livestreams Offsite

Apple Intelligence: Action Centered Design Framework (feat. Vidit Bhargava)

From my stream with Vidit Bhargava on YouTube Live — tune in:

This week, designer and developer Vidit Bhargava joins me to talk about his framework for app development centered around designing actions first, particularly as it relates to Apple Intelligence.

Read about the framework here: https://blog.viditb.com/action-centered-design-framework-talk/

Chapters (generated with Descript):

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome

02:32 Guest Background and App Development

03:45 Evolution of App Design

05:56 Action Centered Design Framework

08:46 Designing for Multiple Platforms

13:21 App Intents and Practical Examples

16:52 Future of App Design and AI Integration

48:14 Demo and Practical Applications

57:06 Exploring App Intents and Practicality

57:27 Challenges of Mobile AI Implementation

58:12 Battery Life and AI Advancements

58:53 Apple’s Approach to AI and Actions

01:01:35 The Future of Shortcuts and Automation

01:03:38 Innovative UI and Interaction Design

01:08:53 Custom Interactions and Maintenance

01:10:27 Generative Coding and Platform Variability

01:15:17 AI and App Intents in Real-World Applications

01:33:59 Economic Models for AI-Driven Apps

01:41:20 Concluding Thoughts and Future Prospects

View the stream live or catch the replay on YouTube.

Categories
Announcements Developer

Announcing My WWDC Meetup: Apple Intelligence Automators at CommunityKit

Hello friends! It’s my pleasure to announce my second-annual WWDC meetup 1, this time as part of the free CommunityKit conference under the name “Apple Intelligence Automators” – sign up here for the free event on Tuesday, June 10 from 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM.

Located inside the Hyatt House San Jose / Cupertino at 10380 Perimeter Rd in Cupertino (just a few minutes from Apple Park), we’ll be discussing the announcements from the WWDC keynote address and State of the Union from the day prior as it relates to Apple Intelligence, App Intents, and Shortcuts.

With Apple Intelligence being the focus of last year’s WWDC, and delays on those features pushing things back, we should have plenty to talk about.

Check out the event page on Luma to register and don’t forget to get your free ticket to CommunityKit.

  1. I hosted a Shortcuts meetup last year – and had a blast. ↩
Categories
Developer

You Should Watch The Apple Intelligence Developer Sessions In This Order

(Editor’s note: updated June 2025 to include sessions from WWDC25)

If you’re getting into development for Apple Intelligence, it can be hard to understand how to parse Apple’s documentation. App Intents, the API that powers the Actions and Personal Context features of Apple Intelligence, has been shipping since 2021, with a deeper history since the introduction of Shortcuts in 2018 – there are over 30 sessions to learn from.

Since I’ve been consulting with developers on their App Intents integrations, I’ve developed a Star Wars Machete Order-style guide for the Apple Intelligence developer sessions – watch the sessions in this order to best understand how Apple thinks about these APIs.

Apple Intelligence Machete Order

How to understand the App Intents framework

Start with the latest sessions from 2024, which reintroduces App Intents as it extends across the system in more ways, as well as updates the Design suggestions from their earlier framework:

Getting Deeper into App Intents

From there, once you have the context of how App Intents can be deployed, start back at the beginning to see how to implement App Intents, then take a look at where they are heading with Snippets:

Importance of App Shortcuts

Built on top of App Intents, App Shortcuts are automatically generated for the most-important tasks and content that show up in Spotlight and Siri – and often the most-common way users interact with the App Intents framework:

Apple Intelligence sessions

Finally, once you understand the core of App Intents, what it used to be vs. what Apple wants you to do now, and how to deploy App Intents across Spotlight and Siri, move onto the latest updates for Apple Intelligence – new features that enable Personal Context, as well as integrating your intents into domains for Siri:

Good to know

Beyond that, it can be helpful to review earlier sessions to understand where Apple is coming from, as well learning about the lesser-known experience your app is capable of providing:

All the Apple Intelligence developer sessions

For good measure, here’s the full list of the Shortcuts / App Intents / Apple Intelligence developer sessions:

Check out more Machine Learning and AI videos from the Apple Developer site, read the full App Intents documentation, and learn more about Apple Intelligence.

P.S. You can hire to design your App Intents integration.

 

Categories
Gear How To Links

How Fast Should My Internet Be To Stream? »

Elgato has shared a helpful guide for ensuring your internet is fast enough for streaming:

Streaming your content live online is more accessible than ever and also can be equally data hungry. From streaming right from your phone to your followers on TikTok to streaming a professional event in 4K 60fps with High Dynamic Range on YouTube, these all require some amount of bandwidth to get your live content to where it needs to be.

And:

In short, here’s the maximum bitrates supported by the services.

Twitch: 6Mbps (up to 1080p)

YouTube: 40Mbps (Up to 4K)

Also, these are upload speeds – and if you’re using both, it can take even more. I use High Quality Audio and High Quality Video in Ecamm Live, which also add to the network load.

Check out the post from Elgato and get Ecamm Live to stream from your Mac.

Also, be sure to sure use my discount code ZZ-CASSINELLI for 5% off from Elgato.

Categories
Announcements

6 Years Later: ‘Worth A Look. Something For Everyone.’

Earlier this evening, I was working on my soon-to-be-relaunched newsletter What’s New in Apple Intelligence, and I opened Reeder to find an article from Daring Fireball titled “15 Years Later: ‘Very Insight and Not Negative’.”

In the post, Gruber was recalling a quote from Steve Jobs’ comment about his blog, which he had inexplicably hadn’t linked to (until now) – upon reading that, I realized I had my own Tim Cook moment in a similar realm.

Six years ago, on February 28, 2019, I published a story for iMore where I collected over 100 apps that work with Siri, tweeting:

If you’ve been wanting to get into Siri Shortcuts but don’t know where to start…

Here are 100 apps with shortcuts you can add to Siri and use with your own custom phrase: https://x.com/iMore/status/1101285345390444545

The next day, at about 3pm, Tim Cook quoted my post, saying:

“Worth a look. Something for everyone.”

In the moment, I sent a simple “Thanks Tim!” back, but never posted about it on my blog. So, here we are – while you’re here, see what else I have that’s worth a look – there’s something for everyone.

Check out Tim Cook’s tweet and view the story on Daring Fireball.

Categories
News Shortcuts Siri Shortcuts

Apple Releases “Hold That Thought” Shortcut for Global Accessibility Awareness Day

Today is Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), which Apple highlighted in their press release showcasing accessibility features coming in the next year – plus a new Accessibility shortcut called Hold That Thought:

New features include Accessibility Nutrition Labels on the App Store, Magnifier for Mac, Braille Access, and Accessibility Reader; plus innovative updates to Live Listen, visionOS, Personal Voice, and more.

Near the end of the release, Apple explains their new shortcut, plus the addition of the previous Accessibility Shortcut to Vision Pro:

The Shortcuts app adds Hold That Thought, a shortcut that prompts users to capture and recall information in a note so interruptions don’t derail their flow. The Accessibility Assistant shortcut has been added to Shortcuts on Apple Vision Pro to help recommend accessibility features based on user preferences.

Here’s how Apple describes the shortcut:

Interruptions can cause you to forget tasks and affect productivity, especially for neurodivergent individuals.

When you run this shortcut, you have two options: Capture and Recall.

Run the shortcut and select Capture to capture a screenshot of what you’re doing, any calendar events in the next hour, current open webpage in Safari (Mac only), and Clipboard contents. You’ll then be prompted to write short notes about what you are doing and what you are about to do. Run the shortcut again and select Recall to find the last created note with all the captured information. All notes will be saved with the title “Hold that thought” and the date and time saved.

Run this shortcut using Siri, or add it to the Control Center, Action button or to the Home Screen for quick access.

I love this idea, and the core concept matches the inspiration for my currently-secret app idea that I teased at the end of my Deep Dish Swift talk.

I do have a few suggestions for improvements to the shortcut, however:

  • Remove the errant space in the Choose From Menu prompt between “Capture” and “or” – it says “Capture or recall last stopping point?”
  • For both “? Capture” and “? Recall” options Choose From Menu, Apple should add Synonyms for “Capture” and “Recall” – the emoji can cause issues when dictating to Siri (in general, I avoid emoji in Menus for this reason).
  • Utilize the “Find Tabs” action for iOS instead of simple not adding any functionality for Safari on mobile; Apple’s use of only “Get Current Safari Tab” for Mac reminds me that they still have not added the set of Safari iOS actions added back in 2022 to macOS, and their absence in this shortcut furthers my belief that these highly-sought actions are deprioritized simply because the team doesn’t use iOS as often and this Mac action is “good enough”.
  • The second “Recall” option just opens the note, but I’d rather see that last item I saved – Apple should have gone further to isolate the recent item and display the recalled information, not just open it again. I tried to Recall from my Apple Watch and the shortcut simply failed.
  • The flow of an alert, a 5-second countdown before a screenshot, and two prompts might be too long for most neurodivergent people to capture information effectively while in the process of being interrupted.

To improve the shortcut as it is today, I’d simply remove the Show Alert and Wait actions, and assign this new shortcut to the Action button – that way you can immediately take a screenshot, then answer the prompts, and move on.

Going further, I’d love to see a new version of this next year once Apple Intelligence ships in full, which utilizes “Get On-Screen Content” and accesses all the data available from apps for Personal Context.

Get “Hold That Thought” for Shortcuts, view the announcement from the Apple Newsroom, and check out past updates from GAAD.