Category: News

Categories
News

iOS 27: Open Shortcuts to Editor instead of Describe a Shortcut

New in iOS 27, Apple has a setting for the Shortcuts app called “Open shortcuts to” that lets you pick between “Describe a Shortcut” (by default) or the Editor.

First spotted in Reddit user u/iBanks3’s post, the option is located in Settings > Apps > Shortcuts – here’s what the caption says:

“Choose what you see first when you create or open a shortcut. Describe with Apple Intelligence, or start directly in the editor.”

For long-time Shortcuts users like me, it was already common to skip past Describe a Shortcut and press the button with three lines to open to the Editor to find actions for the shortcut one already has in mind.

Plus, the Apple Intelligence logo in the corner can be tapped to go back into Describe a Shortcut at a moment’s notice.

Further, when returning to the Describe a Shortcut view, Apple Intelligence will summarize the actions and create a new bulleted description. I’ve long been asking for a Description field, so an automatic description is a great step.

On iPad, enabling this setting also restore the full-screen Library and Folder views, making Describe a Shortcut a toggle inside a shortcut view rather than attached on the side of the library.

On MacOS, there is currently no setting for this, and Shortcuts always shows the Describe a Shortcut view on the right side of the Library (with the Editor as a pop-out window for each new shortcut).

I’ll probably use the Editor view for now until Describe a Shortcut works better with actions from third-party apps, since I was skipping it every time. Plus, I’m happy it restores a more library-like view on iPadOS – even if only so I can take full-screen screenshots 🙂 I hope all brings the setting to macOS as well, and enables the full-screen library view when toggled.

Check out the post on Reddit, check out the iOS 27 beta megathread I’m maintaining where I’ve just added this post, and get the iOS 27 beta as a developer or when the public beta releases.

Categories
News

Apple Adds Restore Setting for “Shortcuts On This Device That Aren’t Currently In Your Library”

New in iOS 27 developer beta 4, Apple has added a Restore button in the Settings for the Shortcuts app, as shown in Reddit user u/iBanks3’s post.

Located in Settings > Apps > Shortcuts, the caption reads:

“[X] shortcuts on this device aren’t currently in your library.”

Pressing the Restore button will open into the Shortcuts app and immediately add all the shortcuts available to be restored, placing them in your All Shortcuts view unsorted.

I personally had over 200 shortcuts to restore from iCloud, but it’s not clear to me when they were lost or why some are duplicates (indicated by a 1 at the end). That being said, I’ve recently deleted, re-added, and then re-deleted up to 4,000 shortcuts from my collection, so it’d be easy to slip through the cracks during that process.

Regardless, having an OS-level function to restore your shortcuts collection, should anything go wrong, will be a welcome peace-of-mind.

Check out the post on Reddit, check out the iOS 27 beta megathread I’m maintaining where I’ve just added this post, and get the iOS 27 beta as a developer or when the public beta releases.

Categories
Links News

Josh Elman, Product Marketing for Siri and Apple Intelligence, Joins a16z

On June 23rd, Josh Elman posted that he was leaving Apple to join a16z as a partner:

Josh led Product Marketing for Siri and Apple Intelligence for the last 6 years, sharing about the launch of Siri AI earlier in June:

In the episodeWhat’s Next for Consumer AI? John Elman Joins a16z, host Anish Acharya explains Josh’s background:

So, you’ve been a part of really every product cycle—the big ones and the small ones. So: Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. […] TikTok (or Musical.ly), Discord, Robinhood. And now, most recently, leading product marketing for a lot of the AI efforts at Apple.

Here’s the episode description:

Anish Acharya sits down with Josh Elman to discuss the future of consumer technology and Josh’s decision to join a16z.

Over the past two decades, Elman has helped shape some of the most important consumer technology products and companies, including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Robinhood, Discord, Musical.ly, TikTok, and Apple. Drawing on those experiences, he reflects on how technology has evolved from a niche industry into a central force in everyday life.

The conversation explores consumer AI, product design, distribution, social networks, creator ecosystems, and the changing relationship between technology and human behavior. They discuss why AI may unlock an entirely new generation of consumer products, how discovery and distribution are changing, and what founders can learn from previous platform shifts.

Along the way, Elman shares his views on retention, network effects, product-market fit, and the opportunities he believes remain underexplored in consumer technology.

I’ve followed Josh since before his stint at Apple – it will be intriguing to see what kinds of consumer companies a16z invests in with him as a partner.

Definitely intriguing to hear someone from Product Marketing at Apple speaking about the broader state of technology as a whole in a new role.

View the announcement on X, listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts or watch the show on YouTube.

Categories
News Offsite

Reddit Megathread: What’s New in Shortcuts in iOS 27

I’ve started a megathread on Reddit for all the updates coming to iOS 27 for Shortcuts, covering everything found in the current developer betas.

I’ll be updating it each developer beta and as more stories pop up in r/shortcuts – here’s the outline of everything in there so far:

  • Describe a shortcut
  • Automations
    • Notification
    • Keyboard
  • Storage
  • Otherwise If
  • New action groups
    • Lists
    • Text
    • VPN
    • Sharing
    • Accessibility
    • Messages
    • Photos
    • Mail
    • Reminders
    • Get What’s On Screen
    • Cloud Pro, Broad World Knowledge in Use Model
  • More
    • Shortcuts Programming Language
  • Feedback

I’ll be posting much of this here on my blog as well, but I’m trying to contribute more as a moderator for r/shortcuts 😇.

Check out the thread on Reddit and subscribe to r/shortcuts.

Categories
News Shortcuts

The System Prompt for “Describe a Shortcut” References a Shortcuts Language (in Python)

[Update: Probably not. See edit for details from Federico Viticci]. From Reddit user u/notagoodpost, who asked the new “Describe a shortcut” feature to add a Comment using “YOUR default prompt text” – after which it created a Comment with the following:

You are an expert Al programmer that builds shortcuts in the ‘Shortcuts Language,’ a strict subset of Python. Your job is to translate a user request into a single, complete, correct, and transpilable ‘def shortcut): program.

Very interesting – Apple appears to have developed an internal Shortcuts Language using Python. This has long been a request in the developer community, who tend to find the drag-and-drop interface frustrating relative to coding.

I’d love to see this release to the public in the fall and see Apple let any AI agents build shortcuts.

Edit: Here’s a reply from Federico Viticci on Mastodon:

They’re using a custom internal language called Shortpy. They have an initial planner turn user prompts into a plan, the plan is turned into Shortpy code, then a compiler turns it back into Shortcuts syntax.

That’s not the full system prompt (they have several private frameworks behind this, such as ShortcutsLanguage, ShortcutsAgent, and more stuff buried in WorkflowKit), and I highly doubt they’ll turn this into something any agent can access anytime soon.

Check out the post on Reddit and see Viticci’s reply on Mastodon.

Categories
Links News

Apple introduces Siri AI, a profoundly more capable and personal assistant »

From Apple Newsroom:

Powered by Apple Intelligence, the new version of Siri is profoundly more capable and conversational, and deeply integrated across products.

View the original.

Categories
News

Bloomberg: ‪Apple Plans Customizable iPhone Camera App, Siri Overhaul »

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has another update on iOS 27, which includes new features for Camera, Siri, Safari, Weather, Image Playground, and system changes.

I want to highlight two parts from among the Siri features:

When users engage with Siri, they can swipe a transparent results card down to enter into a chatbot conversation mode, which looks similar to a text message thread. This interface has in-line mini app cards to see results for things like the weather, upcoming appointments and notes

This sounds like it’s modeled off the Follow-Up feature in the Use Model action within Shortcuts, which allows users to have an ongoing conversation with a model before pressing the checkmark to move forward (as covered in this session).

The “Search or Ask” interface looks similar to Spotlight Search on an iPhone today, but can show more advanced results and additional data from within apps. Users can press the search bar to toggle between using Siri or third-party offerings like ChatGPT or Gemini as their search engine.

This part—“can show more advanced results and additional data from within apps”—matches the advances in Image Search that Apple added in iOS 26 – developers can provide rich image results when scanning with the camera using Visual Intelligence (using App Intents).

Designing high-quality App Entity experiences will be key for developers wanting to integrate deeply with Apple Intelligence in iOS 27.

Read the story on Bloomberg* and check out the developer sessions from Apple:

(*Requires Bloomberg subscription – you can read all of Gurman’s stories in the Tech Newsletter Bundle for $11.99/month).

 

Categories
News

Apple Recognizes Developer Community Members

Apple has created a new Recognition page on the Apple Developer site recognizing community members, featuring profiles of 50 community members you can browse through, click on to read their story, and follow them directly. Here’s how Apple describes it:

“All around the world, developers do meaningful work that extends beyond great apps and games. They organize events, write tutorials, mentor others, and create spaces to learn and grow. By sharing their expertise and championing each other, they represent the best of the community.

And:

“Meet some of the inspiring people who are making a difference in the Apple developer community through technical contributions, thoughtful mentorship, and a commitment to helping others succeed.”

It’s excellent to see this kind of recognition for folks in the Apple Developer community, especially so many I’ve become familiar with at WWDC & CommunityKit, NSSpain, and Deep Dish Swift – incredibly well-deserved for everyone involved.

Check out the page from Apple Developer.

Categories
News

Hey Siri, open Software Update: iOS 26.5 is out

On Monday, May 12, Apple released the last OS update before announcing the next version at WWDC26 – now we’re on iOS 26.5. We’ll likely see another OS update this summer, but in effect this is the last version of iOS 26 and its most stable version.

Apple has three key features in this version – end-to-end encrypted RCS messaging (in beta), a new Pride Luminance wallpaper, and Suggested Places in Maps, plus new snoozing options for reminders. My favorite update, however, is automatic pairing when using USB-C to change devices – I switch keyboards at my home desk all the time.

Make sure to use my folder of Software Update shortcuts to jump to the page on your device, as well as check beta release notes.

Categories
Links News

CNBC: New Siri is “still on track to launch 2026” »

From Jennifer Elias at CNBC, in a story titled “Apple’s stock has worst day since April as iPhone maker faces FTC scrutiny, reports of Siri delay”:

Apple told CNBC it is still on track to launch in 2026.

While Apple originally only ever confirmed Siri would launch in 2026, the rumors that the iOS 26.4 beta would give us access became accepted as fact – even to me, to be honest. Now, they’ve reset expectations, but need to stop investor sentiment from getting out of hand.

View the original on CNBC (via 9to5Mac).

Categories
Links News

Amazon Alexa+ AI assistant now available free for Prime members »

From Amazon News:

With an entirely new architecture powered by large language models—from both Amazon Nova and Anthropic—Alexa+ is significantly more powerful, and customers are using it in completely new and different ways. They’ve moved from simple, formulaic requests to much deeper, more complex interactions—they’re streaming more music and having deep conversations about discographies, genres, and artists Alexa recommends just for them; they’re settling dinner table debates with a quick question, exploring complex topics, discussing the news of the day, and having deeper ongoing conversations with Alexa (sometimes over days, because Alexa+ can remember context). They are also interacting with Alexa+ in more places, chatting on the go in the Alexa app, and doing deeper research, planning, and generating content at Alexa.com—overall, customers are interacting with Alexa+ more than twice as much.

We’re finally leaving behind simple voice assistants and getting into the era of proper smart assistants.

View the original.

Categories
Links News

Apple is Hiring a Shortcuts Tech Lead Manager

From Careers at Apple:

Summary

Play a part in the next revolution in human-computer interaction. Contribute to a product that helps users tune their devices, making them more personal. Create groundbreaking technology to provide intelligence around the apps you use every day. Work with the people who created Shortcuts, Siri, and other system features that help millions of people get things done.

Our team is looking for engineers experienced with working on Apple platforms who are passionate about building complex, performant systems that power Apple Intelligence. In this role, you’ll be part of a cross-functional and collaborative team that works on frameworks and systems that interact with first-party apps and system services. You’ll ship code that runs on the devices you use every day and powers products that are critical to the lives of millions of users!

Description

You will primarily be responsible for developing features and driving performance for the internal frameworks and subsystems that enable action running on Apple platforms. As a Tech Lead Manager, you will manage a small team of one or two engineers while actively contributing code and providing technical leadership. This position is ideal for those interested in stepping into management while staying connected to technical work, or for experienced managers looking to balance leadership with hands-on development.

As a strong programmer and a creative problem solver, you will break down interesting technical challenges and create robust, performant solutions. You will work across teams and organizations, building relationships and crafting compelling system features. You finish projects with a keen eye to the details that surprise and delight customers. You are driven by building software that operates in extremely tight tolerances, where the pursuit of quality and the satisfaction of solving challenging technical challenges and constraints fuels your best work. You will also play a crucial role in guiding our existing products, leveraging your ability to anticipate issues before they arrive, and lead development of essential technologies in early stages. You care deeply about software architecture and writing code that is robust and maintainable for the future. You are excited about developing new features, as well as maintaining existing code, fixing bugs, and contributing to overall system design. You know it’s all in the details.

Posted January 22, 2026. Make sure to peep the Pay & Benefits…

View the original.

Categories
News

New ‘HomePad’ launch in spring corroborated by The Information »

From Wayne Ma and Qianer Liu’s report at The Information, quoted by Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac:

Apple is also working on a home product featuring a small display, speakers and a robotic swiveling base, designed with a heavy emphasis on AI features. That device could be released as soon as this spring, according to two of the people.

At this point, I am convinced this device will run on App Intents using Interactive Snippets.

View the linked story on 9to5Mac and view the original report on The Information (paywalled).

Categories
Links News

Inside Enchanté, Apple’s AI chatbot for employee productivity »

From Filipe Esposito for Macworld:

Macworld has learned that the company has begun rolling out two new AI-powered apps more broadly to employees in its offices. Both tools are designed for employees to not only test AI capabilities in real-world scenarios, a source said, but also integrate them into their workflow and even help improve Apple Intelligence.

[…]

The first app, called Enchanté, functions as an internal ChatGPT-like assistant for employees. The app can be used to assist employees with ideas, development, proofreading, and even general knowledge answers. The interface looks quite similar to what you see in the ChatGPT app for macOS.

And:

The second internal app, known as Enterprise Assistant, is far more specialized. Built entirely around Apple’s internal large language models (LLMs), Enterprise Assistant acts as a centralized knowledge hub for corporate employees.

View the original.

Categories
Links News

Apple reportedly replacing Siri interface with actual chatbot experience for iOS 27 »

Mark Gurman, quoted by Zac Hall on 9to5Mac:

Apple Inc. plans to revamp Siri later this year by turning the digital assistant into the company’s first artificial intelligence chatbot, thrusting the iPhone maker into a generative AI race dominated by OpenAI and Google.

The chatbot — code-named Campos — will be embedded deeply into the iPhone, iPad and Mac operating systems and replace the current Siri interface, according to people familiar with the plan. Users will be able to summon the new service the same way they open Siri now, by speaking the “Siri” command or holding down the side button on their iPhone or iPad.

More details on the upcoming chatbot version of Siri.

View the quoted story on 9to5Mac and view the original on Bloomberg (paywalled).

 

Categories
Links News

Apple’s Two-Phase AI Rollout – New Siri Soon, Chatbot Later »

From Mark Gurman, quoted by Jason Snell on Six Colors:

The previously promised, non-chatbot update to Siri — retaining the current interface — is planned for iOS 26.4, due in the coming months. The idea behind that upgrade is to add features unveiled in 2024, including the ability to analyze on-screen content and tap into personal data. It also will be better at searching the web.

And:

The chatbot capabilities will come later in the year, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans are private. The company aims to unveil that technology in June at its Worldwide Developers Conference and release it in September.


Jason speculates on the policy shift from Apple that would need to occur for these to run on Google’s servers too.

View the quote on Six Colors and view the original on Bloomberg (paywalled).

Categories
Developer News

OpenClaw Showed Me What the Future of Personal AI Assistants Looks Like »

From Federico Viticci for MacStories:

For the past week or so, I’ve been working with a digital assistant that knows my name, my preferences for my morning routine, how I like to use Notion and Todoist, but which also knows how to control Spotify and my Sonos speaker, my Philips Hue lights, as well as my Gmail. It runs on Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.5 model, but I chat with it using Telegram. I called the assistant Navi (inspired by the fairy companion of Ocarina of Time, not the besieged alien race in James Cameron’s sci-fi film saga), and Navi can even receive audio messages from me and respond with other audio messages generated with the latest ElevenLabs text-to-speech model. Oh, and did I mention that Navi can improve itself with new features and that it’s running on my own M4 Mac mini server?

If this intro just gave you whiplash, imagine my reaction when I first started playing around with Clawdbot, the incredible open-source project by Peter Steinberger (a name that should be familiar to longtime MacStories readers) that’s become very popular in certain AI communities over the past few weeks.

If he Claude Code craze over winter break wasn’t enough, the project-formerly-known-as-Clawdbot has taken over timelines as the next level of AI interaction on our personal machines – Federico has a great rundown.

View the original.

Categories
Links News

Apple Intelligence Siri is over a year late, but that might be a good thing »

From Michael Burkhardt at 9to5Mac:

All of this time passing means one thing: a lot more people have an Apple Intelligence-capable device.

Everyone who bought any iPhone 16 or iPhone 17 model at all in the past two years (plus anyone who already had an iPhone 15 Pro), will be able to use Apple Intelligence.

*Apple engineer taking this to their boss*: “You see? It’s actually a good thing we were so late.”1

View the original.

  1. Burkhardt is still correct here, and Apple also shouldn’t have been so late with it. ↩
Categories
News

Apple partners with Gemini to power the new Siri »

On Monday, January 12, Google published ajoint statement from Google and Apple:

Apple and Google have entered into a multi-year collaboration under which the next generation of Apple Foundation Models will be based on Google’s Gemini models and cloud technology. These models will help power future Apple Intelligence features, including a more personalized Siri coming this year.

After careful evaluation, Apple determined that Google’s Al technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models and is excited about the innovative new experiences it will unlock for Apple users. Apple Intelligence will continue to run on Apple devices and Private Cloud Compute, while maintaining Apple’s industry-leading privacy standards.

View the statement and the post on X.

Categories
Links News

John Giannandrea to retire from Apple »

From Apple Newsroom – quoted in full:

Apple today announced John Giannandrea, Apple’s senior vice president for Machine Learning and AI Strategy, is stepping down from his position and will serve as an advisor to the company before retiring in the spring of 2026. Apple also announced that renowned AI researcher Amar Subramanya has joined Apple as vice president of AI, reporting to Craig Federighi. Subramanya will be leading critical areas, including Apple Foundation Models, ML research, and AI Safety and Evaluation. The balance of Giannandrea’s organization will shift to Sabih Khan and Eddy Cue to align closer with similar organizations.

Since joining Apple in 2018, Giannandrea has played a key role in the company’s AI and machine learning strategy, building a world-class team and leading them to develop and deploy critical AI technologies. This team is currently responsible for Apple Foundation Models, Search and Knowledge, Machine Learning Research, and AI Infrastructure.

Subramanya brings a wealth of experience to Apple, having most recently served as corporate vice president of AI at Microsoft, and previously spent 16 years at Google, where he was head of engineering for Google’s Gemini Assistant prior to his departure. His deep expertise in both AI and ML research and in integrating that research into products and features will be important to Apple’s ongoing innovation and future Apple Intelligence features.

“We are thankful for the role John played in building and advancing our AI work, helping Apple continue to innovate and enrich the lives of our users,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “AI has long been central to Apple’s strategy, and we are pleased to welcome Amar to Craig’s leadership team and to bring his extraordinary AI expertise to Apple. In addition to growing his leadership team and AI responsibilities with Amar’s joining, Craig has been instrumental in driving our AI efforts, including overseeing our work to bring a more personalized Siri to users next year.”

These leadership moves will help Apple continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible. With Giannandrea’s contributions as a foundation, Federighi’s expanded oversight and Subramanya’s deep expertise guiding the next generation of AI technologies, Apple is poised to accelerate its work in delivering intelligent, trusted, and profoundly personal experiences. This moment marks an exciting new chapter as Apple strengthens its commitment to shaping the future of AI for users everywhere.

Huge transition for Apple, which has been bleeding AI researchers for months.

View the original.