Category: Newsletter

Welcome to Issue 83 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” — this week has Apple announcement energy in the air, but no news as of yet.

iOS 16.1 is just over the horizon and with it iPadOS & macOS — I’ve written that line too many times, but it’s creeping up now.

Aside from some continued sync issues that I ended up ranting about, the community puttered along quietly in anticipation of what’s hopefully a more-stable period for Shortcuts ahead.

Until then, here’s what’s new in Shortcuts since the last issue:

Welcome to Issue 82 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” — this week we saw some critical bug fixes in the iOS 16.1 betas, a lot of ideas from the Twitter community, and great resources popping up elsewhere online.

Especially with Shortcuts reaching a more stable footing than in the past few months, I got the sense that I was finally actually experiencing the full iOS 16 release in a regular week.

I’ve still only really used Stage Manager on iPad a handful of times, I finally gave in and set up “Open Folder” shortcuts for all of my folders—a strategy that 100% only makes sense for me alone—and truly tapping into App Shortcuts is taking time after bugs in the betas preventing all of them from showing up.

I’m excited for the iPad and Mac releases to drop in a few weeks and be able to really settle into this full release — it’s definitely making my daily work more productive.

Until then, here’s what’s new since last time:

Welcome to Issue 81 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” — fall is here, iOS 16 has been out for a few weeks now, and all of Apple’s new products have been in folks’ hands for a bit.

Now that we’re into October, we’re expecting iPadOS 16, macOS Ventura, and possibly another hardware announcement — potentially via press release only — and all Apple platforms will thankfully be back in sync.

Hopefully by then, Shortcuts will reach a bit more stable ground than in the latest betas, which has had ongoing bugs from the last few rounds — make sure to keep filing Feedback if you run into anything!

This week, I’m digging into the iPhone and the AirPods more, waiting on an Apple Watch Ultra, and settling into my new schedule now that this newsletter goes out Mondays.

Plus, in light of reduced columns at iMore, I’ve been massively reworking my member releases so I can publish much more often — thanks as always for your support.

Until next time, here’s what’s new this week:

Welcome to Issue 80 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” — this last week, we saw the Apple Watch Ultra & AirPods Pro 2 ship, and with those the extension of the hype cycle around the Apple event.

I’ve got my hands on the new AirPods—and used the excellent new volume controls while writing this newsletter multiple times—but I’ve not gotten the Apple Watch Ultra just yet…

However, I did get a chance to take the ferry over the Bay into San Francisco with a small group and test out the new iPhone camera for a photowalk on Sunday. As a follow-up, I’m also streaming this evening to edit up some of the shots we took. I will definitely be hosting another in-person event sometime in the future — we had a lot of fun!

Also, a bit of housekeeping: this newsletter will be going out Mondays now — that way, I can cover the entire Monday-Sunday week prior, plus do more fun experiments (and take proper breaks) over the weekend.

Here’s what’s new in the last week:

Welcome to Issue 79 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” — iOS 16 is finally out, the iPhones 14 are in people’s hands, and that means it’s time for a new set of Shortcuts actions!

I’ve released my set of iOS 16 shortcuts below, which everyone can get for free — these are my own App Shortcuts-like folders for each of the new actions available for Voice Memos, Notes, Clock, Hotspot, Parked Cars, Safari, Background Removal, and Shortcuts.

Basically, I wanted each of you to immediately have a new shortcut for each action available, so you don’t have to generate them yourselves — get them below.

Plus, as you’ll see in this issue, I managed to go viral this week with over 3 million views, I shared an initial look at App Shortcuts in iOS 16, and tomorrow I’m hosting three app developers to talk about their implementations — enjoy:

Welcome to Issue 78 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” — did you order an iPhone too?

After this week’s keynote, I opted for a black iPhone 14 Pro and upped my storage to 1TB (in case of video), plus put in an order for AirPods Pro 2 to replace my aging set — and I’m still thinking about getting an Apple Watch Ultra in-store at launch… (you’ll know why in a moment).

Now, iOS 16 is all set to release on Monday and I’ll be going wild over all the new App Shortcuts & more-powerful Shortcuts actions — I can’t wait to try everything out once they hit the App Store in full.

Plus, I’m super excited to put out my set of iOS 16 shortcuts, start in on covering this year’s new opportunities, and get back to YouTube videos now that I’m fully settled in my new apartment — until then, here’s what new this week:

Welcome to Issue 77 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” — we’re just a few days away from the iPhone event and likely only a few more until iOS 16 after that.

That means a whole new season of Shortcuts is almost upon us, with new opportunities for native actions, third-party apps, and deeper integrations all around.

I’m getting super excited to release my iPhone shortcuts first, then iPad and Mac once those OS updates come out in October — and some long-awaited member projects ?

If you’re in the U.S., I hope you’re enjoying your long Labor Day weekend — here’s what’s new in Shortcuts to finish off the summer:

Welcome to Issue 76 of “What’s New in Shortcuts!”

I took last week off after moving into a new apartment all week took longer than expected, and this week Apple announced their iPhone event coming September 7th.

That means we’re in the last two weeks of the iOS beta cycle—with iPadOS and macOS Ventura coming later—so we’re in the final stretch before the new OS features get released.

I’ve got a set of iOS 16 shortcuts for iPhone waiting, plus more on the way once the iPad and Mac are released, so I’m excited to get those into people’s hands. Plus, I’ve got a new set of member shortcuts in production — I’m pumped for this release!

Until then, here’s what’s new in Shortcuts these last two weeks:

Welcome to Issue 75 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” — we’re probably a month or so away from iOS 16 and the App Shortcuts scene is starting to heat up!

In this issue, I linked to a few new apps with Shortcuts support you should check out, I got fantastic ideas around automation from my stream with Rosemary Orchard and the Twitter community, and I published two stories about using Shortcuts from the Share Sheet and on the iPad you can read on iMore.

Plus, Shane Whatley shared a great NFC automation trick for AirTags, and John Voorhees shared a tip Mac users will want to know for their scripting shortcuts — here’s what’s new this week:

Welcome to Issue 74 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” — this week I shared my Pro Apps Shortcuts Wishlist, how to best use Shortcuts on iPhone, and worked off the CardPointers’ developer’s tweets to explain how App Shortcuts in iOS 16 will look.

Eve also updated their Motion sensor to add luminosity-based Home Automations, a new Playpen app for parents launched in beta, and your NATO alphabet needs just got resolved.

Plus, I’m livestreaming with Rosemary Orchard this Friday — you should join us Friday for the stream.

Welcome to Issue 73 of “What’s New in Shortcuts”!

This week we saw the second Public Beta of iOS, iPadOS, and macOS — which meant an awesome new Shortcuts action called Find Tabs for Safari, plus more for Mail and Reminders too.

I streamed for over an hour as I played around with the new actions, so make sure to jump through the chapters and see what we built off the chat’s ideas.

I also published a few strong opinions on iMore, Rosemary released her second edition of Take Control of Shortcuts, and I learned about a new Easter egg in the Shortcuts app…

Welcome to issue 72 of “What’s New in Shortcuts!” — this week is a quieter mid-summer period where we didn’t see any news, but there’s always new shortcuts ideas popping up on Twitter.

Plus, I published a few stories for iMore, showed off my Focus Modes on TWiT, and got deep into some design changes that I’ll be showing off in a few weeks:

Welcome to issue 71 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” — the public betas are finally here and more of you can play around with the new Shortcuts features!

That being said, I’ve definitely run into some bugs that break my very-specific workflows, so I wouldn’t recommend installing everything unless you have backup devices.

Otherwise, the betas are fairly stable, the new actions are ready to be used, and now’s the best time to dig into your Shortcuts workflows before the busy season — my summer of Shortcuts is really just getting started…

Welcome to Issue 70 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” — we are very close now to the public beta, and with that comes a new set of actions to play around with until the launch of iOS 16.

Now that we’re on the third round, the developer betas are a bit more stable and I’ve gotten past some of the high-level bugs (the kind that tend to affect users with as many shortcuts as I do). However, as I note below, a few new actions ended up breaking too…

Otherwise, this week I published a handful of fun stories, found some great ideas and apps on Twitter, and got extremely jealous at an awesome NFC workflow — here’s what’s new this week:

Editor’s note: Revue, the service I use to send this newsletter, has had email delivery issues lately, leading some readers to get the last issue sent to their Spam folder — if this happens to you, mark the email as Not Spam to help ensure future issues make it to your inbox.

Hello readers!

It’s been a while — I took a break from this newsletter while working on try big Shortcuts Library rerelease (more below) and continued through WWDC to focus on the updates. Now I’m back at it, just ahead of the public beta release that’s scheduled for sometime in “July.”

This issue focuses on the major headlines from the last three months, including all of Automation April from MacStories, plus a regular section of this week’s community posts at the end.

Throughout the summer, I’ll be covering tweets, articles, and ideas that I missed the last few months and integrating it into the regular newsletter content — I’ll try to get everything so nothing is missed from the break.

Thanks for being a reader! Hopefully this first link will make it clear why I needed to focus my efforts:

Welcome to Issue 68 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” – what a week for Shortcuts tweets!

Florian Bürger shared his Fjorden automation (say that five times fast), an important SOS shortcut is making the rounds on TikTok, there’s a handful of new apps with great Shortcuts support, and an impressive list of ideas straight from the community.

Plus, stay for the end as I guide you through my super-intelligent choice to delete my entire Shortcuts database on the Mac – and learn how I barely made it through the other side with my library (partially) intact:

Welcome to Issue 67 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” – this week is full of feedback reports, beta testing, and, as always, great ideas from the Shortcuts community.

I was up to no good with Jason & Dan on the stream, Federico followed up an impressive week with another impressive shortcut, the Albums app & Ochi caught my eye, and Stephen Robles & Chris Lawley shared their expertise on YouTube.

Plus, I’ve got a stream with Lickability cofounder Matthew Bischoff coming this Friday, as well as some new posts dropping throughout the week – enjoy:

Welcome to Issue 66 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” – this week we saw the release of iOS 15.3 with a slew of bug fixes, the beta for iOS 15.4 and the long-anticipated drop of Universal Control, and we’re now on the tail end of iOS 15’s remaining features before Apple switches gears to iOS 16 this summer.

Shortcuts is now much more stable than it was previously in the fall and it seems like Apple has managed to process all of the Feedback we’ve been submitting – I’m very grateful for the bug fixes this week, as is much of the community who’ve been awaiting these changes.

I spent much of the week flying through new shortcuts for GTD (still a work-in-progress), put together a good technique in the Discord community that I’ll be sharing for members soon, and started unleashing a series of Shortcuts stories I’ve been working on (linked below).

Next week, I’ll be streaming with the Six Colors crew, and covering some new apps dropping throughout the week.

Until then, here’s what was new in Shortcuts – the Twitter community shared good ideas as always, MacStories had another banner Shortcuts week, and Jarrod Blundy took off in a rocketship:

Welcome to Issue 65 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” – this week is the last iteration of the current iOS and Mac beta cycles, meaning soon we’ll have new versions of Shortcuts with bug fixes out.

As I mentioned last week, Shortcuts seems to be mostly stable now and I’ve been able to rely on more shortcuts that were previously broken – things like Copy to Clipboard and Convert Time Zone are fixed.

I am unfortunately still having sync issues (my folders lost their sort order twice this week) intermittently, so I hope you all don’t run into that after the update.

Otherwise, this week we’ve got a lot of goodness to cover – I shared some soundscape and mind mapping shortcuts, we saw some new apps adding actions, Six Colors put out more podcast notes follow-up, and there a very, very cool spotlight from the App Store:

Welcome to Issue 64 of “What’s New in Shortcuts” – this week we saw iOS 15.3 beta 2 and macOS 12.2 beta 2 come out, resulting in a slew of bug fixes coming out from the various feedback that the community sent in over the fall.

I specifically saw clipboard fixes on macOS, fixes for “Get My Shortcuts” on iOS, and a bunch of other quality-of-life improvements, which are extremely welcome – I’ll say this cautiously, but I think this next release could be properly stable for Shortcuts users still cautiously waiting.

It is quite encouraging to see some of the specific Feedback that I’ve filed now being addressed, and it does make sense that turnaround times from Apple may be more like from release-to-release rather than beta-to-beta.

And while that’s still honestly hard to stomach up to 8 weeks of a bug persisting, it does prove the investment in getting problems you’re specifically aware of fixed by submitting Feedback rather than hoping it gets addressed – something I banked on too much last year and will be tackling head-on this year if something gets in my way.

Beta changes aside, I was very pleased with the volume of ideas, stories, and discussion material I’m seeing this week. People seem rested up and ready to tackle their problems with automation this year, so there’s lot of Shortcuts goodness to dive into – plus a new set of shortcuts from yours truly: