Thread by @viticci

Hello world.

My first shortcut, running inside Siri.

On a more serious note:

Like I imagined, Shortcuts IS Workflow, but much more powerful thanks to Siri. All the advanced features are here, plus new actions.

Here's a Toggl API workflow running in Siri. Took me 2 minutes to update it.

I'm going to have so much fun with this.

You can run arbitrary JavaScript in Safari with Shortcuts and I'm going to lose my goddamn mind with this app

More highlights from Shortcuts beta:

- Scriptable Do Not Disturb (!!) and other device settings
- Third-party URL schemes fully supported
- Show Result for Siri with Magic Variables
- New payment actions based on SiriKit

Needless to say:

Expect a ton from me about Shortcuts both on @macstoriesnet and @ClubMacStories soon. (Someone is getting married somewhere in Europe first, and we're traveling.)

This is the future, and it's going to be so much fun. Be along for the ride. 😎

Here is how Shortcuts is a game changer for personal automation:

In a simple flow of actions, control Do Not Disturb, HomeKit, and Music – and summon everything via voice, without ever opening the app.

Creating an automated assistant will be amazing 😎

Just for fun: launching third-party URL schemes via JavaScript from Shortcuts' extension in Safari 😜

Error message aside, it looks like this is a full JS environment in Shortcuts/Safari – ideal for bookmarklets and whatnot. Prompts can be displayed, can navigate to other pages, alter features on the current page, etc. Lots of cool hacks possible with this.

Last shortcut demo for tonight: you can invoke iOS' native Markup mode in Shortcuts so...annotate multiple screenshots at once, then delete the originals and just keep the edited versions ☺

(This can also work for photos and PDFs, perhaps imported from Dropbox too)

Stuck in a little loop, aren't we Siri? 😜

If you have any Shortcuts questions, or would like to know if certain shortcuts can be made, feel free to ask away.

Going to spend some time over the next few weeks digging deep into all of this. Expect tons of demos. ☺

Shortcuts automation + Apple Music: with one command, Siri can add a song to a shared playlist, grab a link to the song, and send it to a contact.

All happens inside Siri by talking to Apple Music API and Gmail. No opening Shortcuts necessary. 😍

A simple but useful thing: a clipboard character count in Siri thanks to Shortcuts.

Fun with Shortcuts and web APIs:

Here’s a suite of @toggl shortcuts for time tracking. Siri can return an existing timer, start a new one, and stop them. All done via voice.

These are going to be great on HomePod 😎

Shortcuts isn't just Siri, of course.

Here's how I save App Store apps as rich cards in Trello using the Trello API inside the action extension.

A shortcut is also run as a function with the 'Run Shortcut' action.

Turn Siri into a personalized news reader with Shortcuts – here’s how I can listen to headlines from @macstoriesnet and @9to5mac via Siri 😎

(Also: thanks @_inside for letting me upload this shortcut to his @sharecutsapp directory. You can find it here: sharecuts.app/download/F141A…)

Experiments with Shortcuts and the Slack API:

I can now ask Siri to enable Slack’s own Do Not Disturb mode over the API. The same shortcut can resume notifications as well. I’m going to use this a lot.

One of the advantages of Reminders: native integration with Shortcuts.

With powerful filtering and Magic Variables, you can query the Reminders database in the background, retrieve tasks, and do whatever you want. No URL schemes. In this example, fetching a subset of tasks.

More experiments with Reminders and Shortcuts:

Given a list with reminders that contain URLs in their note field, a shortcut uses native Reminders actions + a regular expression to filter these links and present them in an alert or Siri voice output.

Here's another Reminders shortcut I've been working on:

Extract reminders that contain URLs, present them in a list, and open the original webpage in Safari. Works with multiple links in the same reminder, as well as third-party URL schemes. Coming this week on @ClubMacStories.

I have now reached the point where I can load any arbitrary photo, HTML content, and even video in Siri thanks to shortcuts and the Scriptable app 😳😎

(The video plays; links in HTML are not tappable.)

In iOS 12, native app shortcuts (based on SiriKit intents) can run inside the Shortcuts app, but they don't support setting inputs and outputs.

With the clipboard, however, it's possible to return data from apps inside Shortcuts. The app's extension runs 100% in the background.

So this is pretty wild:

I can dictate text via Shortcuts, then append it to a Scratchpad file with a third-party shortcut.

The visual intent can also be used in Siri to preview the text file with native Quick Look 😎

To recap my coverage of the Shortcuts app so far:

- Chapter in my iOS 12 review: macstories.net/stories/ios-12…

- IFTTT + Siri: macstories.net/ios/how-to-tri…

- Multilingual dictation: macstories.net/ios/how-to-dic…

- iPhone XS frames: macstories.net/ios/adding-dev…

And more:

- Siri + HDMI-CEC + TV:

https://twitter.com/viticci/status/1042890726231691264?s=12

- Overcast custom shortcuts: macstories.net/reviews/overca… + macstories.net/ios/overcast-5…

- PCalc multi-currency shortcut: macstories.net/reviews/pcalc-…

Lastly, our full Shortcuts hub on MacStories: macstories.net/tag/shortcuts/

Of course, there’s a lot more coming (with advanced shortcuts for @ClubMacStories members too), *and* I’m also working on a new dedicated archive containing 4 years of my workflows, updated for the Shortcuts app.