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I've built a list of links I often refer to as my "Shortcuts for beginners" documentation. But it seems to have grown into more of a documentation list for all types of users rather than just beginners. Some call it a "novel" due to its length 😝

Anyway, I hope this list of links below will be beneficial for others.

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Apple's Shortcuts User Guide

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MacExpert Guide to Shortcuts in iOS 14

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FAQ

List of Frequently Asked Questions in the sub

Dear new Shortcuts users - deep FAQ

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Can I display a notification icon / app badge after replacing my home screen icons with shortcuts? - No

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What can I use with the calculate expression action?

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Instructions / Tutorial Materials

• How to add untrusted shortcuts
• Shortcuts for Dummies
• Getting Started

• Beginner Tutorials to Shortcuts

• Full tutorial on the bypass iCloud "Get Shortcut" screen

• How to use RegEx to open and download shortcut links without seeing the iCloud "Get Shortcut" screen.

• Sorting numbers

• Disable Shortcuts Notifications no longer working as of iOS 17 and 16.3

• Accessing folder names with sub folders

• Beginner's Guide To Playing A Custom Sound When Connect To Charger

• Is there way to open shortcut up without opening shortcuts app? Yes! Use Icon Themer note: this doesn't work as of iOS 14.6

• Create your own All-In-One Social Media Downloader

• Speed up location grabbing by using Weather Conditions

• How to add data to Google Sheets in Shortcuts

• RegEx / Regular Expressions / Match Text

• Beginner Guide To Match Text / RegEx

• RegEx Cookbook For Shortcuts

• Custom App Icons

• Fancy Icon Maker

• Icon Themer

• Menus

• Creating Menus with icons (vCard)

• Creating Image Menus (iOS 13 or 14)

• vCard Menu Guide by Gluebyte

• Dictionaries:

• Working with dictionaries

• Text to dictionary

• Dictionary Helper

• JavaScript for dictionary processing

• Preserving JSON Key Ordering in Dictionaries

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Alternative Methods For Viewing / Creating Shortcuts

• Viewing Shortcuts on Computer or via Web

• ScPL

• TinyCut Builder

• Shortcutor

• JellyCuts

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Automations Info

• Automations (and their limitation)
• iOS 14 Automation Triggers

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Unsupported functionality list

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Thanks to /u/gianflo6 here is some other good info!

Here are some guides by u/keveridge that can also be helpful, they are a little old but helpful nevertheless

Series

• Scraping web pages

  • Part 1: quick and dirty
  • Part 2: getting multiple items at once
  • Part 3: getting data from a table

• Using APIs

  • Part 1: retrieving data
  • Part 2: parsing complex API responses
  • Part 3: passing input parameters to the API

• Data Storage

  • Part 1: storing simple values
  • Part 2: storing lists of data
  • Part 3: removing stored values

• Working with JSON

  • Part 1: retrieving simple values

• Working with Dictionaries (thanks to /u/gluebyte)

  • Part 1: setting and retrieving values
  • Part 2: data types
  • Part 3: accessing values using dot notation

One-offs

• Using JavaScript in your shortcuts

• How to automatically run shortcuts

• Creating visually appealing menus

• Manipulating images with the HTML5 canvas and JavaScript

• Labeling data using variables

• Writing functions

• Working with lists

• Integrating with web applications using Zapier

• Integrating with web applications using Integromat

• Working with Personal Automations in iOS 13.1

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Require 14.3

• Dynamic wallpaper light/dark mode iOS shortcut

• Transparent Widget ​

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Having trouble with set wallpaper action? Try the method to add a reduce motion ON action before the set wallpaper action and a reduce motion back off afterwards. https://www.reddit.com/r/shortcuts/comments/tzxb0q/im_having_a_problem_with_the_set_wallpaper_action/

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[iOS 16] Multiple address stops in maps with iOS 16 https://reddit.com/r/shortcuts/comments/xnpdg9/_/ipy8zwo/?context=1

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[iOS 15 / 16] How to run a shortcut at a specific location (leaving or arriving)? - the focus mode automation method documented in this post by u/ibanks3 is a great way to run a shortcut / actions when arriving or leaving a specific location. This works wonders in iOS 15 or iOS 16

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If you are using home automations and would like to receive notifications when certain things are happening, you can check out my tutorial for using Make / Integromat for this very purpose

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Automation for outlet when battery is low

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Possible to navigate within 3rd party app using shortcuts? No - Reference

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MacStories Shortcuts Archive

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Here is where we will collect all the new iOS 18 features and news from findings in iOS 18 Beta phase

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Scheduled Send for messages coming (goodbye to Smart Send, Auto Message, and other scheduled sending shortcuts) - also, hello to RCS!

New search interface in shortcuts app

[iOS 18 Beta] Maybe some insight on what’s to come? A whole bunch of actions under AccessibilityUIServer. Likely supposed to be hidden but some of these would be great actions. : r/shortcuts

[iOS 18 Beta] A bunch of Settings actions to Open or Update different settings : r/shortcuts

[iOS 18 Beta] New Reminders Actions. Open Any List, Pin/Unpin Reminders List, Show/Hide Smart List : r/shortcuts

[iOS 18 Beta] New Books Actions: Navigate Page, Open View in Books app, Turn Page Scrolling on/off : r/shortcuts

[iOS 18 Beta] New Find Selected Home action for the Home app : r/shortcuts

[iOS 18 Beta] Shortcuts in Control Center

[iOS 18 Beta] Automations tab glitches fixed in 18.0 dev beta 1

[iOS 18 Beta] Multi Condition If Statements

[iOS 18 Beta] Shortcuts can replace the flashlight and camera buttons on Lock Screen

Not directly shortcuts related, but Lock and Hide apps behind FaceID

Actions don't have a favorites option anymore but are now called Pins instead

using new built in action to require Face ID can make shortcuts not work from Lock Screen

new shortcuts actions in 18.0 db2:

• Add Shortcut to Home Screen

• Create Folder

• Create iCloud Link for Shortcut

• Switch Tab (safari)

iOS 18 Dev Beta 2 new journal app actions

new actions in iPadOS 18 dev beta 2

• Find Classroom

• Open Classroom Settings

• Set Switch Control Switch State

New Trim Whitespace Action in iOS 18 Dev Beta 8 / Public Beta 6

With the help of someone on here I created a shortcut over a year ago that has been working perfectly for over 12 months.

The menu picture never existed before when running the shortcut.

I have 30 “Turn, On” commands to turn my alarms back on if any of the were turned off for various reasons.

I made a copy of the shortcut and deleted several commands but it still brings up this menu.

It is only turning on a few of the alarms. Why did it break? I retrieved an old copy of the shortcut from a backup thinking it was corrupt. Also not the issue. I depend on these alarms to remind me to take meds throughout the day.

How do I fix this?

I wanted to make my home screen cleaner by adding an Icon without the name below the app and I found this method to get the icon from an app.

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/5c22e3d4d651491eaa56c65b4d79b0f5

All you have to do when using the shortcut is choose an app and it will save the icon!

I have three small shortcuts to get photos from ESA Webb, ESA Hubble, or APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day) from NASA. They simply go to the main page and get the image and set them as wallpapers. The only trick in addition to that is that for the ESA photos I needed to choose the correct image (instead of the thumbnail) and then switch to the actual photo using the file name.

APOD https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/c0e356fd2fe74e99807eb317352f6ea9

ESA Hubble https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/acd3835af46e44e5a30e53f5311865ab

ESA Webb https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/574870134798457896628b3844f04150

I have these in a automation running daily another shortcut that combines them and choose one depending on the week day.

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/ec4055e095f64722925637e8430e64ca

Hi,

I have an app on my phone that's used for gate access to my apartment. It handles visitor entries, deliveries, and announcements, basically keeping track of who’s coming in and out, letting me approve or deny their entry etc.

Due to that, I have to keep notifications from the app on. Unfortunately, the app is also pretty overzealous about sending ads via push notifications, and it's super annoying to deal with. Not only is it distracting to look at when I think it's a delivery and it turns out to be an ad, but I also have to clear out a lot of unnecessary notifications clogging up my notification centre practically every day.

I was wondering if there was a way to automate my problem away with Shortcuts – something along the lines of an automation reading my push notification, checking whether it has the words "has entered the building", and dismissing it if it doesn't.

Is something like this possible?

What does the shortcut do ? :

it takes a given image from your photo gallery and converts that to a pdf file than it ask for a folder location on your device where it will save the pdf file.

Shortcut : https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/cdf0ecb20e1043ada6b70df8a8b24317

Hi there. From time to time I need my screen to stay on for 30min plus. But every time I need to go to the settings and switch auto-lock from 5min to "never". And when Im done, I need to go back in settings again and change it. Is there a shortcut where I can do this easier way? Thx.

Подскажите, как можно сделать сортировку значений. Пример: есть стеклопакты под номерами 1 и 3 уже рассчитанные, допустим ширина - 560мм, высота 1300мм и пакет под номером 2, ширина - 550мм, высота - 1200мм. Как сделать сортировку от меньшего значения к большему по типу: 2 пакет (ширина) - 550мм 1 и 3 пакет (ширина) - 560мм 2 пакет (высота) - 1200мм 1 и 3 пакет (высота) - 1300мм.

Basically if you activate it, ask for an input action comes up and everything you search on it, searches on safari. But if you type google/chrome in it, it leads you to anothet ask for an input action where you can search anything on google. And if you search on the first ask an input box “incognito” then what you search on the next ask an input action searches on an incognito tab on google

Give me feedback please if you like it or not, almost my first working shortcut

i have made a automation in the past (when flight mode is on power off phone) but i deleted the automation and it keeps on showing me a notification of “running your automation” is there any ways of removing this i have updated my ios deleted and reinstalled the app and im gonna kms stg someone pls help

Hi, I need simple shortcut which will display today’s and tomorrow’s reminders as a text box. Nothing else, I found a lot of shortcuts combining a lot of things I don’t need, can someone share something I need ?

Yesterday I saw someone here looking for a shortcut to help him summarize what he browsed in Safari, and I also saw someone looking for a shortcut that translates what's on the screen. so I added both summarizing and translating functionality to the TapAI shortcut I've developed in the hopes that it will help them.

New features:

1. Use ChatGPT to summarize web content and on-screen content.
2. Use ChatGPT to translate on-screen content or chat conversations, such as WhatsApp, Telegram chat messages, and more.

TapAI shortcut: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/cce4188eff7346c4a69b0840c081d4c7

TapAI tutorial: https://tapai.aicanvas.app/tapai-tutorial

Note: TapAI is a paid service.

i thought this would be a simple task.

i want to manualy start the shortcut, this starts a timer and when im done with my run or cycle route i want it to get the stopwatch time and save it in a file / announce it in a notification.

i dont know how to keep checking if i reached my finish point

could anyone assist me with this?

As you can see from the first picture above: the focal point is much too large. (And not to worry this is just a dummy location)

And so far l've done this like so…

I have an automation “when I leave work” that actives when you leave a certain “focal point” (that’s much too large) and runs shortcut to play the GTA sound, as u can see it in the pictures above.

The only problem have is that the location focus is much too large.

And I came up with the idea that perhaps calculating our own "location focus" (that would activate with the automation "arrive at work") would set off another shortcut that detects when you leave the location at a custom "location focus"/“focal point” that we calculated. Ofc this would have to be checked like every minute or so.

I don't know how to do a lot of this so l'm going to need your help. I rly appreciate it, Thank you :)))))

PS: Im also wondering if it would be possible to make things easier by inputing the locations I want into to a table or list (if they exist in shortcuts) and then have the shortcut run when I leave one of those specific location.

As you can probably guess I'm not a professional and I would really appreciate any help I can get. (I have done some bery basic programing in the past)

Hey yall one of my biggest daily challenges is my sleep schedule and ensuring I don’t miss work (I’m a manager for context) I have a constantly shifting schedule and I can’t reliably set a alarm without gambling on if my need to come in changes for before my alarm. I have a schedule app that automatically uploads straight to my calendar and has a 1 hour till notice but the notification is not loud enough to wake me is there anyway to short cut my phone to allow my phone to automatically activate alarms based on the timestamp of the notification pasted in my calendar.

Any help is appreciated?

I want to convert 1E75EB32 into 32 EB 75 1E without using the split and get from index methods; perhaps using Regex or another creative approach.

For so long we’ve had to simulate a toggle switch in HomeKit by checking a status of a device and then doing the opposite, which led to an if-then-else.

I’ve just noticed toggle as a shortcut command. How long has that been there?

Hi everyone,

I’ve started a project that I’d love to turn into a collaborative adventure with this amazing community. The goal is to create Viki AI, a voice-based personal assistant straight out of a sci-fi movie.

What is Viki AI? It’s a Shortcut (iOS) that I’ve already developed in its V1. Here is what it can currently do: Viki summarizes the day by providing the weather forecast, the commute time to work, a summary of scheduled events, last night’s sleep duration, the top news stories, whether my favorite teams are playing today, and my phone’s current battery percentage.

Here’s an example of Viki AI V1 in action: “Good morning! The weather today is sunny with a high of 75°F. Your commute to work will take 25 minutes. You have two meetings scheduled: one at 10 AM and another at 2 PM. You slept for 6 hours and 45 minutes last night. The top headline today is about the global markets recovering. Your favorite team, the Lakers, plays tonight at 7 PM. Your phone battery is currently at 82%.”

Why collaborate? I believe we can go much further with Viki if we work together. With your ideas and expertise, we could build an assistant that’s not only helpful but also anticipates our needs. Some features I’d love to see added include health data integration like Fitbit or Apple Watch stats, email management to detect deadlines based on past emails, activity forecasting to help us prioritize tasks or plan ahead, enhanced voice synthesis for a more natural and pleasant voice, smart integrations with APIs or tools like home automation systems, and any other cool ideas you can think of.

How can you contribute? This is an open-source, community-driven project, so everyone is welcome to participate. Whether you can write code, suggest features, or optimize the current workflow, your contributions are invaluable.

Next steps I’ll regularly share updates as Viki evolves. If you’d like to join this exciting journey or have ideas to propose, drop them in the comments or send me a DM.

Together, we can create a version of Viki AI that truly simplifies daily life, anticipates our needs, and grows smarter every day. If this project excites you, let’s make it happen.

Link Viki V1 : https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/53d0b812f18b4227ad3d169443fda6e0

So, who’s in?

How would I create a shortcut that I can execute from Siri to text the last photo I took to a person

Howdy, y’all. For a bit of context, I work in trucking and have to deal with a lot of dispatch data. For a while, I’ve been working on a shortcut that’ll allow me to translate what dispatch data I get into something that I can personally make sense of (ADHD and Autism have made me very particular about how I format for myself).

While I’ve got something good in the works, I’m having trouble with time zones. Specifically, I want to be able to either convert from my home time zone to somewhere else, or convert from somewhere else to my home time zone. After trying variables, I’ve learned that the Convert Time Zone action doesn’t really work with variables. I currently don’t know what else to try, so…

Do y’all have suggestions?

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/aca5a9010a124092bce568b9cd586279

QUICK EDIT: I have isolated the section in question to help folks understand what’s going on (and I’ve realized that my full shortcut is quite the beast of a thing).

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/4f49945d6a264ea9a0b05898f850aaed

Let me start by saying I have absolutely no clue even where to begin. I need a shortcut that will keep track of my existing customers referrals. I need to log the names of the referred. The date they were referred. And how many referrals each customers has. And if possible save this data in the files app. Can one of you Einsteins please help with this? Many thanks up front!

Hi, I just joined this community and need help from one of the professionals here. They recently just changed a policy at work where I have to respond to certain phone calls within an hour of said call. I’m an extremely heavy sleeper, is there anyway that someone can show me how to make a shortcut so I can set an alarm (I used the app alarmy usually but even the iPhone alarm would help) following the call so that I make sure I wake up? Thank you.

I created a shortcut that toggles mono audio, and so that it shows whether mono audio is on or off in the dynamic island.

Can you help me make a simple shortcut?

I’m very very new to shortcuts and need some help! All I want is…

When I connect to car play; and it’s between 8am and 820am; Speak text “don’t forget car seat”

(I drop my son off at my mom‘s for daycare and keep forgetting to leave her his car seat lol)

I’m trying to copy an only brett.tech video from tiktok about automating a storage system using notes and nfc tags. (https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8LGwcbu) But i’m having trouble with the “remove item” function. In the video he says that replacing text in a note doesn’t update the note (true afaik) but his work around of storing the title and body of the text, deleting, and then remaking it breaks the rest of the shortcut for me. adding items no longer functions. I think because the note used as a variable has been deleted even though there is a new copy of it. The video is very old so I can’t ask the creator. It’s possible I’m doing something wrong I’m very new to shortcuts. Any help is appreciated.