For me, I have shortcuts on my Mac to change the wallpaper based on time of day (light or dark), but that’s it. I’d maybe be interested in using more if I could think of a good use case, so share yours, if you have one
Simple - a share menu shortcut that just says “remind me about this later” and a small pop up asks if to remind you in 2 hours/in the evening/on the weekend/when i get home. Superr useful.
I want this, how do you set it up?
Yes, on iPhone only, though. I like that you can schedule them to run at certain times which is super helpful with home automation. As a former jailbreaker, I used to miss Activator but Shortcuts does everything I need.
A few good ones:
- “I’m being pulled over” will start recording video and stream it as well as text contacts your location. The ACLU put this one out in 2020.
- “On my way” will calculate my driving time to home, pad it by a few minutes for stoplights, and text it to my wife.
- I have a HomeKit garage door opener/sensor. I have a shortcut that runs at 9pm and texts me and my wife if any of the doors are still open and displays a prompt to close them.
A few of my absolute essentials:
- Open URI - what it says on the tin. So very helpful for all those times when a YouTube link opens in the browser.
- Quick Look - also what it says on the tin. Invaluable for previews- I also recently discovered it can be used as an ephemeral markup button! Helpful for filling out bingos and immediately texting the result.
- Fetch Image - helpful when trying to share “images” (that are actually image links - Discord especially likes to be annoying about this) to other apps. Just fetches the image and lets me share the actual image instead.
- Stitch - a really budget version of the Tailor app. Usual workflow goes like, take a bunch of screenshots, crop them so they perfectly align vertically, share to Stitch and copy the result to clipboard :)
I mostly use these shortcuts on iOS; on macOS, Preview does everything I need and more!
What’s the fetch image shortcut? That’s a constant problem I have
Essentially just “Get Contents of URL” and sharing the result.
I’ve got a few on my phone:
- one for playing a sound when my phone is charged
- another for starting my Streaks timer when certain reading apps are opened, so that I can track how long I read every day across apps automatically
- when my Sleep schedule begins (when I’m going to bed), I automatically change the screen colour to grey to help prevent being distracted. When I wake up, it turns that off.
- I have one HomePod, and I don’t use it much, but it has a temperature sensor and when that goes over 25C I get a notification so I know to turn on the AC
In iOS 16, you can have multiple lock screens that can be customized. (long press the lock screen). Then you can go into the sleep focus and set the lock screen to the one you created. I have focuses for work, school, driving, sleep, and otherwise each with different lock screens.
Oh this is different, it’s a colour filter so that there is no colour at all on the screen. Everything is monochrome. It’s not just the wallpaper. That makes it harder to see those bright red, orange, yellow ads or buttons that distract at night
Ohhh, that’s actually a pretty smart idea I think I might have to try that out!
Toggle VPN off, tied to my Work focus. One time I logged into work email while connected to a VPN. Freaked out my IT.
I have an automation that reminds me to drip the faucet if it’s going to freeze overnight.
I have one to setup my primary and backup alarmclocks. It trigger when i plug the charger and gives me 2 options. If i dont press any then no alarm set.
I also use datajar to store variables, this way the clock automation toggles an automation in the morning to put a on a dimmed smartlight. It should also show me the weather and windspeed for the day but i always seem to miss that notification.
For a while i also had a system where a light changed color depending if i still have time or am running late but that one i have to redo since reconfiguring some stuff.
Almost forgot: an automation to reset the variables and clocks again for the next day.
I have been considering making it even more smart like checking my work schedule and such but I haven’t gotten around to it. Also sucks that ipads no longer support the newer HomeKit update.
I have a shortcut that turns on my tv’s in the morning (Apple TV), switches them to Spotify, and plays a logo music playlist for me. It lets me have music playing throughout my house as I’m waking up making breakfast
Nope. Everything I have tried setting up has required me to do something every time it tries to run. Kinda defeats the purpose if I have to authorize or open the app when I want it to run automatically.
That’s odd - I’ve never encountered anything where I hade to authorize a shortcut.
I use one that allows me to use Siri to ask Google stuff instead. Could surely be used with other search engines as well.
For one thing, you don’t need a Shortcut to change wallpapers based on time-of-day — that’s natively supported by “Dynamic Wallpapers,” and you can make your own out of arbitrary images! https://9to5mac.com/2022/03/30/how-to-use-find-make-dynamic-mac-wallpapers/
As for Shortcuts — well, I use ones for starting and ending my workday, a lot (tying together various work-timers like Hubstaff and Harvest and Timing; changing Slack status, changing my focus-mode for the day … etc.); but they’re honestly kinda underwhelming / underpowered.
I get the most out of them by gluing together several automation tools — command-line scripts, Shortcuts, and kinda-janky GUI-automation tools (like https://keysmith.app, although it’s janky enough that I dunno that I can wholeheartedly recc’ it …). Sadly, though, it’s rare that it saves more time than it costs to set up. /=
I have quite a few personal shortcuts based on my alarm, bedtime, and location. They mainly send a signal to home assistant, which actually handles the rest of the automations.
I have exactly one shortcut I use on my iPhone, and it’s a photo shrinker because I realized the PNGs that come off this bad boy are like 12MB, and that feels like a lot to be asking folks to download for a quick pic of my flowers or a shitpost I made in mematic.
I have a shortcut that prepends archive.is to the current website, then opens the new URL in a new tab. Really good for bypassing paywalls!
Have you tried the Bypass Paywalls browser extensions? They even have a user script for Tampermonkey and the like + a blocklist to add to uBlock Origin that covers mobile Firefox too, way easier than having to pump everything through the archive sites.
I have some on my phone.
I mostly use “Going home” which sends a text to my wife with my ETA. I copied and modified that for “biking home” and “walking home”.
I’ve also used one I found that generates a QR code for your wifi connection, which you can then print out for your guests to scan so they don’t have to bother with a password to use your wifi.