Apple Shortcuts is an 📝Apple product for speeding up actions on Apple platforms — a free visual automation app that chains drag-and-drop actions into small scripts you can run with a tap, a trigger, or 📝Siri. It is the new version of the Workflow app, which Apple bought from its developer DeskConnect in March 2017 and made free; Workflow was relaunched as Shortcuts alongside iOS 12 in September 2018, became a built-in app with iOS 13, and reached the Mac with macOS Monterey in 2021, superseding Automator. At launch some theorized that Siri might finally become good because of it, and the 2025 releases pushed further by adding 📝Apple Intelligence actions that let a shortcut call a language model mid-sequence. Unlike cloud automation services such as 📝Zapier and 📝IFTTT, Shortcuts runs on the device itself, wired into system triggers and app actions. It ships free on 📝iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch, serving everyone from casual users importing a ready-made shortcut to power users building full no-code tools.
Shortcuts is the glue I reach for between Apple's trigger surfaces and my augmentation stack. I wrote up wiring it to 📝Claude and the iPhone Action Button in 📝How to Use Claude with Apple Shortcuts — the button ends up less a Claude button than a general-purpose trigger for whatever agent sits on the other end of the URL.
Key Features
- Visual action library — Hundreds of drag-and-drop actions span Apple's own apps and third-party apps, chaining into multi-step scripts with variables, conditions, and repeat loops.
- Personal automations — Shortcuts can run on their own when triggered by a time of day, arrival at a place, a Focus mode, an NFC tag, connecting to CarPlay, or opening a specific app.
- Siri and system triggers — Any shortcut runs by voice through Siri, from the Action Button, widgets, the Share Sheet, Back Tap, or the Mac menu bar, with no extra app required.
- Get Contents of URL — Sends HTTP requests to any web API and parses the JSON response, turning Shortcuts into a lightweight client for external web services and AI models.
- Apple Intelligence actions — Newer releases add Writing Tools, Image Playground, and a Use Model action that sends a prompt to Apple's on-device or cloud language models.
Getting Started
- Open the Shortcuts app, preinstalled on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch.
- Tap + to create a shortcut, then search the action library and add your actions.
- Name the shortcut — the name doubles as its Siri phrase — and test it with Run.
- Open the Automation tab to trigger it by time, place, Focus mode, or app launch.
- Browse the Gallery or the r/shortcuts community for ready-made shortcuts to adapt.
Related
- 📝Keyboard Maestro — a long-running Mac automation app for text expansion and trigger-based macros