iOS 27 makes applying Shortcuts a lot less intimidating

The Shortcuts app can be intimidating for casual iPhone users, but with iOS 27, it’s much easier to use. With Apple Intelligence integration, shortcuts can be created in natural language and are much more accessible to the average person.

Describe a shortcut

When you tap the New Shortcut button in the ‌iOS 27‌ Shortcuts app, the Describe Shortcut interface opens.

There’s a text box that asks you what you want your shortcut to do, and you can describe what you need in natural language. You can start with a single step or add multiple settings. ‌Apple Intelligence‌ selects the correct actions, creates the automations, and puts it all together into a completed shortcut. Some examples of what you can do:

• Each evening, set tomorrow’s alarm based on my first calendar event, activate Sleep Focus, and dim the bedroom lights.
• Every morning, show me my first meeting, today’s weather, and my reminders for the day.
• Turn on the porch lights at night when you receive a notification that the food delivery has arrived.
• Send an ETA to my partner when I leave work, then start playing my podcast.
• Show me a summary of my meetings for the day and my to-do list, and suggest anything I should prioritize.
• When I open YouTube, turn off orientation lock. Turn it back on when I close the app.
• Give me a three-line summary of today’s tech news.

Shortcuts and automations can be run based on time of day, location, an app action, a system feature like a screenshot, an incoming notification, and more. Shortcuts can do all sorts of things, from accessing system features to opening and running applications.

Add improvements

After dictating a shortcut, the application will describe each of the actions that the shortcut will perform. If that’s what you want, you can press the play button to test it out. It will be added automatically to your personal shortcuts.

If this isn’t quite what you want or you want to add more functionality, you can use the “Describe a Change” interface. You can input what you want to change and go through several rounds of refinement until you get exactly what you want.

Shortcuts can be used from Siri, app, control center, action button, etc.

Edit manually

Once created, you can access a manual editing interface if you want to add more complicated actions or edit without using ‌Apple Intelligence‌. AI Shortcuts is in beta and is not always perfect, so sometimes manual edits are necessary to achieve the desired end result.

You can also open any shortcut and use ‌Apple Intelligence‌ mode to make changes.

New automation triggers

• When a notification is received
• When a screenshot is captured
• When a keyboard is connected
• When an Apple Watch workout starts

New actions

There are several new actions in the Shortcuts app.

• Automate a save in Notes
• Send messages to a group chat
• Updated Get What’s on Screen option that gets contextual information from the display (e.g. text, title, or links)
• Choose an item from a list
• Delete conversations or messages in Messages
• Mark as read in Messages
• Search messages
• Open message inbox
• Send a tapback
• Automatically enhance photo
• Delete albums and photos
• Favorite photos
• Hide photos
• Open photo
• Create a group in reminders
• Create a section in reminders
• Delete groups, lists and sections in reminders
• Edit the list in reminders
• Unmute the hearing aid
• Toggle vehicle movement signals

Improved Apple Intelligence models

Shortcuts can use enhanced ‌Apple Intelligence‌ models that have access to vast global knowledge, meaning the model can search the web for information.

There are now Cloud, Cloud Pro, and on-device templates that can be used in Shortcuts. Cloud Pro is capable of searching the web and is used for queries that require information from the Internet.

Data storage

Shortcuts can store and update data, allowing you to do things like add items to a list or keep a count.

Automation updates

Automation is no longer a separate section in the Shortcuts app and automation triggers are located under general Shortcut actions.

Cross-platform support

The Describe Shortcut feature is available in the Shortcuts app in ‌iOS 27‌, iPadOS 27, and macOS Golden Gate.

Requirements

Features in the ‌Apple Intelligence‌ Shortcut app require a device that supports ‌Apple Intelligence‌, which includes iPhone 15 Pro and later, iPads with an M series chip or iPad mini with A17 Pro, or a Mac with an Apple silicon chip.

Supported languages ​​include English, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Vietnamese, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Japanese, and Korean.