Apple Upgrade Shortcuts App in iOS 12 With More Controls

One of the less talked about features in iOS 12 is the new Shortcuts app. It’s more of an app meant for power users to help them get things done more quickly and efficiently automatically without having to do them manually. It’s a neat way of making different workflows that you can easily trigger via Siri or using the app.

Apple is now updating the Shortcuts app with even more features, so users can enhance their existing shortcuts or create new ones. The app now lets you get weather info, so you can use data from the Get Current Weather and Get Weather Forecast actions and use them within your shortcuts to perform different tasks based on the weather.

The app now even lets you create alarms and timers with shortcuts, and that’s going to be really helpful for when you are trying to create automated, Shortcuts-based routines for different times of the day, or when cooking, etc. Here is the full set of new features coming to Shortcuts:

• Use the latest weather in your shortcuts with the new Get Current Weather and Get Weather Forecast actions
• Set alarms and timers with the new Create Alarm, Toggle Alarm, and Start Timer actions
• Convert between a variety of units with the new Measurement and Convert Measurement actions
• Get the most recent set of imported photos from the Photos app using the Get Last Import action
• When running a shortcut from HomePod using Siri, media will now automatically play back from HomePod using AirPlay

Apple’s Shortcuts app isn’t included as part of iOS itself, so the latest update is available through the App Store just like any other iOS app. I love using the Shortcuts app to do things that weren’t easily possible before — for example, there’s a handy shortcut that lets me download videos from YouTube, Twitter, Instagram via the share sheet with a few taps. It’s really handy. If you haven’t tried the app out yet, make sure to give it a go.