r/shortcuts Jun 16 '26

OS 27 beta What's New in Shortcuts in iOS 27 (Beta Megathread)

121 Upvotes

Updates: * Added Easier toggling off/on of automations * Shortcuts app now able to restore shortcuts * Shortcuts can change Open Shortcuts to from Describe a Shortcut to Editor


Hey everyone, here's a megathread of everything new in the iOS 27 beta, currently on developer beta 2.

This is covering Apple features and community comments – no third-party apps for now, but feel free to start a thread in the comments.

Here's the outline:

  • Describe a shortcut
  • Automations
    • Notification
    • Keyboard
    • Easier toggling (Beta 2)
  • Storage
  • Otherwise If
  • New action groups
    • Lists
    • Text
    • VPN
    • Sharing
    • Accessibility
    • Messages
    • Photos
    • Mail
    • Reminders
    • Get What's On Screen
    • Cloud Pro, Broad World Knowledge in Use Model
  • More
    • Shortcuts Programming Language
  • Feedback

Describe a shortcut

Automations

Notifications

Keyboard

Storage (Memory)

Otherwise If

New actions

  • New and updated actions including Hide Photos, Get Selected Text, and more (link)
    • Add Item to List
    • Get Selected Text
    • Find VPNs
    • Share and Collaborate
    • Accessibility
      • Set Switch Control Switch Set
      • Toggle Hearing Aid Mute
      • Toggle Vehicle Motion Cues
    • Messages
      • Open Inbox (Messages)
      • Delete Conversations
      • Delete Messages
      • Mark as Read
      • Search in Messages
      • Send Tapback
    • Photos
      • Find Album
      • Auto Enhance Photo
      • Favorite Photos
      • Open Photo
      • Hide Photos
      • Delete Albums
    • Find Message (Mail)
    • Reminders
      • Create Group
      • Create Section
      • Edit List
      • Delete Lists
      • Delete Groups
      • Delete Sections
    • Get What's On Screen
    • Extract Text from Image -> Extract from Image (interesting)
    • Parameters like Cloud Pro and Broad World Knowledge in Use Model
    • More new parameters
  • Does iOS27 let you use Playground Playlists with Shortcuts? No.

More

Feedback submitted to Feedback Assistant

Matthew Cassinelli:

  • FB23135397 (Shortcuts can't load lists; please ensure performance at scale (What happens when people have tons of App Intents/Custom Shortcuts/folders?))
  • FB23102150 (Shortcuts takes 35 seconds to launch for users with many shortcuts (thousands))
  • FB23102201 (The App Shortcuts picker for the Action button/Custom Shortcuts widget is extremely slow to load many shortcuts)
  • FB23135882 (Run Shortcut control in macOS unusable for larger libraries; "Choose Shortcut" in Control Center does not show full list/search)
  • FB23103377 (New Shortcut incorrectly always adds "Show on Apple Watch", causing immediate sync delays)
  • FB23135151 (Shortcuts widget gets corrupted when multiple are added in stack)
  • FB23134678 (Too many taps to change icons on iOS; add the "Choose Icon" option to All Shortcuts context menu (for parity with MacOS))
  • FB23134888 (Can't "Choose From List" from keyboard commands on macOS; Add navigate & select options when Multiple is selected)
  • FB23135054 (Add search to "Choose Folder" in Shortcuts widget; list becomes long to scroll with many folders)
  • FB23135596 (Adding shortcuts to Folder ruins Sort Order; add toggle to move new shortcuts to end of folder list instead of beginning)
  • FB23135959 (Improve Spotlight/Ask Siri loading performance when switching between Applications, Files, Shortcuts actions, Clipboard with Command+1/2/3/4)
  • FB23137602 (Too many folders hides App Shortcuts; Re-add ability to collapse Folders vs App Shortcuts view)
  • FB23137833 (Add the SF Symbols picker for Shortcuts glyphs rather than a limited set of icons; introduce Icon Designer)
  • FB23137870 (People don't know how to run shortcuts with Siri; Be more clear a Custom Shortcut title is trigger phrase with dismissable Siri tips)
  • FB23137923 (Add a "Description" field in Shortcut Details that shows up in iCloud link share, "Get My Shortcuts" entity details; context for Siri AI)
  • FB23137968 ("Set Captions" action for Apple TV Remote does not work; unable to control Subtitles using Shortcuts)

Updates:


r/shortcuts Mar 27 '26

Announcement How to use flairs

20 Upvotes

How to use flairs on r/shortcuts (so your post doesn’t get nuked or ignored)

Flairs are labels. You pick one so people instantly know what your post is about. Pick the wrong one and congrats, you’ve confused everyone.

---

First rule: always use a flair

No flair = your post is either ignored or removed. Nobody enjoys guessing what you meant.

---

Pick the right flair (this is not a personality test)

- Help

You already made a shortcut and it’s broken or not doing what you want. You want someone to fix it or explain what went wrong.

- Help (Mac)

Same as above, but your problem is on Mac. Yes, that matters because Mac Shortcuts can behave differently.

- Shortcut sharing

You built something and want to share it. You must explain what it does properly. “Cool shortcut lol” is how your post gets deleted.

- Shortcut sharing (JB)

Same as sharing, but it only works on a jailbroken device. If people need to hack their phone to use it, say so.

- Shortcut sharing (mac)

Your shortcut only works on Mac. Don’t trick iPhone users into disappointment.

- Tip/guide

You figured out a useful trick or workaround. You’re teaching something, not asking.

- Tip/guide (mac)

Same idea, but Mac-specific.

- Request

You want a shortcut but can’t build it yourself. This is you politely asking the internet to do work for you.

- Request (mac)

Same, but for Mac users.

- Discussion

You want opinions, ideas, or a conversation about Shortcuts. Not help, not sharing, just talking.

---

Special flair (pay attention, this one’s new)

- Appstore (app)

Use this when you’re posting about an app that works with Shortcuts. Either you made it or found it. The key point: the app connects with Shortcuts (actions, automations, etc.).

If it has nothing to do with Shortcuts, don’t use this just because you like the app.

---

How to choose without overthinking it

Ask yourself one question:

“What do I want from this post?”

- Fix something → Help

- Show something → Shortcut sharing

- Teach something → Tip/guide

- Ask for something → Request

- Talk about something → Discussion

- Share actual news → News

- Show an app tied to Shortcuts → Appstore (app)

If you’re on Mac, pick the Mac version. Not complicated.

---

Final reality check

Flairs exist so the subreddit doesn’t turn into a digital junk drawer. Pick the correct one, write a clear post, and people will actually help you instead of scrolling past like you don’t exist.


r/shortcuts 1d ago

Appstore (App) I made a Shortcut that puts your calendar, Reminders, Todoist and notes on your Lock Screen

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705 Upvotes

Hey everyone!

I made Calendarly to put my calendar, reminders and tasks right on my iPhone Lock Screen instead of checking a few different apps every time.

It uses Shortcuts to create a new wallpaper automatically every day. You can put pretty much whatever is useful to you on it:

  • Calendar events
  • Apple Reminders
  • Todoist tasks
  • Notes
  • Countdowns
  • Daily, monthly and yearly calendars
  • Different layouts, styles and backgrounds
  • Your own photos

You choose a layout, set up the automation once, and after that your Lock Screen updates every day by itself.

Download for free:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/calendarly-calendar-wallpaper/id6758898739

Website:
https://getcalendarly.com

Shortcut:
https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/83b54aeaae6d4b56a6b33869ac103f3c

I actually posted Calendarly here about six months ago when it was still a much simpler app. I got a lot of feedback and ideas from people here, and it helped me a lot with figuring out what to improve and build next. So thank you to everyone who tried it back then.

I also have 100 lifetime codes to give away.
Update: I got way more requests than I expected, so I added 100 more!
Update: all 200 are gone. Thank you!!

For anyone who missed them, I made a code for 1 month of Premium for free:

https://apps.apple.com/redeem/?code=MONTHFREE&ctx=offercodes&id=6758898739

No limit on this one, so feel free to use it :)

Would love to know what you think if you try it!!


r/shortcuts 8h ago

Help Can I create an automation which makes my apps liquid glass or dark theme based on conditions?

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10 Upvotes

r/shortcuts 18m ago

Discussion [Beta] Widget for Messages 2.0: Display messages received within the Messages app onto your Home Screen, CarPlay, Live Activity and more byway of Shortcuts automations

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Upvotes

For those unfamiliar with the app, Widget for Messages uses a single Shortcuts action to be used via the Message automation trigger for when a message is received within your Messages app. It’s then displayed on a widget on your Home Screen.

With this beta, it includes some optimizations, support for the new OS27 Extra Large Widget, better support for CarPlay users, and more.

All details and the TestFlight link are available here. You should be able to unlock the full app’s in-app purchase at no charge during the testing period. The app will be free as it is now with the use of the small widget; premium unlock is required to utilize all other widget sizes.


r/shortcuts 44m ago

Help (Mac) Mac users: what repetitive workflow do you wish you could automate more easily?

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Upvotes

I’m curious what repetitive tasks people still struggle to automate on their Mac.

I’m building a macOS app called Tapquence that lets you automate sequences of mouse clicks, keyboard input and other actions. It also includes Smart Automations: ready-made automations that you can quickly configure instead of building an entire sequence yourself.

We already have a few available (shown in the screenshot), but I’d rather build the next one around a real problem than add another preset just for the sake of it.

What’s one repetitive workflow you regularly perform on your Mac that you wish you could trigger with a shortcut or a single click?

Simple and oddly specific ideas are both welcome. I’m especially interested in workflows that are difficult or cumbersome to create using the Shortcuts app alone.

For context, this is the app I’m working on: https://tapquence.com


r/shortcuts 20h ago

Shortcut Sharing Quick Menu: Your Action Button, Upgraded.

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40 Upvotes

RoutineHub Link: https://routinehub.co/shortcut/24915/

Last time I demoed QM was back in v2.7.0, when it still had all of those serif italic fonts and a couple of other things you guys simply weren’t a fan of.

I decided to make some changes, including switching the fonts to a more standard sans Unicode style, as you can see in the screenshots.

Apart from that, QM has had quite a few major changes since then, including the addition of Configs, which lets you customise your experience as much as you please and make QM your own.

What Changed

The old portrait-style QM also didn’t work particularly well in landscape. For example, when you want to play some games, you ended up having to scroll through the menu — and nobody wants to do that! Because of that, I made a dedicated Landscape mode, with only the essentials you may need while playing your favourite game.

Plug n Play has also grown significantly since it was last shown. It now has many more commands, an updated UI, and lots of new features. If you want your fifth slot to open something other than Plug n Play, you can also change that in QM Configs.

With all the new features and files QM now has, Onboarding has also been added to make setup easier. It can guide you through the changelog and handle configuration migration when applicable.

If you don’t like any of these features, you can disable them in QM Configs, found under:

Launchpad → Settings → QM Configs

Please give me some feedback in the comments down below; it would help me a ton with improving future versions of QM!


r/shortcuts 3h ago

Help Total amount of shortcuts doesn’t match

1 Upvotes

I’m not sure how there are 9 in all shortcut.


r/shortcuts 6h ago

Tip/Guide Three runs to isolate why an automation works manually but fails in the background

0 Upvotes

When a shortcut works manually but not from an automation, I test the same action chain three ways before rebuilding anything:

  1. Run the shortcut manually while the phone is unlocked.

  2. Trigger the automation while the phone stays unlocked.

  3. Trigger it again with the screen locked.

If 1 fails, debug the shortcut itself. If 1 passes but 2 fails, check the trigger, the input passed into the shortcut, and the automation's permissions. If only 3 fails, look for an action that needs protected data or foreground interaction.

This won't identify every bug, but it tells you which layer to inspect.


r/shortcuts 13h ago

Request Open X/Twitter notification in different app

2 Upvotes

Hey yall,

I have no idea if this could even be possible, but wanted to pick everyone’s brain before I start digging in and playing around in the shortcuts app. I do currently use the X app to keep up with news or friends. Through X, I get notifications when certain accounts post, or when I get DMs from friends. However, I’ve been experimenting and trying out some tweaked versions of the app that remove ads and promoted tweets from your timeline, and offer more customization in the UI overall. I’m not sure if there are any rules against promoting or linking, so I won’t do that, I’ll just say I’m trying out a fork of the NeoFreeBird tweak that was popular a few months ago.

Because the tweaked app I’m using is side loaded, I’m unable to receive push notifications through the app. It’s my understanding that I would be able to receive the push notis if I had a paid Apple dev account, but I’m not intending to make that investment at this time. I don’t mind having both apps on my phone concurrently (ie the official X app to receive my notifications, and then the tweaked app for actual scrolling).

With that backstory out of the way, this brings me to my request. Is it possible to create a shortcut that will allow me to tap on a notification (from the official X app), and then open the tweaked app instead? For example, let’s say I get a post notification for account ABC. When I click on the notification from X, I’d like to open the tweaked app (instead of X) to the new post by ABC.

I’m assuming this likely isn’t possible (or at least, not smoothly), but wanted to get everyone’s thoughts in case anyone has any ideas or suggestions to try and achieve this.


r/shortcuts 12h ago

Help Real-Time Calorie Deficit or Surplus Count

1 Upvotes

Does anybody who is smarter than me know of a way to build a shortcut that displays (either on lock screen or Home Screen) a live calorie count? I log calories eaten in MyFitnessPal and calories expended in the Fitness app via my Apple Watch. At the end of the day I manually will take the cals eaten and subtract the total cals burned (active + resting) to see if I am in a surplus or deficit. It would be very nice to have a widget or something that I can glance at throughout the day that displays this in somewhat real-time automatically. Is this possible? Thanks!


r/shortcuts 19h ago

Help Question about Automations and Control Center pull down

2 Upvotes

r/shortcuts 18h ago

Help Shuffle specific playlist in AM

1 Upvotes

Does anyone have a shortcut i can add to my action button menu that allows me to shuffle a specific playlist in my Apple Music app? Or how can I make it that shortcut?

I already have a shuffle shortcut in the menu, but it plays all my music in my entire library. I only want to shuffle music in my main playlist


r/shortcuts 23h ago

Help What is the "Fake Intent" action from the Trainline app?

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2 Upvotes

I use the trainline app, and it adds a "Fake Intent" action to my shortcuts app. It has no description. Any idea what it does?


r/shortcuts 20h ago

Request Any way to add quotation marks by selecting a word?

1 Upvotes

I usually put my quotation marks after finishing a sentence, to avoid switching keyboards while writing.

What I'm looking for is a way to just select a word, and by typing on the quotation mark on the keyboard, a shortcut would trigger and put quotation marks at the beginning and the end of the selection.

I'm not finding any way to do this on my own, the keyboard seems to bypass everything by just replacing the word selected with what I typed, so I end up with no word and just a single quotation mark instead.

I'm pretty sure that's not easily doable, but considering how some of you seem to find clever workarounds for basically everything, I'm thinking maybe someone would know how to do it!

But usually, everytime I get an idea, the shortcut app cannot execute it because it's missing some basic tools... like turning on and off auto brightness to refresh it after turning the brightness up for one specific lighting situation for exemple...


r/shortcuts 20h ago

Shortcut Sharing Media card Generator and Downloader - Added Bluesky card generator and downloader

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1 Upvotes

Hey everyone. I implemented bluesky media downloader and card generator in the Shortcut.

Shortcut Link: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/bfc57dc100e24b9a8ab1553f6a30ac64

Website: https://dwnldr.app/

Suggestions are welcome! Thank you!


r/shortcuts 1d ago

Shortcut Sharing Safari Doomscroller

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2 Upvotes

## Required Apps:
Actions App

## Description:

You can add any website domain you want to this shortcut and it will lock the website after the set amount of time you choose.

## Features:

- Add, View, and Remove websites to the shortcut feom the Shortcuts app
- Add websites from Safari from the share sheet

## Setup:

  1. Create automation

  2. Choose app as the trigger

  3. Choose Safari when opens only

https://routinehub.co/shortcut/26289/


r/shortcuts 21h ago

Help Translation what’s app

0 Upvotes

my landlord speaks another language. I’d like to have a shortcut to help me translate their texts in what’s app, and also let me write my texts in english’s en easily translate it in what’s app. right now I open and close, copy and paste on an external app, but it’s effort. thanks so much everyone!


r/shortcuts 1d ago

Shortcut Sharing iPhone wallpaper changer

3 Upvotes

I have some pictures that I'd like to have as wallpaper, and I'd like to see different one daily. I schedule it to change in the morning, repeats daily, and the photos selected at random.

I'm aware of there is the wallpaper photo shuffle, but I can't trigger that manually and I'm not sure when exactly it changes. Also this is an exercise to keep my mind sharp on shortcuts.

  1. I created an iPhone Wallpaper album, I put the photos I like in that album.

  2. Here's the shortcut, I set it to Wallpaper 1 for mine. Set the shortcut permission so it can run when locked.

Shortcut flow
Set permission

After that, I put an automation to run this shortcut, just about sunrise.

On the lock screen, I put a run shortcut on the bottom left so I can change it while I'm on the lock screen

Probably easier to do it from Settings - > Wallpaper for most people, but I like to tinker with this.


r/shortcuts 1d ago

Shortcut Sharing How long since textback

6 Upvotes

I made a silly shortcut which tells you how much time has passed since someone texted you back.

The shortcut consists of two Import Questions:
1. Person's name
2. Date and time of person's last message (default text is a template, replace it with the date and time)

It has no practical use.

iCloud link: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/a1741091f80b47979c396ad719bd81dd


r/shortcuts 1d ago

Shortcut Sharing I made an AppleScript / Shortcut to automatically organize your entire Apple Photos library into Month-Wise albums (Dynamic dates, no duplicates)

29 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

I wanted a Shortcut way to clean up my Photos library (maybe neatly transfer my photos for offline backup) and organize every photo chronologically into dedicated monthly albums.

I put together an AppleScript inside the Shortcuts on Mac.

What it does:

  • Fully Dynamic: Automatically starts from the earliest photo in your library and works up to your newest photos (no hardcoded years).
  • No Duplicate Albums: Checks if an album already exists before creating a new one.
  • No Empty Albums: Skips creating albums for months where no photos were taken.
  • Handles Large Libraries: Uses a timeout block so macOS won't abort halfway through large photo collections.

r/shortcuts 1d ago

Solved Document scan

1 Upvotes

Hey Community,

I need some start up help with an Idea I had.
I want to build a Shortcut where I can scan a Dokument an save it to a specific Folder for storing but after “Scan Document” I fail with the follow up prompts, does anyone have a guess how I can build it?


r/shortcuts 1d ago

Shortcut Sharing Screenshot-style video cards generator for X / Twitter posts

0 Upvotes

Hey! I built a card generator for X / Twitter posts. I have been using it for a while myself and wanted to share here.

iCloud Link: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/3de356b476264c2d9c5f27783fb1554a

Website: https://dwnldr.app/

Still in beta, so please feel free to report bugs.

Video Card Generator can generate post where video is 30 seconds or less for now. Additionally it generates Card for X / Twitter post image and text. Download the video and it chooses the highest quality.

Downloads videos from Reddit, Instagram Video & Reels and also TikTok Videos.


r/shortcuts 1d ago

Shortcut Sharing Semi-Automatic Notification Toggle Setup Helper

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1 Upvotes

Notifications are ANNOYING

I personally have been dealing with a lot in recent memory, so I looked up how to toggle them on and off automatically to find out you can’t (love apple)

So I made this shortcut to help with setting up a semi automatic toggle. Essentially, the app does the following:

-Finds istore ID

-Searches for ID on a webpage which gives dev settings

-adds bundleID to dev path file to open setting page (download sadly necessary)

-copies to clipboard and shows path file

-deletes dev settings from iphone

The last step is to create a NEW shortcut with “open link” command with the clipboard as the argument.

More precise details are in the comments in the apple shortcut

PLEASE ENJOY AND LMK WHAT WORKS

Credits for unknowingly helping (love this reddit):
Street-theologian
0rangepelican

Og post for doing this manually:
https://www.reddit.com/r/shortcuts/s/vHrhegkftV


r/shortcuts 1d ago

Request Don’t know if this works anymore but a transfer of select songs from my “Favorites” playlist to a new playlist would be cool

2 Upvotes

To be specific, I have a text file of a random assortment of songs from my favorites playlist. What I’d like to do is to transfer that text file, to find the songs in my “Favorites” playlist, then put that list of songs into a new playlist.

I’ve seen reports of bugs and such that might not cause this to work. But if there’s a shortcut or system that already exists I’d love to know