Make your daily use of iPhone or iPad easier by automating tedious tasks with iOS 12 shortcuts.
Worthy successors of Workflows, the shortcuts of iOS 12 allow you to perform complex tasks by performing successive actions to obtain a precise result. If the creation of a shortcut is quite simple for the most common tasks, it turns out to be more complicated when it involves variables and / or conditions.
If this should not pose a problem for users with basic programming skills, this work logic is not available to everyone. If you are not ready to get your hands dirty to create complex shortcuts from scratch, it is possible to download ready-to-use ones, created by other users of the application and directly shared on iCloud. But before you can enjoy it, you must first download the Shortcuts app on your iPhone or iPad if you haven’t already.
- Download Shortcuts for iPhone / iPad (Free)
1. Search for a product on Amazon
The Amazon application already natively offers to use the iPhone’s camera to scan a barcode or search for a product from a photo. But to use it, you need to unlock the iPhone, open the app, and go to the product finder.
There’s a much faster shortcut that, when added to iOS widgets, allows you to scan a product’s barcode on the fly to find it on Amazon.
To use it, simply run it from the widget or from the Shortcuts application, and scan the barcode displayed on the box of the product to search for.
Get the Search on Amazon shortcut
2. View the price history of a product on Amazon
Amazon regulars are probably already familiar with the camelcamelcamel platform, a website that records the price history of products sold on the merchant site. A shortcut relies on this platform to give you quick access to a product’s price history while you shop on the app.
To run the shortcut, open the Amazon app and view the listing for a product you covet. Press the Share button on the product sheet, and choose Shortcuts.
Tap on the shortcut and wait. Once the script is executed, you should see the price history of the product for several months or even years.
Get the Price History shortcut on Amazon
3. Convert Live Photo to GIF
IOS Live Photos lets you capture a snapshot and record 1.5 seconds of what happens before and after the captured scene. While the functionality is fun, the exploitation of these mini-videos is very limited. However, an iOS shortcut gives you the possibility to use the hundreds of unnecessary live photos that clutter your iPhone to make GIFs.
To use it, launch it from the Shortcuts application. A window containing all your Live Photos is displayed. Select the Live Photo you want to turn into GIF and press OK. The Shortcut runs the script and generates the GIF which is immediately displayed on the screen. You can save it by pressing the share button at the top right.
Get the Convert Live to GIF shortcut
4. Disable wireless connections
As of iOS 11, it is no longer possible to completely disable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections from the Control Center. Instead, it is only possible to deactivate them momentarily, until the next day. You must therefore enter the iOS Settings and then disable each connection manually by going to the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth settings.
If this gymnastics is quite tedious, it is possible to avoid it using two shortcuts that you will add in the dedicated Widget.
It only takes one tap on each shortcut to completely deactivate both connections and it will still be possible to quickly reactivate them from the control center.
Get the Disable Wi-Fi shortcut
Get the Disable Bluetooth shortcut
5. Quickly delete screenshots
On iOS, screenshots are as easy to take as they are to forget. To avoid seeing your photo library polluted with so many unnecessary screenshots, you can use a shortcut capable of Clean up screenshots.
You can run this shortcut directly from the application or the Shortcuts Widget.
Get the Delete screenshots shortcut
6. Force Siri to use Google Maps
Those who have made a habit of asking Siri to find a route, especially in a car, have no doubt noticed that Apple’s voice assistant launches Maps by default. The mapping application is not popular for its performance, you may prefer Google Maps.
A shortcut lets you force Siri to use Google Maps rather than Apple Maps when you ask for directions. Once added to your library of shortcuts, enter the editor and hit the Settings button at the top right. Then tap Add to Siri, and save the phrase to say for Siri to run the script that will ask you to dictate the destination address before opening the route to it in Google Maps.
Get the shortcut Show route in Google Maps
7. Shorten a URL
If you’re using your iPhone or iPad to share links on social media, you might be using a URL shortener. Rather than copy the original URL, open a URL shortener’s page, paste the URL, generate and copy the shortened link to the clipboard to finally paste it on your post, why do not go directly through a shortcut?
Short URL builds on the is.gd service and can be used in two ways. Once added to your library, run it after copying a link, or, from mobile Safari, open the share sheet, tap Shortcuts, then select Short URL. After running the script, the shortened link is copied to the clipboard and can be pasted directly into your posts.
8. Watch YouTube videos offline
YouTube has become, for many people, an essential way to watch videos on a daily basis. Unfortunately, the service can only work if your network connection is stable. In other words, during a trip by metro, train, or even, by plane, watching videos is done at the will of the availability of a connection.
Thanks to iOS shortcuts, however, it is possible to download a YouTube video to watch it offline. The handling remains simple, but requires, the first time, a little gymnastics.
Be careful though, if the shortcut works well overall, it seems that it fails with some videos.
Get the Download YouTube & Video shortcut
9. Display the lyrics of the song currently playing
Would you like to find a way to get the lyrics of the songs being played without having to download a third-party app or manually query in Google?
You may not have known it, but Google is able to directly display the lyrics of a song in search results.
With the Show Lyrics shortcut, you can immediately get the lyrics of the song currently playing in the Music app by running it from the Shortcuts widget.
The script opens Safari and launches a query like “song name + lyrics” in Google, with an immediate result.
10. Activate a super energy saving mode
As iPhone isn’t particularly known for its battery life performance, you might be looking for a solution to maximize the battery life of your device. If iOS natively integrates an energy saving mode, the latter is limited to deactivating the activity in the background.
You can go further with the Super Power Saving Mode shortcut which, with a single tap, activates power saving mode, turns off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections, and reduces the brightness of the room. screen, but keep cellular data active.
Depending on your needs, you can always customize it by keeping certain connections active rather than others (for wireless headphones for example).