How To: 28 Must-Have Features in the Apple Shortcuts App for iOS 16 and iPadOS 16

Apple has greatly improved its Shortcuts app in iOS 16 and iPadOS 16, so you can do even more with customizable task shortcuts on your iPhone or iPad. The big story is “App Shortcuts”, which takes care of all the work of creating shortcuts, giving you immediate access to ready-made shortcuts that developers include in their apps. But that’s definitely not all you’ll find new.

While I was hoping for more automation triggers and more complex scripting actions, the shortcut updates in iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 are still impressive. There are more actions for some of Apple’s core apps, a few design modifications, and some important additions to keep things tidy.

While iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 are in beta, and a stable public release isn’t expected until the fall, you can still see what happens next. You can even try out all the new features by installing the iOS 16 or iPadOS 16 beta.

1. Run shortcuts via Siri without any setup

With the new App Intents API for iOS 16 and iPadOS 16, developers can embed actions called “App Shortcuts”into their apps that you can start using right away with Siri, Shortcuts, and Spotlight.

Developers could include intents before, but you would have to create a shortcut yourself to use it. Also, you could only use the shortcut through Siri, Shortcuts, and Spotlight using the specific name you gave it.

You can now use developer app intents without having to configure anything, and they are available as soon as you install the app. The App Intents API supports parameters and synonyms, so you may not even need to use a specific phrase to complete a task using Siri or Spotlight, making the process more natural.

For example, if you want to reorder a lunch for pickup through a specific food app, you must ask Siri to “Reorder Pickup at [app name].”Siri will then present a summary of the order to get your final approval.

2. Use Spotlight to Launch App Shortcuts

As mentioned above, you can open Spotlight search to find and launch any shortcut you’ve created on your iPhone or iPad by name, but it’s even easier now. An automatically available app shortcut may appear when you search for an app in Spotlight or when you suggest an app. For example, you can start a timer without even opening the timer app or adding a calendar event.

3. “My Shortcuts”is now just “Shortcuts”.

Small change: The Shortcuts app in iOS 16 changes the name of the My Shortcuts tab in the bottom navigation bar to Shortcuts, and the glyph is the same image on the Shortcuts app icon that used to be Gallery Tab Glyph. The name change also applies to iPadOS 16 in the sidebar.

Apple made the replacement because it automatically adds new app shortcuts to the Shortcuts app. You don’t create them, so they can’t technically be called your shortcuts, but there’s a new My Shortcuts folder in the Shortcuts view.

4. Easily view all available app shortcuts

If you’ve ever wondered what app shortcuts are available on your iPhone or iPad, open the new Shortcuts view to see the new App Shortcuts section. Tap an app’s name in the list to see all its quick actions, then tap an action to launch the shortcut.

5. Don’t let app shortcuts take center stage

In the App Shortcuts section of Shortcuts, instead of launching an action, you can click on its ellipsis (•••) to add it to a new shortcut or prevent it from appearing in Spotlight. Also, when you press the (i) button on the app shortcuts page, you get toggles to turn “Spotlight”and “Siri”on or off for all app shortcuts.

6. Switch from Grid to List

I never liked the grid view in labels because it was impossible to find anything. The search bar definitely helps, but now there’s another option: list view. Tap the new grid icon and select List to open it.

7. Reorder lists by name, number of actions, or last modified

The list view is a good start, but it goes even deeper. Tap the list icon, and instead of just going back to the grid, you can sort the list by Name, Activity Count, or Last Modified.

8. Actions for apps grouped by category now

Like the Scripts section, most other apps have categories to help organize things. For example, the Calculator divides its operations into Math and Numbers. Contacts uses Contacts and Phone. The calendar uses calendar members and events. And Music uses music and playlists. And these are just a few that now have categories.

9. The title bar of each label is smaller in the editor

The title bar in each label editor is now much smaller and centered at the top. You can still click on the icon to change it, but you can’t click on the name to change it right away. Instead, click the drop-down arrow and select Rename. It’s an extra push to do what you pretty much need to do, so it’s a bummer.

But the dropdown also has other options like “Select Icon”if you don’t want to press the icon itself, “Share”, “Duplicate”and “Move”which are quick actions when long pressing a grid or list view shortcut and Export File. The latter allows you to export the shortcut as a file that can be used by anyone or only people who know you. Previously, you could only do this by selecting “Share”from the shortcut’s quick actions, clicking “Options”and using “File.”

10. Shortcut details are only available from quick actions

Previously, when editing a shortcut, you could tap the settings icon to open Details, Privacy, and Settings options. With the new header line, this no longer exists. To get to these options now, you must press and hold the shortcut in grid or list view and select Details in Quick Actions. It used to be in Quick Actions, so Apple just removed the other way to access them.

11. Launch Shortcuts from Quick Actions

Oddly enough, there is now a new “Run”quick action for each shortcut. One can only speculate why you are using this rather than just clicking on a map or link in grid or list view, but there is probably a good reason for this. I just don’t know what it is yet.

12. You Can Hide Next Action Suggestions

There is now an arrow icon in the editor next to “Suggestions for next steps”so you can hide them if you never use them. It doesn’t seem to remember your preferences as they reappear each time you open the editor.

13. Icon picker loses tab design

When selecting an icon for a shortcut in older versions, the icon picker will have Color and Glyph tabs. Labels have now abandoned tabs for scroll view, where colors are at the top and glyphs are below them.

14. You can search for glyphs by name

In the icon picker, a more useful addition is the search bar for glyphs, now called symbols. Instead of looking through the icons each time looking for something you’re not sure exists, you can try searching for a few keywords.

15. Minor glyph design changes

There are a few minor character changes in the icon picker. For example, the screens of the iPhone and iPad are no longer transparent, but gray, and women in a dress are nowhere to be seen.

16. Click “Done”instead of “X”to exit the editor.

After editing the shortcut, you now click “done”instead of the (X) symbol, bringing it in line with most other Apple apps.

17. There are 3 more actions in the settings

Apple is finally giving us more settings related actions in iOS 16 and iPadOS 16! I wish Apple included a ton more stuff, but a few new ones are better than nothing. They are here:

• Set color filters
• Installing Live Subtitles (Beta)
• Launch Apple Watch Remote Screen

18. There are 7 more actions in the books

Previously, the only Apple Books actions were “Add PDF to Books”and “Play”, but seven more actions have been added in older iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 betas (see below). However, newer betas have removed them all. I don’t know why Apple added so many to remove them all, so I’m sure we’ll see them in the final release.

• Change theme
• Open book
• open collection
• Open tab
• Change text size
• Book Search
• Switch page

19. Mail has 3 more actions

While not as many as in the books, there are three more new actions in the Mail app:

• Open mailbox
• Search by mail
• Set mail focus filter

20. There are 3 more actions in Maps

Apple Maps also has some new activities related to parked cars.

• Get detailed information about a parked car
• Get the location of a parked car
• Set parked car

There are also a few minor name changes for Maps:

• The “Show Routes”action for Maps is now “Open Routes”.
• The “Show on Maps”action for Maps is now “Open on Maps”.

21. Messages have 2 new actions

Messages have two new actions: one for focusing and one for clearing messages. However, Apple removed “Delete Messages”in later beta releases. I hope he returns in the final version.

• Set message focus filter
• Delete messages

22. Notes has 13 more activities

The app with the most new actions is definitely Notes, with 13 of them. Many of them are related to the tagging system, but there are also for folders and even for changing note settings.

• Delete Notes
• Contact notes
• Open a Notes account
• Change note settings
• Open Notes View
• Create a folder
• Delete folders
• Move Notes to Folder
• Add tags to notes
• Create tag
• Delete tags
• Open tag
• Remove tags from notes

There are also a few minor name changes for Notes:

• The “Show Note”action for notes is now “Open Note”.
• The “Show Notes Folder”action for Notes is now “Open Folder”.

23. Reminders have 3 more actions

There are just a few new actions in the Reminders app:

• Create list
• Open Smart List
• Search Reminders

There is also one minor name change for reminders:

• The “Show Reminder List”action for Reminders is now “Open Reminder List”.

24. There are 14 more actions in Safari

Safari has new actions related to tab groups and opening new tabs, as well as setting a focus filter and a way to open a specific view.

• Find Bookmarks
• Open bookmark
• open view
• Install Safari Focus Filter
• Find Reading List Items
• Open Reading List Item
• Create a tab group
• Find tab groups
• Open tab group
• close tab
• Create a new private tab
• Create new tab
• Find tabs
• Open tab

There is also one minor name change for Safari:

• The Show Web Page action for Safari is now called Show Web View.

25. Shortcuts have 4 more actions

There are a few more actions in the Shortcuts app itself:

• Open folder
• Search shortcuts
• Create Shortcut
• Remove shortcuts

26. Voice notes have 9 more actions

Voice Memos has a number of app shortcuts ready to use without any further setup, but Apple also includes nine more actions for your own shortcuts:

• Search for voice memos
• Create a folder
• Delete folders
• Open folder
• Create entry
• Delete entries
• Select an entry
• Play Recording
• Change playback settings

27. There’s More Action

In addition to the above applications, there are a few more actions worth mentioning:

• Set personal hotspot (script)
• Remove image background (media)
• PDF File Size Optimization (Documents)
• Set calendar focus filter (Calendar)
• Open tab (Clock app)
• Searching for files (Files app)

28. And another name change

As you can probably tell from the above, the only real name changes for any previously available actions involve using “Open”instead of “Show”. While I pretty much listed them all above, there is one more:

• The “Show in Calendar”action for the calendar is now “Open in Calendar”.

And speaking of the calendar, its shortcut icon now displays the current date instead of the calendar image.