Not long ago, Apple purchased the Workflow application and made it available to everyone who uses it, but whoever knows Apple is almost certain at the time that the company is about to use its features in an application that belongs to it. And this is actually what happened as the company created new Siri shortcuts, which it controls through the application of "shortcuts" that we talked about in a previous article -this link- The application allows you to create many shortcuts and even several applications can be combined in it and then set a sentence that you tell Siri to run your shortcut, and this step comes from Apple to make Siri stronger and more effective. Because of the importance of the application, let us start a series of articles to explain in detail and start with the basics.

The "shortcuts" application for adding Siri commands: the basics

Install the app

You might think that the application should be present when updating by virtue of that it is from Apple, but you will not find the application shortcuts after prying the update. You should download it from the software store. Really, all you have to do is click on the following application link and download it.

Shortcuts
Developer
Download

Remember Workflow

If you have used the Workflow app before, you will find that this app is similar to what you are used to with Workflow. Also, shortcuts that you have put on workflow should automatically go to the Shortcuts application or Shortcuts and you can review our article series via this link. If you do not use it, there is no problem, read on.

Browse the gallery

It's always a good idea to start by exploring the Apple shortcuts ready in the Gallery window. From there you can browse through hundreds of ready-made shortcuts and when you select one of them you click on it and then choose "Get shortcut" and this will move the shortcut to the Library window. Now you can use the shortcut by clicking on it in the library or widget.

Some acronyms will ask you questions such as "What is your address?" For an abbreviation that leads you home and so forth.

Modify and operate

In the Library window, you can press the shortcut to run it. Also, you can click on the small circle on it, which contains three points and that takes you to the control window where you can modify it or add other steps to the shortcut by searching for it in the search window at the bottom of the page. But if you don't want the modification, you can leave it as is and go to the small icon shown above, which is the Settings button. Here you can change the name of the shortcut and also add the shortcut to Siri. Just press the "Add to Siri" button, record the command you want and follow the steps.

On the same page, you can add the shortcut to the main screen or share it with one of your friends, and finally you can change the name and icon of the shortcut from the options at the top of the page.

Create your shortcuts

You can create new shortcuts of course, and here it takes some getting used to as you do the process over and over until you get used to it and then you can be creative as you like. To experiment here I'll show you a shortcut that I created.

I pressed the “Create Shortcut” -> Settings icon, called it Business Day, then added the phrase Siri -> I went back to make it so I raised the search window from the bottom and chose the Messages app. -> I added the director, Professor Tariq as a contact and then added a message stating that I will read the comments and then start writing -> I raised the window again and chose Mail and then Send an Email. -> The shortcut appeared to me, so I added my email and added Bin Sami, Editor-in-Chief and Mahmoud Sharaf in order to send a mail to them, in which I will write a discussion for the next article -> Finally, I chose Safari and set the shortcut to open the comments page on the iPhone Islam to read it. In the end, I pressed Done.

Now when I tell Siri about it, she does it in the same order. So you send the message to Professor Tariq, the mail page appears in order to send it to the rest of the colleagues, then after sending Safari will be opened automatically on the comments page on the site.

This was one example of what can be done but you can do a lot with your imagination, necessity or invention.

Wait for developers

One of the most important features of the application is that the developers can support it in their applications and thus they do all the hard work and give you the product in the form of a button that you press to add features related to the application to the shortcuts and thus Siri. Many developers are expected to update their apps to work with shortcuts.

Have you started using the Shortcuts app? What do you think of the idea of ​​making Siri commands yourself?

Related articles