Beginner's Guide to Siri Shortcuts - Part 4: Scripting

[@paulrockhopper]

Just wanted to say I have watched loads of shortcut videos and it has taken until yours before somebody explained in such a clear manner. Fantastic. You should have way more subscribers than you have. Thankyou

[@adonissarieddine1513]

Totally agree.

[@DanaKaempen]

Yet another excellent video! Thank you so much for taking the time & effort to produce such fine teaching examples. I look forward to finishing the whole series. Here's a quick suggestion for another video: Modifying existing shortcuts (like the ones provided in the basic libarry) to tweak them to do something related to their original purpose, but different. This would help us to go through the thought process involved in "decoding" someone else's shortcut and inserting "our own" logic. I hope you'll give the idea some consideration. Thanks again!!!

[@charleschiang6583]

It is such a brilliant idea to set the same value to share sheet input and what user select! I see how powerful to use set value instead of using the default one. Thank you!

[@itz-zlink2088]

I feel like I finished school!! Keep up the great work my dude

[@Nebucatnetzer]

I really like all your iPad and Shortcuts videos. Good content which goes quite a bit beyond the normal couch iPad stuff.

[@CrimsonMenace1]

Hey dude. Thank you so much it’s 02:00 and I’ve finally done it. I made my shortcut run I was working on a shortcut that would allow someone to say multiple shortcuts using “and” and I finally got it to work. THANK YOU!!!!

[@BimmerWon]

I made 2 shortcuts that I run in a CarPlay triggered automation. What it does is it looks though my reminders to see if I have any places with addresses I need to be within the next 3 hours when I connect to CarPlay. If I do, it takes the address from the earliest due date reminder and sets it as my route automatically. If I arrive to my destination within +/- 1 hour, the reminder is automatically checked off once I disconnect from CarPlay upon arrival. Also, if I have “Get gas” scheduled on any particular day, it will automatically set my route to my favorite gas station once I connect to CarPlay after work. If I have a place to be after work and don’t have enough time to get gas, it will automatically set my route to the appointment instead of the gas station. It’s able to determine if I have enough time to get gas by adding the current location to gas travel time, gas to appointment location travel time, plus 5 minutes as a buffer for fueling up to determine my final destination arrival time. If the result is later than the scheduled appointment time, it sets the route to the appointment, otherwise it sets my route to the gas station. Then once I get back into the car after fueling up it automatically sets the route to the appointment. I never have to enter in the address manually ever again (unless you count entering it in reminders) XD. I don’t even have to confirm the execution of the shortcut. The total combined actions between the 2 shortcuts is 84.

[@adolphoabg]

Thank you so much for such a well made tutorial. Though I’m a programmer myself I could not figure by myself how to use it. I’m really thankful. Is it possible to get this already made shortcuts you have created in this video? Thank you!

[@MandolinSunrise]

Many thanks for straight forward explanations.

[@yukuhana]

Very helpful and clear tutorial. Thank you!!

[@kretsch1000]

The sound is now super good !!

[@tech_craft]

Thanks! And thanks for your feedback and suggestions.

[@aniketmi1]

Great videos. Appreciate the detail and examples. I'm having some trouble with my custom shortcut to open up display setting and select auto-lock time. I used prefs:root=DISPLAY&path=AUTOLOCK but I need to go one step further and pass a value to Autolock so that I don't need to select the auto-lock time manually. Not sure how do I pass a value to it. Will really appreciate any tips or pointers. Thanks in advance

[@databrowser]

Useful, i was looking at a series of videos on Shortcuts, it is useful, Thank you.

[@Mr8L8X]

Great work 👍🏻 Is there any way to set an On/Off for personal hotspot?

[@gunhasirac]

The usage of if function makes a lot sense now. Thank you so much. Didn’t realize I need to provide a yes/no value beforehand to make it work. I thought it has build in interface for the condition and that confused me a lot.

[@DywayneWalker]

Your content is amazing man!!! thanks again!

[@unquestionabletv]

How do you get skinny shortcuts widget at 0:40 ? I only see three options for widget size and mine are all thicker buttons than that

[@TheYellowFlashLight]

Please do more of these videos!! They are great

[@iraf.3567]

Great stuff! Thanks. One shortcut I need help with: choosing a WIFI connection from iPhone settings. When I move to another location I'd like to choose a new WIFI connection, but can't find a way to do that with a shortcut. There doesn't seem to be a way to enter into the Settings on the iPhone and set up that new setting. Help Please!

[@chasemcmullen3443]

Thank you for the amazing video 👍👍

[@vatanmuzekker]

Hi, What if i want to have direction from a one location to more destination? For example; from Vienna to Budapest, from Vienna to Bratislava? is it possible to show all directions in a one map as directions?

[@WikiPal]

You are really great! Thanks. I would like to create a shortcut that pass my dictation of grocery items to a reminder I use for shopping groceries, and I was able but... alas! It creates a single voice and I want it split in different lines...

[@88omarz]

This is awesome. I am trying to complete a series of actions to power on some smart switches in specific order without needing repeated input. Any hints? It looks like repeat and if would be helpful

[@marcos8105]

Thanks! This is the best serie for beginners, really useful for me Just added at the end of the shortcut: (hope it helps anyone) Show alert: do you want to share the file? yes/no Share with extensions (selected with magical variable) Delete photos (selected with magical variable) In case you don't want the photo anymore Thank you again

[@bernardofreire2639]

Hello. Does someone know if it is possible to get access to Bluetooth inputs using shortcuts app? It is possible using switch controls but the automation possibilities are very limited. Simple project I am trying to do: open an app when I press a specific key from my bluetooth keyboard. Thanks

[@rogerwprice]

Excellent tutorial - excellent series - THANKS

[@os6219]

Is there a script or command which can record the time stamp by the push of a button ?

[@tech_craft]

For sure. You can get the current timestamp with the `Date` action and you can format it into the timestamp format you’d like using `Format Date`. Next you’ll need somewhere to store the timestamp. One good option is Notes. If you create a Note called `Timestamps`, you can then get hold of it using `Find Notes` with a name filter, and add the timestamp to it using `Append to Note`. Example here: www.icloud.com/shortcuts/9ea6adea93e94101a205eb3ac04abbc9

[@os6219]

Great, thank you! I will Check this out.

[@TheWiseCat]

I’m a Big Fan! Love the videos. Looking for a shortcut to send a Christmas photo via messages to every contact in my address book or a group in contacts, if necessary. any advice would be great or maybe a video tutorial for your next video. Happy holidays.

[@larschristiansen3136]

Thank you for your series on shortcuts.Just starting to learn shortcuts on Mac, and your videos have been of great help and have helped reduce the discovery/learning curve considerably.

[@test4fun118]

i have a question, iam using an app called widgy, there is a function u could set a wallpaper for yr apple watch, but it only last for 1 hour, if i want the wallpaper again, then i have to go back to the widgy app to press sys with watch, to apply the theme again is that possible to set a shortcut run each hour which lauch to app and click that sys button, so the watch theme keeps for more hours in a day,, thx for yr useful video.

[@etienne4403]

Thanks for posting this, gives some good ideas what is possible and you are clear to follow along. One thing I am wondering, the Get Item at Index creates a list of photos which expands at each repeat step (meeting the condition ofcourse)? while I was expecting it just takes one item at the time.

[@tech_craft]

In this example, Get Item returns a single item each pass round the repeat loop. It is the repeat action itself that is gathering each of those items into the finished list.

[@etienne4403]

Tech Craft thanks for explaining this

[@adonissarieddine1513]

Great content

[@k31myx]

Hi Rob, trust u and all your relative are well and safe. Thanks for all your tutorial, I am new to mac world and just got my iPhone 12 last December, and I am loving it, and a bit curious with all the shortcuts' automation however not able to create one. Please can u help to create a simple one that can disable all services and application possible and put in very low power mode, just leave emergence call from 22:00pm till 07:00am and from 07:00am till 22:00pm activate all the service back again but leave phone on lower Power mode. I really appreciate Many Thanks

[@ricksovitzky2226]

How did you create those locations in the Dictionary?

[@tech_craft]

There’s a Location action for creating a value of a specific Location. When you drag that action on to the shortcut canvas, you get a nice address search box to pick the location you want.

[@ricksovitzky2226]

When I Get Details of Location, I only get lat and long as separate items - numeric as typical. Nothing like the alpha numeric I see in your dictionary. Also, did you run a Shortcut to get those values and then paste into this Dictionary?

[@tech_craft]

Rick Sovitzky Aha! Now I get you. Those alphanumerics are UK post codes which resolve to pretty fine-grained areas. You could fill in a ZIP code or even a full street address as you’d type into the maps search.

[@ricksovitzky2226]

Oh, sure! Now I get it. I recognize those now. Was starting to think I really was 72 years old. I guess I could learn more about JSON because I bet one could import to a Dictionary from some text file, right?

[@tech_craft]

Rick Sovitzky Absolutely. You can move between JSON and dictionaries pretty seamlessly. If you’re using JSON on the iPad, I can highly recommend the Jayson app which provides a nice way to view and edit JSON content

[@smurtsk2051]

How to u make it accept on anything? There is at top of the shortcut box named accepts. How to u get it?

[@Larsbor]

Absolutely love how you go thorough trough why and etc. with variables (Since I am not a programmer, and dont see how I will get there either without these youtubes). That said after getting the photoresizing to work, the pictures got from 4MB to 8MB and very blurry. In the info the pictures has the same size so what happend. I cant use this/it for anything but learning....

[@simonplait5531]

I have a question. I have a bad right AirPod, so every time I use my headphones I have to set the audio balance to be more on the right to have the same volume on both sides (settings>accessibility>audio/visual> slide selector 50% to the right) It is very annoying to always change this setting whenever I’m switching the audio device. Is there any way to create a shortcut for this problem? Your help would be much appreciated!

[@rockefellersavage4122]

That’s a hardware problem not a software one. Nothing javascript can do for you in this case. Try taking it apart and checking the current with a multimeter.

[@simonplait5531]

Rockefeller Savage I know, I’m not trying to repair the AirPod but to change a setting.

[@sgtfoose8842]

I managed to make a shortcut to generate a random long password using the "hash" option. It works great and puts it under my clipboard. I wonder if there is a way to make my shortcut to popup while I need to enter a password since many websites do not support iCloud chain?

[@tech_craft]

Sadly not. Currently there's no way to hook that deeply into the apps on your iPad.

[@techiguy4188]

i am looking for siri shortcuts manual to learn all about actions and how to use them but have not found anywhere yet. Please guide me if you know any resources. anyway what a great video and lovely explanation. Thanks alot.

[@bm63]

I wish you made that resize shortcut for download. Trying to keep up with an iPad in one hand and iPhone in the other is hard work! lol Not sure if it will work on an iPhone I got lost in the pause play rewind…lol I’ll have another go sometime

[@techvideos9998]

Hi i wanted an shortcut to create whoch open an app and do some actions. Us that possible

[@abdulsalamalhashmi7195]

Thank you for you video it is very helpful. I have synology server i would like to send photos or files from my iphone to the synology through ssh ios shortcuts. Could you please help me on that

[@mudarrisdigital1489]

Hi.. I would like to ask, is that possible to set scripting on choosing amount of items when I shop online? usually I buy the same thing and I hate to keep on clicking the same buttons all over again.. thanks

[@JonBushell]

Can you rename photos? Ie add prefix to existing name?

[@tech_craft]

I don’t think so. I’ve tried a few permutations that I think should work using the Set Name action but I never managed to make the changes stick when saving the images.

[@Derek4k]

@@tech_craft you can now

[@romyromeo5622]

can you make youtube downloader via shortcut ?

[@justinholliday1078]

What do I do to copy the output into notes

[@marionese4041]

is it possible to press shortcuts like cmd+v in shortcuts?

[@tech_craft]

Sadly not. There’s essentially no control over input method with shortcuts.

[@marionese4041]

@@tech_craft naw :( thank you anyway!

[@glenallan6279]

I’ve got one for you... Since safari now defaults to desktop mode, it isn’t actually supper easy to switch to mobile mode it seems. As some apps don’t allow split view and you have to view in safari (Facebook) if you want to do something else when using it, it would be nice to have a share sheet shortcut that forced the page into mobile view. I’d guess their are more that this single use case where this could be handy, but it dawned on me that a shortcut could do this based on some of the search results I’ve seen for making sites work in mobile view. Possible?

[@chrisyson]

Is this possible? Every night going to bed I open my cctv app (Swann security) and set the mode for night. It would be great if there was a time based way to automate and then switch back to home mode in the morning?

[@benbravis1908]

I’m hearing impaired, and trying to set my shortcut so that I can have it toggle media streaming on my right aid. Specifically for listening to music while still needing to hear my surroundings. The setting is found by accessibility> hearing devices> select device> toggle right aid media streaming. Is this possible because it’s such a long string? I was unable to find a way to do it with the stock actions, I believe I would have to script it.

[@onsteam7488]

Thanks a lot for the amazing guide, was this shortcut application somehow influenced by python programming language? I could see a lot of common references.

[@billwilljulz]

Can you tell shortcuts or scripting to tap a button within an app? I want shortcuts to open my VPN every morning and then tap the ON button within the VPN app.

[@AllesPat]

I have one problem: I try to make a toggle for an action that has no inbuilt toggle function (the new Focus-Modes). My idea was to create a variable with the current status of the focus (focus on = true, off = false). If I run the shortcut, it should check if the variable is true or false. But: how can I store the content of the variable for later usage? I tried to create a document in my folders structure but that doesnt really work... Thank you for your tutorials!

[@eeshaansawant6396]

Oh my god that is literally why I came here. I wanted a similar shortcut wherein i check if focus has any value, and if it did, i wanted to use it further, and carry focus specific tasks, for different focuses. But turns out, we cant. 😢

[@AllesPat]

@@eeshaansawant6396 I did it via a document in your files folder… its inconvenient but works 😝

[@jaeger287]

Hey :) Nice video! Can I make siri to tell me a number from another app?

[@60danevans]

Hi I am trying to script my Arlo cameras to arm when I leave the house but can not figure it out could you help at all. The Arlo cameras are not compatible with Apple Home Kit

[@Derek4k]

youd have to get a bridge adaptor. google it

[@majedmj.digitalworlds]

Hi how to make loop

[@antondementiev2188]

I’m on iOS 16.6 and it seems there’s a bug with being able to extract text from location. When I run a Regex match against an object of type “Geolocation” it says kCLErrorDomain 2

[@btyz16]

Hi , is there any way to get spesific text message , and sent to spesific whatsup users

[@tech_craft]

Sadly not. There's only minimal support for Messages and no support for WhatsApp.

[@gururajaa]

I would like to create a short cut for a application named Smart start (Viper), where I am able to choose the application in the script. But, I am not sure how to choose an option of that smart start application in shortcuts.

[@jaiskreno]

what’s a difference between Repeat and Repeat with Each?

[@taneemdalv]

Trying to take input and trying to stop music / media after (minutes)(input variable ) the wait option is confusing

[@doctorarvindram]

Hi could you tell how to create a shortcut which goes to motivation channel on KZbin and starts playing it at random

[@tech_craft]

It's not possible to do this with the KZbin app because that app doesn't expose any Shortcut actions. You can do this in Safari but I don't know if that is quite the same experience!

[@doctorarvindram]

A reply of an expert is more precious than you can think of . Thank you 😍

[@richard6081]

Please make a video of how to set a nested dictionary value. And how to populate a dictionary with a JSON file.

[@repthegr916]

Hi Rob. Are you doing well? I know you had to take some time away from your channel, but given how crazy the last year has been for everyone, I hope all is well with you and yours.

[@prashantmailin]

How do I delete a message with a script? I get OTPs, those are not useful once used, I would set that for autodelete with this script if possible

[@AndreaBusi]

I recreated your workflow to show the photos filtered by a country. It works fine till I add "Choose from list" as last action. In that case, the Shortcuts app crashes 😅 I just open reported a bug to Apple, hope that they will reply to me. (iOS 13.4.1)

[@barleybeazer]

I'd like to make a shortcut that asks me if I really need to check instagram (so that I go on social media less) and if I type Yes it then opens the app. What's the easiest way to do this. Thanks :)

[@tech_craft]

Sadly you can’t really pull this off in an elegant way. You can create a shortcut that you run instead of Instagram and put that on your home screen. This shortcut can prompt you first. But, the automation options are super limited and can’t stop an app from being launched.

[@Rood67]

Your examples are great. But I find shortcuts *VERY* lacking in simple functionality. Watching this series, by episode three, I was stoked! I went to make a shortcut to toggle my phones hotspot on and off, for using my WiFi only iPad in a vehicle. This isn’t possible; which is frustrating and disappointing.

[@bailey_reagan_tripp2627]

Yeah the wifi toggling is very disappointing. There’s no auto turning on and off of it which is a shame.

[@saadalshehri9075]

Facing trouble renaming files using shortcut, any help please

[@tech_craft]

Can you share what you've tried so far?

[@saadalshehri9075]

@@tech_craft figured it out, but appreciate your help 👍

[@iwantsquareballoons]

Anybody know how to automate face id to off when connected to home wifi?

[@tkampinelli307]

I built a shortcut that opens Settings > Safari > Clear History and Data because I have noticed Safari runs much smoother if periodically cleared. However, I have to manually select the red secondary verification button "clear history and data" which is fine, but I want the shortcut to recognize that I have selected it, and then automatically return to the homescreen. How do I add that?

[@tech_craft]

Can you share a link to your current shortcut? I’ll take a look.

[@simwebdk]

Shortcut to run the "Reset Advertising Identifier" in the Settings/Privacy/Advertising. Please?!

[@Sarah_C68]

why cant i see all my apps in the shortcut scripting

[@MrAaronLaman]

Be nice if the screen took up the full screen as it hard to see exactly what you’re doing from the iphone. I like your tutorials but I’d love to see what is exactly going on and it’s very difficult. Maybe I’m the only one.Thank you for your time and help regardless. Much appreciated.

[@tech_craft]

Thanks for the feedback. Out of interest, what size screen are you watching on? In landscape on my phone the screen is just about large enough for me. On everything else it’s super clear.

[@MrAaronLaman]

@@tech_craft I was using an iPhone 8 Plus viewing in landscape. Yes, I agree on any larger device it is very clear. I didn’t mean to sound like it was unreadable, that’s obviously not the case. I bet my aging eyes and their fatigue after working and looking at screens longer than one should has more to do with it, honestly. My comment was meant to be more of a suggestion and i apologize for not making it come off as such. I just found it difficult to focus in on the computer screen within the screen only, especially since that is where everything is happening and when things start scrolling or moving . Perhaps you utilize the extra space around the computer screen in other videos and in other way I have yet to witness. It’s clear you are obviously doing everything right by the numbers on your page and your videos. Keep up the great work and thank you for doing what you do with your videos! That is all I really should have said in the first place. Thank you for replying nonetheless. All the best to you and take care!

[@mister-Kayne]

I wish to create an automation or shortcut which should do the following: When image files are opened on what app. it should automatically run them on Seeing AI which is an assistive technology from Microsoft for persons with a print disability. For now, I have to open the image, tap share and then tap Recognize with Seeing AI to get the image description I don't know if this is actually possible have been searching the internet for a solution

[@ARMadillo18]

What about add variable?

[@tech_craft]

In what context?

[@aakashbhardwajpc7946]

I wanted to make a shortcut when someone texts me or my followers tweet a specific word then my phone should ping me

[@faz_ed]

i created a shortcut: TOGGLE Bluetooth, but i want it to notify me when it’s on and off , what should i do

[@tech_craft]

There's a Show Notification action you can add to your shortcut. Does that do what you want?

[@faz_ed]

@@tech_craft yeah i tried but it just shows ON even when i’ve turned it off, igb i’ll have to use IF condition, like if bluetooth on show notification ON, ELSE show notification OFF

[@tech_craft]

I'll take a look and see what I can figure out.

[@ARMadillo18]

Well in your video you updated a variable with another set variable I think so I wanted to know why you did not use add variable

[@tech_craft]

Ah right. Add to Variable doesn’t reset the value to a new one, it keeps the existing variable and then adds the new value to the variable giving you a list with multiple values.

[@SantrixVFX]

It is sunday for me

[@leonard1718]

Can someone make a Shortcut that remove the cache/ram off your Iphone??

[@CapelloFamous]

What if I wanted to have Siri tell me who joined my wifi network? I been trying to figure that out and can't wrap my head around it.

[@ebtntw]

I am *BEGGING* for an iOS shortcuts: scraping tutorial. Or at least Javascript and HTML tutorials PLEASE!!! I love your videos and i dont see other channels doing tutorials like you do

[@retroman7643]

I can't believe iOS of all things has a "scripting" feature when I thought iPhones were just simple smartphones, and I'm surprised Android doesn't have something built-in like this.

[@lolzxd1613]

Hello, I constructed this comment without using the eleventh letter of the most common usage of the typing buttons, the qwerty form.

[@ApocalypticAnarchy01]

¿LOLZ XD? clever bugger you are :p

[@Captinofthemudslayer]

short cuts suck ......