Taking Advantage of Shortcuts Automation

Let's talk about Shortcuts automations and making background task happen on your device.
#Automation #Shortcuts #iPadProductivity
## Links
### Videos
* [Shortcuts 101](kzbin.info/www/bejne/rXuuZHqFe9RpbrM)
* [22 of My Favorite Shortcuts](kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZmKxdGSQZ52Wn5o)
* [Daily Journal Walkthrough](kzbin.info/www/bejne/eaSTY6iKbtahfK8)
### Hardware:
* [Sponsor: Paperlike](paperlike.com/lawley)
### Shortcuts:
* [Set Wallpaper](www.icloud.com/shortcuts/5849f1f3d73f4314929efc0120b7d62a)
* [Daily Journal Shortcut](www.icloud.com/shortcuts/7a5ff823786c4ac0961f465ff409743f)
* [Bluetooth Audio Player](www.icloud.com/shortcuts/f26086df85f3452baf064c2d16ca41d8)
* [Time Tracking (requires the app Timery)](www.icloud.com/shortcuts/ce88e6c089b64d9bb3b00fd8c93c3d71)
* [Blood Sugar Log](www.icloud.com/shortcuts/48dd3418329143eda78198074dcf6e97)
* [Watch Face Template](www.icloud.com/shortcuts/3becd274e2884655a001cce7af7b12d6)
There isn’t a good way to share my wake up automation cause it’s dependent on having the same HomeKit devices and naming scheme.
Thank you for watching, be sure to like and subscribe if you like what I’m doing here.
### More Links
* My Gear: theuntitledsite.com/gear
* My Shortcuts Gallery: theuntitledsite.com/shortcuts
* Twitter: Twitter.com/chris_lawley
* Instagram: chrislawley_
* Website: theuntitledsite.com
* Sponsorship and Review Contact Info: [e-mail]

[@keithnmoore2]

Because of you Chris, I go days without touching my MacBook. The iPad Air 4 is my favorite computer of all time. Thank you for the wonderful content

[@justinanderson6540]

Same here. My laptop is jealous.

[@suyogkarki5280]

Exactly my iPad Air 3 as well

[@joselucnico]

Same.

[@Polkster13]

Under Personal Automations, I have "When my wake-up alarm is stopped", Run Shortcut "Morning Routine". This way this shortcut is only run for my wake-up alarm and not for any other alarms I may have set during the day. In my Morning Routine shortcut, I get the weather forecast for Today, extract my Location, then extract my City from Location, then check to see if the City matches my Home Town. If it does, then I control devices that are in my HomeKit Home. I then have SIRI give me a wake up message (with the volume set to 60%; this way the message is not so jarring after just waking up and doesn't bother others that may be in the house) that includes the weather forecast, todays date and time, if I have any work appointments, how long it will take to drive to my first appointment, and so forth. Last, I set the volume of my iPhone back up to 100%.

[@Leslie.Bradley]

I've created a shortcut that when i say goodnight, siri will check whether my phone is above or below 80% charge and whether i should charge my phone or not. Super helpful if you forget to charge your phone overnight. It also turns off my lights, turns off the torch, turns on do not disturb, sets the phone volume and brightness and with the new 14.5 update will lock the orientation so it's easier to use the phone whilst in bed.

[@thegooch90]

Fantastic video Chris! Got a few very good tips I’ll definitely apply to myself!! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[@CreepyCanuckJ]

Excellent video! The Timery shortcut is very useful, and I've learned a few things that I never knew. Keep up the great videos!

[@dionsorrell]

Your videos are useful, succinct and mercifully without music thumping in the background

[@CrQualityPhotography]

When you said you only had 1 alarm in the morning, I felt attacked 😭 I have like 5 alarms set 😂😂👏🏼

[@andrewcho9013]

wait that wallpaper hack is actually so cool

[@GamonpatSanganunt]

Thank you for your awesome contents! Love your channel 👍

[@BapsDr]

Love the content man!

[@mikeoxlong4043]

this is so essential. thanks soo much ! this should be in the apple support channel.

[@BizTechSherpa]

Good video as always. And I love Paperlike - works so well and adds so much when I use my pencil. And I never feel like I have to clean my screen.

[@TheLifeOnHigh]

1. I use the location based “arrival” shortcut to say “have a great day at work” when I arrive to my destination. 2. I also have my phone speak a humorous customize message when it’s plugged into the lightning cable for charging. 3. When my iPhone connects to my home WiFi I use a customized message which typically says “welcome home.” EDIT: after spending a few days trying to figure out why my Automations never ran in the background as they should I discovered they require “the ask first “ prompt. Apple does not allow any location based Automation without your physical input. This totally renders it useless for me. 😒

[@kulsoomali5041]

Maybe you could change the trigger to at time of day when you're typically at work and have it show the notification then? Love the idea!!

[@TheLifeOnHigh]

@@kulsoomali5041 that would be ideal for someone who works bankers hours. And while I’m off on the weekends my hours during the week are sporadic. I wish there were a workaround.

[@charliebrown1006]

If your work/home locations are set you can ask Siri to do it. I use it all the time “hey Siri, remind me to have a good day when I get to work” or if you don’t want to register a work address. “When I come back here”

[@barryw8174]

This was a great video. Thank you for making it

[@levisaranas]

I love Automations. I use them daily. 😊 On Android, I use the IFTT app.

[@JeffreyBodenstein]

Would be fun to see some more nfc info there. Loved the office nfc tag. Going to look into that

[@markspoo6637]

Thanks for this video Chris I did learn a lot in a very short time.

[@thegooch90]

Yes!!

[@Mo_Klonus]

I have an automation that runs when CarPlay connects -> Open App -> HondaLink, "Ask Before Running" is disabled. Could also be used for insurance apps that might need to run while driving.

[@KrishnaMamunuru]

Love your videos, great video, quick question though, why have a top down camera and all that setup? Why not just record the screen and have that in the video? Any specific reason for not doing that? Planning on doing a video for myself

[@iamcheck.thisout]

Wowww open my world of tech

[@MoMo-in7ve]

„Cause i like living.“xD

[@rome9803]

Hi Chris, thanks for all the info you share. Question: is there a way to automate the sending of an email? Currently I find that it only drafts an email but clicking ‘send’ still has to happen manually.

[@UnsuitableName]

I've always struggled to find actual uses for the Shortcuts/automation tool. Will deffo steal some of these ideas, these are great. Thanks!

[@ChrisLawley]

To be fair I think a lot of the triggers are a bit limiting. I did a whole rant on it but decide to cut it. So hopefully this helps everyone!

[@felix_blng]

„I like living“ 😂😂😂😂😂

[@JaySnow]

Good one!

[@impendio]

maybe it’s my use cases but I really miss recording actions like back on automator, i have some shortcuts to do stuff at some hours but those apps have no built in integration with shortcuts so i end up having to manually click stuff, but i’m trying to use shortcuts more now that i got an iphone and a watch. I’ve been on an ipad pro as my main computer for over a year now and your channel was the inspiration lol

[@Halfhoff]

Do you know if one can make a shortcut to toggle scribble on and off? I wish they would add it to control center.

[@kevinwagner5023]

I would love to know if there is a sway to automate Bluetooth connectivity when you have multiple people+devices in a household that tend to fight over or ‘hold on to’ Bluetooth connections to the same device

[@NeuroBoy314]

Hey Chris... Chris.... I bought a mac mini..... Yes, the temptation won, I have it for a week now, and as more I use it, I love more my iPad Pro, but I have to have it... And as always great video, the Lock and home screen automation is the best I use it since the las tiome you mention it and is awesome....

[@markmclean5651]

is there a short cut that would do the same as sliding the side button to silence my iPhone? I still want to see text and calls but not wanting any sound? I have a short cut to silence sound of camera clicking when I take a picture, silence for 60 seconds when I open it, then back to 100% sound 60 seconds later. Another short cut when I close camera to make sure it goes back at 100% sound.

[@cvnis957]

I know I drive my iPad in 1st gear most of the time but it's nice to see how to use more of it's capability. I'll create a Shortcut to remind me to create more Shortcuts.

[@ChrisLawley]

Ha! That’s a great idea!

[@NicoleCavalani]

How do you get the journal shortcut to stay open while you work on tasks throughout the day? I love the template but it is not a workable document for me. When I try to switch between apps it closes out and I cannot edit to check things off the list or add more items. Software is updated.

[@ramiaiki]

Is it possible to make shortcut to switch on/off the personal hotspot in the setting ? and if yes how i can do it? thanks

[@LifeBeautifulMess]

Great info! I finally setup my first automation after watching this.

[@Funkmasterflex.]

Hi, could you please show us some charing stations for multiple Apple products including iPad Pro?

[@hongly1318]

Hi Chris, any way you can share your wallpaper for the iPad? I really like it!

[@bigjosh2827]

Is there a way to make it so I click an icon and make it so I can get linked to a couple apps

[@itsfelipeh]

hello, what ipad do you work with in the videos?

[@TurboT8]

You have more shortcuts than my class attendance

[@SkyKosiner]

Loved this video. Could you make a video about push cuts as I have push cuts but i feel like I’m not using it to it’s full potential

[@unknowninc.9112]

For anyone new trying this, they have changed the icon for the get script he is using for the first wallpaper automation he shows. Find the get from list script and use that accordingly, I am on iOS 15.4, just trying to help because there is very little info out there.

[@271830066]

What is the Name of the App / template that you use to take notes on the iPad?

[@pietervandergryp6916]

Hi Christopher, hope all is well. Am a complete newbie to shortcuts and therefore reaching out to you for assistance. How do I program the following: when my phone charges to 80% it must repeatedly say unplug me until the charger is disconnected, in a Jarvis voice. I will appreciate any assistance. Thanks

[@zbigniewwikacz2924]

Do you think it’s possible that a text message is sent to someone if the Alarm Clock Snooze is NOT turned off? It would be a great safety automation for living alone elderly people (stroke, fall etc.).

[@paracha3]

wish there was a way to turn off "Ask before running" for "When i leave" and "When i arrive" triggers because i want to have my phone go silent when i go to work and vice versa. That notification defeats the purpose for me. Most of the time i forget to see the notification.

[@leventebenedek3947]

Hello guys, This is Levente from Hungary, I was wondering if it is possible to create a shortcut or Siri command to open the gate trough HiK-Connect app, app needs to be opened and tap twice to open the gate, any help would be appreciated, Thank you

[@MrShuePoker]

how to make a shortcut to toggle lights on/off from wiz app?

[@Kermi88]

Hello. I have a problem or I can't set a shortcut. I set a shortcut to set the timer for 8h after entering work. Everything is OK but why doesn't he do it Automatically I just have to Click RUN. And so every day.

[@Stiasteny]

4:40 I want a popup menu to show whenever i connect my bluetooth to my Car. How can i make the menu go: Drive home, Drive to work or Drive to Mom?

[@ChenChaoLee]

How to change step from “things” to built in “reminders” ?

[@conath]

Very interesting. I’ll share a shortcut of my own that you could use to improve the “morning” shortcut: it’s called “Am I At Home?” and checks if the current WiFi network name is the one I use have at home. I can use the result of this shortcut to automatically only run a (part of) a shortcut if I’m at home. In your Good Morning shortcut, you could use this to only turn on the lamp if you’re actually at home.

[@Polkster13]

I do something similar, except I get the current weather forecast for today, extract the Location from that result, extract the City from Location, and check to see if the City matches my Home Town. If it does match then I run a Daybreak shortcut that controls my home devices, like turning on bedroom lights lights, turning down the speed of my ceiling fan, turn off night lights, and pausing my HomePod mini playback of white noise. I then get a wake up message that tells me the weather forecast for the day, who my first client is, and how long it will take me to drive there. I like the idea of using the WIFI network name as that is more accurate on whether or not you are actually at home. The only caveat I see with your method is if the network is down or the phone isn't connected to the home WIFI for some reason and you were actually at home, then it might not work correctly. Have you ever had that as an issue? The chances of me actually being in my home town but not actually at my house when my wake up alarm goes off is extremely unlikely. That would mean I would be at someone else's house in my home town and that has never occurred in the 20+ years we have lived here.

[@julianmac]

ohh so early :0

[@ragingsilver]

I was so stupid with my first automation. I had it so when it detected that I left my house (Geofenced) it would turn on 4G/5G data and when I return home, once it detects my home wi-fi to simply turn off the data. But then it always prompted me to turn it on when I left my house, which by then I may as well done it manually. Took me a while to then realise the phone does this anyway but it was cool to see it worked lol

[@Mo786productions]

Great content ! With the wallpaper shortcut can I set it to a particular album? As I don’t want random personal pictures being my wallpaper! If so ho can i do this?

[@theseriousaccount]

That is exactly what he shows in the video...

[@okanerdem]

How to close notifications for shortcuts?

[@rafaeldietrich8050]

Awesome video!!! You made me want to buy an iPad Pro, but I'm waiting for the new release!

[@damianstech1502]

Hey Chris, I have a question about dark mode, probably using dark mode cause more eye strain than light mode and after long work we can have a more blurry image and text become more hard to read. I've read a lot about dark mode and every research say that dark mode is more harmful for our eyes. How about you? Do you have any problems with your eyes caused by dark mode?

[@ChrisLawley]

I like it, I haven’t noticed any eye strain.

[@damianstech1502]

@@ChrisLawley great!

[@mohamedismail6521]

Can u plz make shortcut for apple car play where I need to use my I pad as display screen in my car instead of my car screen with display of CarPlay with all required apps which we all need in the car such phone, maps, music, message and so on, if you don’t mind you do link for it take me direct to it and download it.

[@tahanumansimsek]

Love the newsletter, the last wallpaper was fire. just wanted to share

[@Devilmashine]

That feeling when you have in ten times more shortcuts… 754 for now…

[@biosim5]

Just... why?

[@GabeM07]

I would love a shortcut that mutes my mic when I am on a call or Facetime so I don't have to pull my phone out to mute and instead just use use the shortcut with back tap. I NEED this 🙏🙏🙏!!!

[@CS-pg4go]

i wish there was a shortcut to turn on/off 5G on iphone. Would be nice to just toggle it whenever i really need 5g or when signal is bad.

[@asonofyah4341]

Hi! I'm a long time follower. I love productivity and I enjoy your content. Recently, you posted a video where you featured a clipboard manager you created in shortcuts. Would you mind sharing the instructions for that with me or just help point me in the right direction?? I would truly appreciate it

[@gilbertgk]

Unfortunately automatically trigger to send email doesn't work the way it should. You basically have to unlock the iPad for the email to send which is useless. Apple please fix this.

[@ricardocorrea7816]

Now I know how to use my iPhone lol after many years of owning iPhone

[@somendas9707]

Can you share codes using scriptable by which we can After unlock, automatically run shortcuts ?

[@gabrielknight8490]

Automation with messages doesn’t work always asks to run , no option to have it work so annoying can’t figure out how to over come this

[@jasondesramaux8914]

Wife approved is very important. Smart home equipment isn't cheap. #sharethelove

[@UnknownGamingMLG]

god of apple

[@opiatesmile]

I am struggling with something that you touch upon in this video, and that is triggering things based on workouts. Something I have been trying to get working is when I start a workout, that a specific playlist will begin playing. But I want this to happen on my watch as I do not bring my phone with me when I go for a run. So when I start the workout on my watch, I want the playlist to play on my watch. It seems like a pretty straightforward automation but it does not work. Any advice?

[@ChrisLawley]

You don’t need shortcuts for that. If you go into the watch app, workout, you can select a workout playlist to play when you start a workout.

[@opiatesmile]

@@ChrisLawley wow well that solves that problem. Thanks!

[@krishnasingh-hb9hv]

I don’t know why you-tuber still sponsor paperlike🤦🏻‍♂️ It destroyed my apple pencil 😫 Btw great video💜

[@SunshineFL]

Good information

[@rb5090]

Great but how do you find the Scripting.

[@is-hi]

Hey! I have to send the same WhatsApp message every day at the same time... Is there a way to create a shortcut that will either automatically run at a given time, or just run when I touch the shortcut in the home screen? TIA, and thanks for your Videos!

[@steff120]

hey Chris, thanks for making shortcuts so accessbile through all your experience... I really appreciate your work! one question remains yet: is there a way of clearing safari browser cache and history on a regular basis by using a shortcut? could you help me out with this? thanks

[@ChrisLawley]

Unfortunately there isn’t. Sorry!

[@steff120]

thx - just in case anyone else could find a way... I'd be more than happy to learn about it

[@ThanhCong-fz5sc]

:)

[@dordqqnbash]

Pls More automation videos thanks

[@pastpianist]

Please shortcuts team... allow for named shortcuts! So hard to recall which automation does what when you can't specify a title...

[@7036me]

Chris, Everytime i try to use the automation for Arrive it does give me the chance to see ask before running. It will not run automatically.

[@ChrisLawley]

Unfortunately the locations triggers are manual. This is no automatic background for those!

[@7036me]

how do you set them maually?@@ChrisLawley

[@Austin-df3vk]

Please tell you fixed the spelling in “caffeine traker” by now!

[@mitchadams5353]

Until Notifications, Calls, and Texts and all of their corresponding attributes can trigger shortcuts...99.9999999999% of Shortcuts is definitively useless.

[@kennethkoh6072]

You uses your ipad naked?

[@Captinofthemudslayer]

SHORTCUT SUCK SO MUCH . CANT DO ANYTHING USFUL WITH THEM