Use NFC Tags to Say Goodnight
The Shortcuts app has so many tricks up its sleeve that we could probably write about all the different scenarios for days, but here’s another handy one, thanks to the ability of your iPhone to read NFC tags — and trigger shortcuts from them.
You can pick up a pack of NFC stickers for only a few bucks, which can then be placed strategically around your home or in your car. Each tag has a unique ID that can be paired with your iPhone, and then used to trigger a shortcut.
Our favourite trick here is to stick one of these on our bedside table. Then, when going to bed at night, we can simply tap our iPhone against the NFC sticker to launch a shortcut that turns off all the lights, adjusts the thermostat, sets up the appropriate morning alarms, and plays a nice relaxing sleep mix.
While all this can also be done using Siri, the advantage of the NFC method is that it doesn’t disturb anybody else in the home — particularly the person next to you who may already be sound asleep.
For the bonus round, you can even use time-based conditionals in the shortcut for different behaviours based on the time of day. In our case, if we tap the NFC tag during the daytime, such as at two o’clock on a Sunday afternoon, it sets up for a 20-minute “power nap” mode instead, turning off only the bedroom lights, and setting Do Not Disturb and an alarm for the designated time.