How Apple Could Make Its Shortcuts App 7x Better
Credit: YouTube / Brandon ButchApple's Shortcuts app is a powerful and intuitive way to make your tasks and routines easier. But while it's already a giant step in the right direction for Siri and iOS, Shortcuts isn't quite perfect.
It's been about seven months since Shortcuts was first unveiled, and the app has largely failed to become the game-changer for iPhone users that many predicted. It isn't clear why, but we've come up with a list of ways that Apple could improve Shortcuts. These may not make it perfect, but they'd certainly make it better. Continue reading to learn How Apple Could Make Its Shortcuts App 7x Better.
NFC Tag Reading
For the longest time, one of the most useful features that Android had and iOS didn’t was the ability to read third-party NFC tags. That has changed in recent versions of iOS, and a third-party app is already leveraging the new ability.
But Apple’s own task automation app still can’t use NFC tags, and there’s no reason why support for NFC shouldn’t be added. Just think of an NFC tag by your bed that triggers a “bedtime” shortcut, or one in your car that activates your “commute” shortcut.
Create Quicker Shortcut Triggers
In addition to using NFC Tags to trigger certain shortcuts, Apple could boost the app’s usability by allowing users to add
The simplest way to do this would be the ability to add an additional shortcut to the Control Center, or perhaps even as a widget on the Lock screen. Being able to activate a shortcut with a single tap or button press when Siri isn’t convenient just seems like a no-brainer.
Involve Users in Curation
Shortcuts does feature a gallery for various workflows, and this gallery is apparently curated by Apple staff. But the most interesting and useful Shortcuts are found on third-party platforms. Because of this, the company should take a cue from the App Store and iTunes and let end users in on the curation process.
Apple could add a new section to the gallery highlighting user-made shortcuts, or it could let users up-vote shortcuts and organize them into charts. And while they’re at it, why not combine these two ideas — create a third-party shortcuts gallery that users can vote on, allowing the cream to rise to the top.
Add More Organization
Shortcuts, in its current form, doesn’t really offer any sort of organization for a user’s own shortcuts. When you create or download a shortcut, the app just puts them all into your library — which can very quickly become a huge, disorganized mess.
The addition of shortcut folders could go a long way to cleaning up a user’s library. Better yet, Apple could also shortcut “tags.” That could allow users to organize various shortcuts and place them in multiple locations based on their category or use scenarios.
Make It Easier for Casual Users...
While incredibly powerful, Shortcuts isn’t the easiest app for casual users. It’s fairly difficult to create a shortcut that’s actually useful. Sure, there are plenty of third-party, user-created shortcuts out there — but allowing users to create their own more easily would be an improvement, too.
Apple could fix this by trying to educate casual users on Shortcuts, whether through how-to videos or built-in app tutorials. Or, Apple could allow users to easily create shortcuts via Siri. Imagine just asking the digital assistant to create a simple workflow, and then having it guide you through a simple creation process.
...And More Capable for Power-Users
While simplifying Shortcuts for the casual user may be a good idea, there are obviously power users who would want expanded capabilities on the app. Satisfying both types of users wouldn’t have to be mutually exclusive, either. Apple could find a balance.
Some users suggest adding coding-like features and organization to shortcut creation, like the ability to add
Actually Include it in iOS
One of the biggest things holding Apple Shortcuts back is the fact that not every user even knows it exists. While Apple made a big deal of Shortcuts when it debuted it at WWDC, there are likely quite a few users who didn’t see that announcement — and don’t know about Shortcuts at all.
Apple could do a better job getting the word out about Shortcuts, especially since it’s an incredibly useful tool even for the most casual of users. A simple place to start? Actually include Shortcuts as a native app when a user buys a new iPhone or downloads a new version of iOS. There’s no reason for Shortcuts to be hidden in the App Store.