Hey, what’s a phone got to do to get charged around here?
Intro; I’ve made a couple of videos now about the
Shortcuts app for the iPhone, but I realised recently that I’d only ever covered half
of what the Shortcuts app can do.
Because, in those videos, we talked about Shortcuts, but we didn’t talk about Automations,
and we should because Automations are AMAZING when you know how to use them.
Stick with me until the end of this video, because not only am I going to explain to
you what an automation is, I’m going to share 6 examples that I think you’ll find
really useful.
OK, let’s get into it.
What is an automation?
An automation is, quite simply, a method of automating something that you do on your iPhone.
So as a very basic example, if you send a message on your iPhone, you would do this
by opening the Messages app, choosing the person you want to send it to, typing out
the message you want to send, and then hitting send.
But you could automate this, in other words, have your phone automatically send a message
on your behalf.
And you can do this for any number of criteria - so at a specific time of the day, or when
you arrive at a certain location, even something as advanced as when your phone hears a specific
noise, it’s really very clever, and it’s actually very easy to do.
So with that out of the way, just ensure two things before we begin properly.
First, ensure that you’ve got the Shortcuts app installed on your phone, so go to Spotlight
search and search for it, and if you see this app already showing on your device, then you’re
in luck.
If it’s not there, go to the App Store and download it.
Second, ensure that you’re running the most up-to-date version of iOS, which as I’m
making this video is currently iOS 16.4.1.
Send a specific message every day
Let’s start with an easy one, we’re going to automate the sending of a message at a
specific time each day.
This could be useful if you’ve got someone that you know you want to check-in with on
a regular basis.
Perhaps a loved one that you want to message each day, or maybe your team at work, you
want to fire out a message each weekday morning to find out what their plans are for that
day.
Maybe you run some kind of activity group, and it would help to send out a specific text
message at a fixed time once a week for example, there’s loads of reasons why this could
be useful.
So to do this, we’re going to open the Shortcuts app, and then tap on Automation down here
at the bottom of the screen.
You can see that we can choose between a personal automation, or a home automation.
In general, we’re going to be creating automations that are only for us, as the user of this
device, but you can also set automations that will apply to everyone in your home if you
wish.
On this next screen, we can begin the process of creating the automation.
So for this, even though you can see an option for Message here, we’re actually going to
choose Time of Day.
You can choose Sunset or Sunrise if you wish, or you can choose a specific time of day.
I’m going to choose 8am.
Then under repeat, you can either choose Daily for this to run every single day, or if you
head into weekly, you can choose which days of the week you’d like it to run, and if
you head into monthly, you can choose which day of the month you’d like the automation
to begin, and repeat each month.
Choose Next once you’ve chosen your timeframe.
On this next screen, we’ve got a couple of options.
We could choose Add Action, which then takes us into a more custom shortcuts page, but
you can see that your phone will give you some suggestions, and one of those is to send
a message.
Tap on that.
In ‘Recipients’, choose the person you want to send a message to.
Choose Done when you’ve selected them.
In Message, you’ve got a couple of options.
You can either type in the specific message, and if you do this, whatever you type will
send each time, without you having to get involved at all.
Or, you can tap on the button that says Ask Each Time.
If you do that, at the desired date and time, a window will pop up saying “What’s the
text?”, and you would simply type the text in at that moment, and the message will send.
I’m going to input some actual text.
Choose Next when you’re ready, and you’ll get a summary of the automation.
So you can see that at 8am on weekdays, the text that I’ve written will automatically
send, unless I disable this automation.
One last thing before we save, I’m going to disable Ask Before Running.
With that enabled, the phone would ask us for approval each day before sending, which
is a bit pointless.
With it disabled, it will just send automatically.
I’m going to tap Done, and the automation is created.
I’ve tested it, it works a treat, and will send out each day.
Oh and just to show you, if you want to use an alternative app other than iMessage, follow
the first step where you create an automation and instead of choosing Send Message, tap
into this option down at the bottom.
Find the app that you want to use in the Apps option, and choose the relevant chat in there.
The rest of the process is the same.
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like this in a written format, there’s a PDF to accompany this video, and you can access
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to all video PDFs moving forward, plus the growing library of old ones.
Just follow the link in the description of this video that says ‘Become a Channel Member’.
Send an SMS, open my Shopping List
Let’s try a more interesting example.
Let’s say that, everytime I arrive at a specific supermarket, I want my phone to automatically
fire off a text message to my wife asking if she wants me to pick anything up for her.
And then let’s take it a step further, and say that I want my phone to then automatically
open my shopping list, so that it’s ready for me and I don’t have to do it.
So, we start with a new automation, and we create a new personal automation, like before.
We’re going to choose Arrive from the available options, in other words, when I arrive at
a specific location, run this automation.
Allow the app necessary location permissions if you’re prompted to.
In Location, I’m going to tap on Choose, and then I’m going to choose the supermarket
I want to use for this example.
Notice that you can change the radius that’s going to trigger this if you wish.
Down at the bottom, where it says Anytime or Time Range, I’m going to leave this as
any time, but you can choose to have this automation only run at certain times if you
wish.
Choose Next.
Like before, I’m going to choose Send Message, and this time I’m going to choose the recipient,
and then input the text that I want to send out each time.
Then, I’m going to tap on the field down at the bottom of the screen, and I’m going
to tap on Apps, and then choose Reminders, and then choose Open Reminders List.
Back on this screen, I’m going to tap on Reminders, and change this to Shopping, which
is a list I’ve already got created.
I’ll then choose Next.
And you can see here on the summary, that whenever this phone enters into the location
that I chose, meaning that I’ve gone to that location, a text will be fired off automatically,
and the shopping list will open.
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Remind you to charge your battery
Your iPhone has a low power mode which, by default, comes on when your phone reaches
20%, and you get a notification to let you know that this is happening.
It’s a good time to obviously put your phone on charge at this point, but what if you’d
like a prompt at say, 25% instead, so that you can quickly get some juice, and avoid
your phone going into low power mode?
Here’s how you’d do that.
We’re going to create a new, personal automation.
We’re going to scroll down, and where it says Battery Level, we’ll choose that one.
On the next screen, I’m going to change the battery level to ‘equals 25%’, and
then choose Next.
On this next screen, I’m going to choose Add Action, and then in the search box, I’m
going to type ‘speak’, and choose Speak Text.
On the next screen, I’ll tap on where it says Text, and type in a prompt, that I want
to be spoken out when my phone reaches 25%.
I’m going to tap on the right pointing arrow, and you can change the speaking rate and pitch
in here, but you can also change the voice, I’m going to change mine to a Siri voice,
as it’s a bit more natural.
Tap the Play button down at the bottom of the screen to see how it sounds, before you
commit to it.
Choose Next when you’re ready, and again, disable Ask Before Running.
That’s it, once you choose Done, your phone will verbally let you know each time it reaches
25% battery.
Enable Do Not Disturb each time you open an app
Are there any apps where, when you open them, you wish that you could stop any notifications
from showing up on your phone?
Maybe you’re watching a movie or a TV show, or like me, you’ve got certain productivity
apps where you don’t want notifications when you’re using it.
You can create an automation where, each time you open a specific app, your phone will automatically
switch to Do Not Disturb, and automatically switch it off the second you close the app.
Here’s how.
We’ll create a new Personal Automation.
I’m going to scroll down to App, and choose that one.
I’ll choose PromptSmart, which is a teleprompter app that I use, as I want do not disturb to
switch on whenever I have that app open.
I’ll choose Next, then tap Add Action.
In the search box, I’ll type Focus, and choose Set Focus.
I’ll then ensure that Do Not Disturb is switched On, until Turned Off, like you can
see on the screen now.
I’ll choose Next, disable Ask Before Running, and choose Done.
I’ll open the app to show you this is working.
Problem is, now Do Not Disturb is on, and I want it to disable when I close the app.
So we’ll create another automation to cover this.
I’ll create a personal automation, and repeat the steps from the previous automation.
But this time, when I choose PromptSmart, I’m going to choose ‘is closed’.
Then on the next page, I’ll choose Set Focus, like I did previously, but this time I’ll
say Turn Do Not Disturb Off.
Complete the automation, and let’s test that out.
You can see that when we open the app, Do Not Disturb switches on.
Come out of the app, and it switches off.
Start Guided Access when opening an app
I’ve covered Guided Access before on this channel, it’s a feature that lets you lock
your iPhone to just one app.
It’s great if you’re giving your phone to a kid for example, and you want them to
be able to just play a game, and not be able to close that game, and end up sending a message
or an email.
Problem is, you have to remember to enable it each time you hand your phone over.
So it’s good to know that you can use an automation, to switch on Guided Access, each
time you access a specific app.
So first up, we need to configure Guided Access.
We do that by going to Settings, then Accessibility, then Guided Access.
Toggle to switch it on, and in Passcode Settings, I would recommend both enabling Face or Touch
ID if you have it, and setting up a passcode.
With that done, we can now go back to Shortcuts, and create a new Personal Automation.
I’m going to choose App, and then I’ll choose Solitaire.
So the option selected so far is ‘when Solitaire is opened’.
I’ll choose Next.
Then on the next screen, I’ll choose Add Action, and we’re looking for ‘Start Guided
Access’.
I’ll then choose Next.
So you can see that the option here is, When Solitaire is opened, Start Guided Access.
Again, disable Ask Before Running, and choose Done.
Then let me show you how this works.
I’ll open Solitaire.
And you can see Guided Access switches on automatically.
It’s now not possible to close the app, open another app, or even lock the phone.
If you enabled Touch or Face ID, double tap the side button to use that to end Guided
Access, otherwise triple tap and use your passcode.
Your phone is now immediately safe to hand to your kids, although I can’t do anything
about them dropping it I’m afraid.
Lock apps using Face or Touch ID
This is a function that I think Apple will probably add to iOS, hopefully in iOS17, but
until that time, there’s no easy way to ‘lock’ specific apps.
In other words, to protect certain apps using Face ID or Touch ID, a bit like you can do
with most of your banking apps.
There’s an automation workaround though.
We’ll create a new Personal automation.
I’m going to choose an App, for this example I’m going to choose Photos, but you can
use whatever you like of course.
I’ll choose Next.
Then in Add Action, I’m going to choose Start Timer.
I’ll also change the variable to 1 second.
Now for this to work, with the Shortcuts app still open, I’m going to open the clock
app.
In Timer, I’m going to change it to When Timer Ends, Stop Playing, which is down at
the bottom of this list.
Back in Shortcuts, I’ll choose Next, disable Ask Before Running, and choose Done.
Now look what happens when I open Photos.
You can see that the phone immediately locks.
The only way I can access the app now is by using my Face or Touch ID or passcode to unlock
the phone.
End
So there you go, that’s 6 automations which I think are absolute game-changers in terms
of getting more out of your iPhone.
What do you think?
I’ve got 6 more which I think are just as good, comment below if you’d like me to
make a followup video soon.
And let me know if there are any clever automations that you use.
And as ever, if you found this video useful, do please consider leaving me a like, and
subscribing to my channel for more content like this in the future.
See you on the next video.