Shortcuts

I like having one button or word set my volume, playlist, and shuffle/repeat, especially when my central nervous system is acting up and this playlist is something that helps. I really like it. I also see why other people are wanting more. You have hooked me and I want more. Right now it is like playing with blocks in a vacuum: limited output nodes and iOS does not let Shortcuts know what is going on outside. I have to make broad assumptions about when most of these shortcuts will fire, my playlist being an exception because it is completely contained in my phone. I understand the desire for privacy and not executing arbitrary programs no matter how small, but Shortcuts is advertised as being able to order your favorite coffee at your favorite cafe. If it is allowed to touch my credit cards, why is it not able to know my location and the viable routes to my destination and the travel time of each route the way some apps can if I go the long route? In other words, if I make the shortcut or give it off of the approved gallery and other apps cannot make shortcuts, what is wrong with making a delayed text message or other shortcuts that do arbitrary things? This a toy, demonstrated by the gallery still only having 50 shortcuts a year later. I request that we be allowed to go deeper, because clever use of websites allows for arbitrary exploitation in a way that is more likely to involve bad actors.

Shortcuts makes for so much convenience, and it extends the functionality of iOS infinitely. However, a few suggestions to make this app even better: - PUBLIC SHORTCUTS. A lot of people create shortcuts for the same things. Additionally, a lot of people create great quality shortcuts, but have no way to share with others (except for AirDrop and iCloud links). Adding a feature that could make shortcuts public would take care of both of these problems. iCloud links are already a thing, so Apple wouldn’t need to use any more server space. - BACKGROUND FUNCTION. As of November 14th, 2018, Shortcuts doesn’t run shortcuts in the background, even if they’re still doing something. This is a problem for shortcuts that wait until a certain time to continue. Adding this would be a simple fix that all of the other apps in existence use! - HOME SCREEN FIX. This looked like a good idea at the time. However, it’s so bad that I’ve stopped using this function entirely. First of all, it shows the app icon for a full second. Then, it switches over to Safari for another second. Finally, it opens the Shortcuts app for another second, then decides to OPEN THE SHORTCUT IN EDIT MODE, which takes another second, and then starts running super slowly. I might as well swipe all the way to the left of my Home Menu to the Widgets page and run it from there. Why? What is even the point of this feature? Does it save any time? NO! Kind of ironic, since that’s the point of the app itself. Please fix!

I had used the Workflow app for a while before they joined apple, and it blew my mind how completely it improved the way I interact with my phone. Now that Workflow has changed to Shortcuts the app is so much faster and seems much more deeply integrated into iOS. Editing shortcuts is much more intuitive now that the actions menu remains available at the bottom of the screen. The visual redesign is also really refreshing. It still amazes me that I can do so much with this app. My only complaints: I have Drafts 4 installed but Shortcuts doesn’t recognize it and continues to redirect me to the app store to download. This is a huge pain as many of my shortcuts are based on that version of Drafts. Additionally, the Drafts actions show the icon for Drafts 5, but the actions themselves refer to Drafts 4 (the “View in App Store” link even directs me to Drafts 4, which I already have installed). My other smaller complaint is that I wish there were more connections to system settings - I would love to be able to turn rotation lock off or on with one click, or access and update my alarms via Shortcuts but neither of these seem to be possible (yet).