Apple in iOS 12 introduced a new Siri Shortcuts feature that's designed to let users create multi-step automations using first and third-party apps.
Since iOS 12's release, app developers have been adding Siri Shortcuts support to their apps, and today, Apple highlighted several apps that have launched useful Siri Shortcut options.
Tile, for example, has added a Shortcut designed to let you find an item attached to a Tile device, like your keys, by asking Siri. Apps like CARROT and Dark Sky offer up weather details with Siri commands like "rain report" or "UV index," while Citymapper lets you get commute information in seconds.
Evernote lets you get quick access to Shortcuts for sharing notes, creating audio notes, creating camera notes, and printing, while Day One has Shortcuts for creating journal entries and recording audio. Calendar app Fantastical lets you schedule events and preview what's coming next, and Trello, Things, and Omnifocus all have Shortcut options for streamlining projects.
Apple also highlights Waterminder for tracking your water intake, Lose It! for keeping track of what you're eating, MyTherapy for monitoring daily medications, and meditation in Headspace, all features that can be accessed via simple Siri commands without the need to open up the respective apps.
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Kinda wish it didn't say "App says: ..." and just say the text. Same with "Running your Shortcut." I think it's a waste of time to say running your shortcut. And for me it kind of breaks the experience of Siri doing stuff when it's saying "App says...".
Without those, I think the experience would be much more seamless.
Hopefully one day, Siri won't require a highly specific phrase. Or maybe you can add multiple trigger phrases at least. Don't want to always have to speak the exact same words.
Honestly, I’m still not entirely sure how I should use this. For whatever reason it doesn’t invite me to find out either.
This is how I've felt about 'shortcuts'. I know they are there only because I read sites like this. For what was one of the most anticipated features of the release according to the tech writers, if you didn't know about it you'd never find it and if you did know, you need to download the app, work out what it does and then figure out which bits work with your phone/watch etc.
Set up a shortcut in Overcast called "Techmeme" which plays their "Ride Home" podcast which I listen to on my way home. BTW I highly recommend it.
Me: "Hey Siri, Techmeme"
Siri interpretations:
"Hey Siri Text meme" *tries to send a message* "Hey Siri Tech Meme" *blob of text from Wolfram Alpha* "Hey Siri Techmeme" Tries to play in Overcast, fails every time on the first try, works every time on the second try if I don't end up with her thinking I said something else listed above.
When it's having problems, I've tried "Hey Siri, Play Techmeme" which opens the Podcasts app, which I don't want because it doesn't have the features I use such as speeding up voice pauses.
I tried setting it to "Ride Home" which a lot of times means that maps tries to pull up driving directions to my home.
It really seems half baked at this point. I think I'm just going to have to come up with a completely different phrase like "Hey Siri I like bananas" for her to understand what I want, but even then it will always fail to start playing on the first time and play successfully when I ask a second time. Not sure if that's a glitch with Siri or Overcast.
