Handy iPhone and iPad Shortcuts You Should Check Out

With the launch of iOS 13, Apple introduced Shortcuts support and the Shortcuts app, adding a whole range of new functionality to the iPhone. Shortcuts have continued to be popular since their debut, and in iOS 14, the addition of Home screen widgets made it even easier to get to your Shortcuts, so we thought we'd round up some of our most useful Shortcut options for iPhone and iPad.

  • Photos Toolkit - Photos ToolKit is an all-in-one shortcut that can resize images, convert images to different formats, rotate images, combine images in a collage, make GIFs, and more.
  • Make PDF - As the name suggests, the Make PDF shortcut can turn documents and webpages into PDFs.
  • Apple Frames - Apple Frames from from MacStories' Federico Viticci adds frames to screenshots taken with your iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch and makes them look nicer. It's a favorite that we use often here at MacRumors.
  • Dictate to Notes - With Dictate to Notes, you can use voice dictation to create a note in the Notes app, which is useful for jotting down quick thoughts without having to type something out.
  • YouTube PiP - If you want to be able to watch YouTube in Picture in Picture mode on the iPhone, this is the app for you. With an app called Scriptable, when you run YouTube PiP through the Share Sheet, it will open a YouTube video in a floating window.
  • Music Finder - To identify a song that's playing nearby you can use Shazam, but Shazam saves music to Apple Music, which is not ideal if you're a Spotify user. Music Finder identifies a song and saves it to your Spotify playlist.
  • Set AirPlay - Set AirPlay makes it easier to swap between your iPhone and your other AirPlay devices, saving you a few taps if you want to switch sources quickly.
  • Url Shortener - URL Shortener makes long and unsightly URLs shorter, which is useful when you need to share a naked URL. It lives in the Share Sheet, so all you have to do is select the Shorten URL option when viewing a website and it will generate a short URL. Alternatively, you can copy a link and run it from the Shortcuts app, which will shorten the last copied URL.

Do you have a favorite Shortcut? Let us know in the comments and we may feature it in a future video.

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Top Rated Comments

ericgtr12 Avatar
53 months ago

It’s still there, just press and hold on the space bar.
Dude! Thanks so much, tip toes out with dunce cap on :oops:
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
pdaholic Avatar
53 months ago

One thing I really miss is the ability to force touch to move the cursor around, it feels like removing that was a step backwards.
It’s still there, just press and hold on the space bar.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
thisismyusername Avatar
53 months ago
I wish I could find a good use for shortcuts on either my iPhone or iPad. The only one I ever used regularly was texting my wife "on my way" when I left work, which I haven't used in roughly a year. I'll have to check some of these out.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Jandalf Avatar
53 months ago
Don’t use shortcuts at all and strangely I after watching the video I feel like I have to spend all weekend to get these to work...
Am I getting old? ??
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Jurgen37 Avatar
53 months ago
Todays birthday. We linked to a shortcut automation you can automatically send a text message your contacts birthday.
https://shortcutsgallery.com/shortcuts/todays-birthdays/
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ericgtr12 Avatar
53 months ago
One thing I really miss is the ability to force touch to move the cursor around, it feels like removing that was a step backwards.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)