7 iPhone Tricks From iOS 27’s Revamped Shortcuts App

I’ve owned an iPhone for years and never once opened Apple’s built-in Shortcuts app. The idea of automating tedious tasks always sounded appealing, but the scripting required to trigger actions and link them together felt like a chore the moment I launched it. That all changed when I started testing the iOS 27 beta. What once felt clunky and forgettable now feels polished and genuinely indispensable.

When iOS 27 arrives this fall, Siri AI will likely grab the spotlight for most users, thanks to its upgraded capabilities and dedicated app. But for me, the real star is how Apple Intelligence has transformed the Shortcuts experience. I’m practically humming “Zero to Hero” from Disney’s Hercules.

The feature, called “Describe a Short,” lets you explain what you want in plain conversation, and the app builds the automation flow for you. If it’s not quite right, you can refine it with a follow-up prompt inside the app, though the manual scripting option is still there for power users. Testing this on the beta, I hit a few glitches where automations didn’t generate perfectly. Even so, this new Shortcuts feature was incredibly fun to play with, and after a few attempts, I created automations that genuinely fit into my daily phone habits.

Below are a few basic shortcut ideas worth trying once you install iOS 27. My examples only scratch the surface of what you can automate, but hopefully they’ll spark some ideas tailored to your own routines.

Kicking Bad Habits

This is probably the simplest automation I’ve built, yet it’s already my favorite. I waste so much time mindlessly scrolling that when I close social apps like Instagram to focus elsewhere, I sometimes reopen them within seconds out of pure habit. I asked the app to generate a shortcut that fires whenever I open Instagram. Now I get a notification asking, “Do you really want to use this app?” If I tap yes, the pop-up disappears. But if I pick no, the phone automatically closes Instagram and locks the screen. It’s not exactly life-changing, and there are other screen time tools out there, but this little nudge really helps break my repetitive loops.

Air Quality Checks

Living in California, I frequently check the air quality in my neighborhood before heading out to decide if I need a mask. Instead of manually looking up the index every day, I automated the whole thing. I set up a shortcut that runs each morning at 6:40 am. It pulls the current weather, checks the air quality index, and sends me a notification. If the index crosses a certain threshold, I get an alert; if it’s fine, I get the all-clear. Simple and effective.

Battery Level Alerts

Shortcuts can also react to your location. Whenever I leave my apartment, regardless of the time, I need my phone charged or I’m stuck carrying a battery pack. So I created a shortcut that triggers when I exit home and checks my battery level. If it’s below 50 percent, I get a friendly reminder to grab that power bank. A quick trip back inside beats being miles away with a dead phone.

Plant Watering Tracker

These next two automations show how you can build shortcuts on your home screen and link them together. Plenty of apps log plant watering, but I wanted to see if Shortcuts could handle it. First, I made a shortcut that, whenever I run it, grabs the current date and time and appends it to a dedicated plant watering note for a consistent log. Then I tapped the drop-down menu at the top of the app and selected Add to Home Screen. Now, each time I water the plants, I just tap that icon to log it.

That alone was useful, but I wanted to push further. I built another shortcut that, every morning at 9:00 am, checks the plant watering log to see if it was modified in the last week. If nothing’s been added in seven days, it sends me a reminder to check on the plants. Now my greenery gets the attention it needs without me having to remember.

Screenshot Text Extraction

This one is a bit niche, but as someone who’s constantly online and snapping screenshots, I use it all the time. Now, whenever I take a screenshot, my phone automatically extracts any text from the image and copies it to my clipboard. That eliminates my old workflow of saving the shot, opening Photos, and manually copying the text. It’s a small time saver that adds up.

Flight Landing Updates

This automation isn’t fancy, but it makes life a little easier. I often travel without my partner and tend to forget sending updates. So I asked Shortcuts to generate an automation that sends a “just landed” text to him every time I turn off airplane mode. That’s it. During setup, the app asked me to pick which contact was my partner, and now the message goes out automatically. It solves the problem of me being totally distracted when I step off the plane.

Sound Recognition Pause

This shortcut requires tweaking your accessibility settings, but the payoff is worth the extra steps. I work from home with headphones on and music turned up loud, and I’m always anxious about missing a knock at the door or the doorbell. There’s a fix for that. Head into your Accessibility settings, then find Sound & Name Recognition. You can enable recognition for everything from glass breaking to babies crying; I selected Door Bell and Door Knock.

Since I don’t always have my phone on me while wearing headphones, a basic notification wouldn’t cut it. So I beefed it up by building a shortcut that pauses whatever is playing whenever my iPhone recognizes either sound. Now I can blast my podcasts without worrying about missing a package delivery.