iOS 27 update finally delivers on Shortcuts’ true potential
▼ Summary
– The Shortcuts app has historically been powerful but only accessible to technically inclined users, despite improvements like AI integration.
– A Bloomberg report reveals an upcoming Shortcuts upgrade that will let users create shortcuts by simply describing what they want in plain text.
– The new feature presents a prompt asking “What do you want your shortcut to do?” and then automatically builds and installs the shortcut.
– This plain-language input approach aims to make Shortcuts a solution hub for all users, regardless of technical proficiency.
– The upgrade is seen as aligning with the principle of starting with customer experience and working backwards to technology.
The Shortcuts app has long been a powerhouse for automation enthusiasts, but it has remained intimidating for the average user. That may finally be changing. With a rumored update in iOS 27, Apple appears ready to unlock the app’s true potential for everyone, not just the technically savvy.
Apple acquired Workflow in 2017 and rebranded it as Shortcuts in 2018. From the start, it was one of the most impressive tools ever to land on iOS. It simplified the kind of complex automation that made macOS’s Automator feel daunting, while enabling deep inter-app connections that once seemed impossible on the iPhone and iPad.
Over the years, Apple has steadily improved Shortcuts, including recent integrations with AI models. Yet, much of its power has remained out of reach for most users. Once you understand how it works,and especially if you have some programming background,you can create truly magical workflows. Just ask Federico Viticci, the MacStories team, or Stephen Robles, who have spent years demonstrating the app’s capabilities. I’ve learned an enormous amount from them.
But believing that any casual user is just one tutorial away from becoming a Shortcuts expert has never been realistic. That’s frustrating, because even less technical users have needs that go beyond simple actions like turning photos into a GIF or switching off lights when leaving home. In fact, the workflows that could genuinely help them might be the kind even advanced users would struggle to build.
That’s why a recent report from Bloomberg has me excited for next month’s WWDC. The report describes an upcoming upgrade to Shortcuts that lets users create automations simply by describing what they want. Instead of manually building shortcuts or downloading them from Apple’s gallery, users will see a prompt asking, “What do you want your shortcut to do?” along with a text field. The system then automatically builds and installs the shortcut on the device.
That question is the key to what Shortcuts was always meant to be. Not a creativity exercise in automation, though it can certainly be fun. Rather, it was designed as a solution hub for creating custom bridges between apps, files, and information, tailored to each user’s needs, regardless of their technical skill.
Having a plain language input field,even voice input,where users can describe the result they need, and then letting Shortcuts handle the rest, is a beautiful example of what Steve Jobs famously said during WWDC 1997: “You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology.” It’s also a perfect illustration of what personal computing has always been about.
If Apple gets this right, an AI-powered Shortcuts app that understands user intent and turns it into a working shortcut, no matter how complex the underlying logic, could finally make the tool as useful to regular users as it has been to power users. And for those who already know their way around the app, the ceiling is about to get even higher. That’s just as exciting.
(Source: 9to5Mac)
