Shortcuts on iPhone are deeply underrated. They can make your iPhone a powerhouse and make life so much easier but most people steer clear of them because they don't believe themselves to be experts in creating shortcuts. Luckily, you don't have to be. One of the best parts about them is that you don't have to set them up yourself if you don't want to. There are countless useful shortcuts shared by other users available at your disposal. Here's a list of the ones you need to check out now.
Where are you?
Are you someone who frequently keeps on losing your iPhone? There are many ways to find your phone. If you own an Apple Watch, you can easily ping your phone. Or if you have someone with you, you can ask them to call you. But what if neither is a feasible option?
The 'Where are you' shortcut lets you find your phone from anywhere by simply saying "Siri, Where are you?". It's a very simple shortcut that runs a 3-second timer on your iPhone so you'll hear a tone when the timer runs out. It runs even when your iPhone is locked so you can use it to find your phone from anywhere.
Charging Time
This is quite a handy shortcut for people who are overestimating their iPhone's charging capabilities and end up not plugging the phone in time before they need to head out.
This shortcut estimates the time it would take for your iPhone to charge based on the current battery percentage. So, you can use it to figure out the latest time by which you need to plug in your phone to get a full battery before going out.
Fast Charge Mode
So, you didn't use the above shortcut to figure out when you should ideally plug in your iPhone and now, you don't have enough time. If only your iPhone could charge faster somehow!
Well, this shortcut is just the thing you need. No, it's not some magic spell that can unlock some hidden capabilities of your iPhone's battery making it juice up at the speed of The Flash. It's a simple shortcut that turns off stuff like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, lowers your screen's brightness to zero, and turns on Airplane mode and Lower Power mode in one go.
Battery Saver shortcuts
While shortcuts for charging are fine, some shortcuts can help you extend your iPhone's battery when it really needs it. And you can pair them with automation so they'll automatically kick in at required battery levels.
Super-Low Battery is such a rigorous shortcut that deactivates a lot of stuff on your iPhone when the battery is low just like the shortcut above. However, it takes things a step further than the Fast Charge Mode above in disabling the services on your iPhone, which you'll only need when you're in desperate need of making the battery last longer.
Another such shortcut is Ultra Low Power Saver which disables a bunch of settings that it automatically can and further prompts you to adjust other settings that it cannot on its own, like True Tone, Night Shift, Greyscale, etc.
Depending on your needs, you can choose either of the above shortcuts. These shortcuts kick into action only when you run them, though.
However, you can set them up with automation to automatically run when your iPhone's battery percentage is at a certain critical level, say 10 or 5%, and only Low Power Mode isn't going to cut it.
- To set up the automation, go to 'Automation' after you've added the shortcut to the app. Then, tap on '+' to create a new automation.
- Use the search bar to search for 'Battery level' and tap on it.
- Then, select the desired battery level at which you want to run the shortcut and configure the option for whether you want to run the automation immediately or after confirmation. Tap on 'Next' to proceed.
- Select the shortcut you added on the next page and your automation is ready.
Similarly, you can even create an automation to disable the shortcut after your phone has charged to a sufficient level.
SiriGPT
While ChatGPT will be available on devices compatible with Apple Intelligence with iOS 18, thanks to Apple's and OpenAI's partnership, the list of compatible iPhones is tinier than a hummingbird.
So, if your iPhone doesn't fall under this category, SiriGPT shortcut can come to your rescue. You might have already guessed what this shortcut does since the name is a dead giveaway; you can access ChatGPT from Siri.
However, this is not your average shortcut and does require some setup time. You need an OpenAI API key and enough tokens in your account to use your preferred model. To get your OpenAI API key, follow our dedicated guide below.
Parth Sawhney
Once you have your API key, you'll need to paste it into the SiriGPT shortcut.
- Go to the Shortcuts app and tap on the 'three-dot' menu on the SiriGPT shortcut.
- Then, paste your API key in the textbox where it says 'Add API Key here' after deleting that text.
Your shortcut is ready to use. You can ask Siri to run it and get ChatGPT assistance anytime.
Water Eject
iPhones are water-resistant (not waterproof) these days. But as water resistant as they are, if you end up getting it deep in water, like dropping it in a pool, you're going to panic. I never panic with my Apple Watch in the pool because I know I can eject the water. If only my iPhone had such an option, I'd be more at peace.
Well, the Eject Water shortcut comes in handy there. It can safely eject the water from your iPhone's speakers without needing you to poke around (which you should never do). The shortcut turns the volume up to 100% and vibrates your phone for around 20 seconds. Once it's done, you'll hear a bell sound at the end, in a move that mimics the functionality of the Apple Watch.
Overlay Images
With shortcuts, you can even perform tasks like overlay an image on top of another image without any need for a third-party app. This can come in pretty handy if you want to remove the background of one photo and replace it with another.
The overlay images shortcut only takes a couple of minutes to set up, but it isn't possible to cover the steps in this guide. Instead, you can hop over to our dedicated guide for the same and find the steps to create the shortcut (and use it) over there!
Sakshi Garg
YouTube Link with Timestamp
Has it ever happened to you that you're watching a YouTube video and come across something that you need to share with someone? Not the entire video but only that part. Of course, it would have. And without any additional tools at your disposal, it can be a headache. The YouTube Link with Timestamps is a handy shortcut for such situations.
The shortcut appears in the share sheet once added. So, all you have to do while sharing the video is select it from the share sheet, enter the timestamp, and then share the link further.
Screenshot to Search
If you've seen the Circle to Search functionality on Android and felt left out, this shortcut will help you bridge the gap. By triggering this simple shortcut, you can search for anything on your screen using Google Lens. It takes only a couple of minutes to set up, and you can find the detailed instructions in the guide below.
Sakshi Garg
Shortcuts have a lot of untapped potential. While the above ones are great, these are just the tip of the iceberg. Even if you don't ever want to create a shortcut yourself, there are so many more of them to discover. You can peruse the in-app gallery for more shortcuts or find them through websites like shortcutsgallery.com.
You can activate shortcuts from the app, ask Siri to run them, or assign your most important ones to back-tap gestures or the Action button on your iPhone 15 Pro.
Sakshi Garg
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