2 That means you can activate Siri and have her pass off your request to Google Assistant … kind of crazy.
If you install the Google Assistant iOS app, you can add a Siri Shortcut with whatever Google phrase you want to use.
I also find it pretty funny that Siri Shortcuts has actually opened the door to using Google Assistant on an iPhone or iPad. Many users complain about Siri not supporting Spotify, which is now something Spotify can add on it’s own with Shortcuts. I can tap the iPhone X Frame shortcut, tell it which photo I want to use, and the result is automatically added to my Photos.Īny third party app can add hooks for Shortcuts and Siri Commands, like Stats for Tesla, Carrot Weather, Overcast, PCalc, and more. Well, I’ve got a Siri shortcut that makes that painlessly simple. For me, I’ve often had to take screenshots of an app and then insert that screenshot into a phone frame for use in a video or presentation. The best place to start is to pick something that you do on a regular basis that requires multiple steps to complete.
All of this just by tapping one button or asking Siri by voice command.Īt the most basic level, you’re stringing together a series of Actions that you want to complete. A good example is the “Heading to Work” shortcut, which gets your ETA to work, tells you about your first calendar event, and starts playing an Apple Music playlist, as well as getting directions and traffic data to your destination. This will give you a good sense of some of the basic things you can do, as well as to see how they’re put together. Next up is to just open the app and check out the gallery. It’s not installed by default, which I think is a major miss from Apple considering how much this can improve using your Apple devices. Oddly, the first thing you have to do is to install the Shortcuts app on your iPhone or iPad. That is until Apple bought them and integrated Workflow into the operating system in some surprising ways. Other iOS apps had to add integrations and hooks into Workflow, but once they did users were able to create some amazing things.Īs good as Workflow was, it was limited by the operating systems security sandboxing rules and not being able to integrate into deeper areas of the user experience.
Plus, the solution would have to work offline because we get no internet access in the Grocery store and various other places where we'd like to access the notes.Apple purchased the company that made the Workflow app for iOS in 2017 1, which was a very capable automation app for creating custom actions and workflows to automate repetitive tasks. Whether I use dropbox or some other content sharing management system - I would still have the same issue of not being able to tell siri to add stuff to the files. There are launchd/Lingon solutions, really hacky Applescript folder actions (forcing file updates by deleting & replacing files), one-way appending using cron jobs & applescripts, etc.
So far, every way I've investigated has drawbacks.
I've started searching for ways to hack-in some sort of syncing, or even appending, content in specific notes to text files in Dropbox. However, I quickly discovered the drawback - I can no longer add content using Siri to those notes!
Recently, I decided to move a series of lists I keep in the Notes app (Groceries, Shopping, Movies to Watch, Local Bands we follow, Local Restaurants we like, etc.) to a Dropbox folder that I share with my wife on her Android phone, which is an excellent way to keep files in sync on all my devices.