10 Actually Useful iPhone Shortcuts That Will Make Your Life Way Easier

by Edward Harper August 17, 2024

One of the most valuable features of Apple’s iPhone and iPad is the ability to use shortcuts.

Shortcuts are groups of actions preset to run in sequence. They allow multiple tasks, which would otherwise need to be performed individually, to be run automatically.

In essence, shortcuts cut down the time it would take to perform a particular action, which equates to saved time for the user.

But while you can understand and appreciate the concept, it often helps to have some concrete examples to illustrate the value of shortcuts to fully appreciate them.

With that in mind, let’s talk about ten amazing iPhone shortcuts you need to try.

Inform Contact About Your ETA

If you’re driving and can’t use your phone but need to inform a contact about your arrival time, you can set up a shortcut. This shortcut will send your ETA (estimated time of arrival) to them with minimal effort.

Create a new shortcut in the Shortcuts app, adding the “Get Travel Time” action with a destination first, followed by the “Send Message” action, with the contact selected, then use the magic variable to add travel time.

Finally, save the shortcut as something obvious like “Share ETA,” and now all it takes to notify your waiting contact is just a shortcut run.

Automate Morning Routine

Regardless of when we wake up, we all have a particular morning routine. For many of us, that includes catching up on the news, checking the weather forecast, and getting reminders about today’s schedule.

This is another matter that can be automated with an iPhone shortcut. To do so:

Create a new shortcut
Tap “Add Action”
Using the search bar, look for relevant actions for your routine, such as “Get Latest News,” “Get Weather,” or “Set Reminder”
Each action would need to be customized individually, such as selecting the news source and weather location
Once done setting up all necessary actions, save the shortcut as something along the lines of “Morning Routine”
Using the Automation tab on the shortcut, you can then set it up to run at a particular time every morning.

Photo to PDF Conversion

Some situations call for photos of your iPhone to be converted into PDFs. You can set up a shortcut for the iPhone to perform this function, too.

When you start a new shortcut from the Shortcuts app, you can add the “Select Photos” action and set it to enable “Select Multiple.”

Then, you will need to add another action called “Make PDF,” followed by “Save File,” defining the location where you want the new PDF to be saved.

This will allow one or more photos to be saved to a PDF file with just one tap. Name the shortcut “Convert Photos to PDF” or something equally obvious, and save the shortcut.

Meeting Notes

Many users, especially those in a professional setting, find themselves burdened by the task of finding somewhere to write down relevant meeting notes.

The delay in doing so either causes them to forget their thought or to miss more important meeting points.

A shortcut can quickly generate a note with just one tap. It includes an “Ask for Input” action for the meeting title and another for notes, followed by a “Create Note” action. This setup allows users to quickly enter the necessary information.

Dialing a Contact

Whether it is your significant other, a close-knit sibling, a child, or a business associate, chances are there is someone in your life with whom you talk quite regularly.

Pulling them up through your contacts and calling them doesn’t sound like a big to-do. Imagine being able to contact them with just one tap.

You can do this by setting up a shortcut to speed-dial this contact. Here’s how:

Open the Shortcuts app
Tap the plus (+) to add a new shortcut
Choose “Add Action”
Use the search bar, type “Call,” and from the returned hits, choose “Call Contact”
Find the frequent contact you are setting this up for, select them, and save the shortcut with the world “Call” followed by the name of the contact

If you add this shortcut to your home screen, all you will need to do to call this contact from now on is tap on this shortcut, which will place a call to them without any scrolling, searches, or delays.

Share Your Location

Our loved ones and friends may grow concerned quickly if we are not where we say we will be at a particular time or if they haven’t heard from us when they expected to.

Rather than having to play phone tag, you can set up a shortcut named “Share Location” to let the waiting party know where you are.

Simply start a new shortcut, then search for “Location” in the action library, and select “Get Current Location.”

Then, use the search to find the “Send Message” action and choose the recipient(s) of the message. Tap the variable icon to find the magic variable for your current location, and save the shortcut.

Text Translation

Many people communicate with international clients or contacts without necessarily speaking the language.

Even for those fluent in the contact’s language, it could be timely to process translation into text in one’s head.

An especially useful shortcut in these situations allows you to speak or type a text and then have it translated for you.

By adding actions to a new shortcut in the order of “Dictate Text,” “Translate Text,” and “Speak Text,” you can quickly accomplish a near-instantaneous translator for your entered text.

Journal Entry Logs

Some users keep journals for various reasons, which can become cumbersome. However, a shortcut named “Daily Journal Entry” can make it easier.

In creating a new shortcut, you can set the action to “Ask for Input” and customize it to accept text. Next, add an “Append to File” action and select where the journal entries will be added.

Once the shortcut is saved, your entered text can be easily delivered to the defined location with a single tap of the shortcut icon.

Set Timers

If you need to set a timer for any reason, you can certainly look for your timer app or clock app with a timer feature on the iPhone.

But if you want to get to the functionality quicker, you can set up a “Set Timer” shortcut by adding a “Set Timer” action and customizing the duration for which the timer needs to run.

Track Water Consumption

If you set a goal to drink a specific amount of water each day, you can create a shortcut to help you achieve your daily hydration target.

Adding a shortcut called something like “Track Water Intake” and adding the “Log Health Sample” action can help achieve that quickly.

Simply customize the action by selecting Water as the sample type and entering the quantity you wish to consume daily.

Then when you drink water, just tap the shortcut or ask Siri to log the amount you consumed to the shortcut.

Wrap Up

All of the above shortcut ideas are practical and easy to set up. These methods speed up actions that could otherwise take several minutes to perform.

They often save users from needing to extensively use their iPhones in situations where they can’t or shouldn’t do so. These ideas are just the tip of the shortcut iceberg

In truth, there are tons of other functions where the shortcuts can save iPhone users time and effort, helping to simplify their lives.