August 17, 2018

4: First Look at Siri Shortcuts

41 minutes

Rose and David have been busy trying out the Siri Shortcuts beta. This episode looks closely at how Siri Shortcuts is better (and worse) than Workflow along with some hopes for where this is all heading.

This episode of Automators is sponsored by:

The Omni Group: Accomplish More Every Day

Links and Show Notes

Because he can't help himself, David kicks off the show taking credit for the existence of Siri Shortcuts because … well … why not? Rose quickly gets on board with the idea. Then our hosts dive in deep on Siri Shortcuts, the banner automation features that will ship with iOS 12.

In less than three minutes, Rose summons her iPhone Harry Potter style. David says lots of hand-wavy things about running betas and then they dive in deep on how Siri Shortcuts works.

If you've ever wondered what a URL scheme is, Rose explains it brilliantly and then David whines about wanting more in automation. David attempts to explain all the ways Siri Shortcuts can work and delivers the usual disclaimers at the same time.

Our hosts both like the idea that Siri shortcuts will make suggestions to people that normally wouldn't automate. Hooray! After celebrating this fact, David starts listing all the things he wants in addition to these cool new tools. That's a running theme through this episode. Our hosts seem to always want more.

Rose and David eventually get into the subject of what's new with Siri Shortcuts. Rose has already automated her airplane boarding workflow. David comes up with an easy way to automate parenting teenagers. Eventually, they get around a hypothetical meeting shortcut. This is an important point because it marks the third podcast where David talks about meetings. (Although this is the first time that he uses the word "fun".)

They take a break so David can talk about this episode's sponsor, OmniFocus 3, which they both love very much.

David and Rose then talk about the various ways they are gaming their iPhones to create the Siri Shortcuts they want most. Our hosts then explain how this is only the first iteration of Siri Shortcuts and then they provide a laundry list of features they want immediately. With an irresponsible faith in Siri's voice to text engine, David wants Siri Shortcuts to grab variables from your verbal commands. Eventually, David digresses to fantasy workflows that expose exactly how big of a nerd he is.

Automators on the Internet The Automators Forum Soup Chef: Accelerating App Interactions with Shortcuts | Apple Developer Documentation Introduction to Siri Shortcuts - WWDC 2018 - Videos - Apple Developer Building for Voice with Siri Shortcuts - WWDC 2018 - Videos - Apple Developer Noodlesoft – Noodlesoft – Simply Useful Software Sharecuts

This is a great collection of Shortcuts which many people have already made.

Flight Time Shortcut

Rose's Shortcut for Flight Time, hosted on Sharecuts

...more

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