Up next in 10
The 8 Best iPhone Shortcuts
Mar 11, 2025
Convert Image Shortcut: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/181da7016fd44be18f7facd685cf45fb Apple Frames: https://www.macstories.net/shortcuts/#apple-frames Clear Apple Music Queue: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/41899b1df13646a99c42b68383995688 Overlay Images: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/d0d33b485f7c41e7a8503986850e4857 Open in Safari: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/32d552272b5f4d79b1663e24841b2b6d Open Apple TV Remote: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/3ca845a3124948708b5179416ccd739e Article on Cult of Mac: https://www.cultofmac.com/861534/best-iphone-shortcuts/ More Apple news: http://www.cultofmac.com Produced by Extra Ordinary for Cult of Mac Music composed by Will Davenport, arranged by D. Griffin Jones Chapters: 0:00 Intro 0:27 Basic Settings 1:34 Action Button 2:58 Image Converter 4:21 Apple Frames 5:31 Clear Apple Music Queue
View Video Transcript
0:00
shortcuts let you automate the things
0:01
you do on your phone every day in the
0:04
shortcuts app you can visually string
0:07
together actions offered by the apps you
0:10
have installed you can run a shortcut
0:12
just by asking Siri or by putting a
0:14
widget on your home screen not a lot of
0:17
people know this powerful feature exists
0:19
so as an introduction I'm going to show
0:21
you the eight best shortcuts to show you
0:24
what's
0:26
possible let's start with one of the
0:28
more basic shortcuts the can set up
0:30
yourself if you regularly go into the
0:32
settings app to change the same few
0:35
things over and over again you might be
0:37
able to automate it with a
0:39
shortcut for example the settings app
0:41
offers a bunch of accessibility toggles
0:44
for all of those features that you can
0:45
add to your shortcut and under the
0:48
scripting category in the device section
0:51
you can set things like the orientation
0:53
lock the screen brightness the volume
0:56
even locking or powering off the device
1:00
using the git Focus action you can even
1:02
have these settings be context aware
1:05
whether you're at work or at home if you
1:07
have Focus modes set up for example I
1:09
have two shortcuts that I can access
1:11
from my lock screen One turns on light
1:14
mode and changes the text size to its
1:16
default setting another one switches to
1:19
dark mode and lowers the text size to
1:22
where I like to keep it personally I use
1:24
these for taking screenshots and making
1:26
screen recordings for my videos but
1:28
anybody could use these if if you want
1:30
to make your phone more legible on a
1:32
bright sunny day outside next up you can
1:34
use shortcuts to turbocharge your
1:37
iPhone's action button if your iPhone
1:39
has an action button you probably set it
1:41
up when you first got it maybe used it
1:43
once or twice within the first week and
1:45
promptly forgot about it ever since but
1:48
you can get more out of it because you
1:50
can assign the action button to a
1:52
shortcut that can do anything for
1:54
example if you use chat GPT or other
1:57
voice assistants like Google assistant
1:59
or Amazon on Alexa you can assign them
2:01
to the action button create a new
2:04
shortcut using the ask Google action or
2:07
the open app action and set it to
2:10
whatever app you want then assign that
2:13
shortcut to the action button and you
2:15
can just click it to open your favorite
2:17
chat bot if you often say to yourself
2:19
ooh I should add that to my grocery list
2:22
and you literally never do you can solve
2:25
that problem with the action button
2:27
create a new shortcut using the add new
2:30
reminder action tell it to ask for input
2:33
and assign it to your shopping list and
2:36
then assign that shortcut to the action
2:38
button with one click you can instantly
2:40
add items to your shopping list can't
2:42
decide on just one thing well who said
2:45
you can only pick one make a shortcut
2:47
with the choose from menu action to make
2:50
the action button bring up a quick menu
2:52
of settings I made a whole video on more
2:54
things the action button can do in this
2:56
video here next up let's talk about
2:59
images the iPhone tries to make you not
3:01
think about image file formats but
3:04
they're still important pictures are
3:06
taken in either hike or jpeg formats or
3:10
as Apple describes them more efficient
3:13
and more compatible the photos app
3:16
supports animated gifs but it also
3:18
supports similar looking live photos
3:21
that can be turned into looping
3:23
animations that are actually completely
3:25
different behind the scenes and
3:27
sometimes the difference matters with
3:29
just one shortcut that you can download
3:31
by tapping here you can regain control
3:34
of your photo formats after you've
3:36
downloaded the shortcut tap the three
3:39
dots button on the upper right and then
3:41
tap the I and make sure show in share
3:44
sheet is checked now when you go back to
3:47
your photos you can tap the share sheet
3:49
on any one tap convert image and set it
3:53
to whatever format you want animated gif
3:57
which only works on live photos or
3:59
videos
4:00
jpeg or PNG these will come in handy if
4:03
you're trying to upload an image to the
4:05
web that only accepts JPEG but not hike
4:08
if you're trying to share a gift in a
4:10
thirdparty app that doesn't support live
4:12
photos or if you're trying to download
4:14
an image from the web that only serves
4:17
in that irritating webp format next up
4:21
the Apple frames shortcut by Mac stories
4:24
is an absolute Masterpiece it takes an
4:27
ordinary screenshot in your photo
4:28
library and and adds your phone on top
4:31
of it for a much more professional
4:33
looking image it works in both portrait
4:35
and landscape
4:37
orientations and on Apple watch iPad and
4:40
certain models of Mac it's not just for
4:43
Tech bloggers like me if you ever want
4:45
to put a screenshot on social media in a
4:47
presentation in a document on a flyer
4:51
the Apple frame shortcut adds one quick
4:53
step with much more professionall
4:55
looking cleaner results you can copy the
4:58
image to your clipboard to paste on on a
4:59
different device add it to your photo
5:01
library save it to files or bring up the
5:04
share sheet to airdrop it or send it
5:06
over messages it even has settings where
5:09
you can customize it to your liking you
5:11
can choose whether an input of multiple
5:13
images will piece them all together in
5:15
one or save them as multiple separate
5:18
images you can even make a different
5:20
shortcut that controls the Apple frames
5:23
shortcut for making custom actions
5:25
without picking apart the immensely
5:28
complicated Apple frames shortcut itself
5:31
next up is a shortcut that adds a
5:32
missing feature to Apple music you see
5:35
on the Mac app you can bring up the up
5:37
next CU and with one button you can
5:39
clear the entire contents on the iPhone
5:42
you can bring up this list by tapping
5:44
this button in the bottom right of the
5:46
now playing screen and you can swipe
5:48
left on an item to delete it one by one
5:51
but there's not a single button where
5:53
you can clear the entire list at once
5:55
however if you download the clear Apple
5:57
music Q shortcut there's an easy easy
5:59
way to do it anywhere you see this three
6:02
dots button tap on that tap share and
6:06
then scroll down and in the share sheet
6:07
you'll see clear Apple music Q just tap
6:11
that and instantly your queue is empty
6:14
for easier access you can also add this
6:17
shortcut to your home screen one of the
6:19
more fun features of the iPhone is the
6:20
ability to copy things out of photos as
6:23
stickers that you can drop in an
6:25
iMessage chat or a Snapchat but it's not
6:28
easy add a sticker on top of another
6:31
photo without using a third party app
6:34
like pixel Mater this overlay images
6:36
shortcut makes it incredibly easy you
6:39
pick your starting photo then you pick
6:41
the photo you'd like to add on top of it
6:43
and you can choose whether to cut out
6:44
the background or not then you can move
6:47
it around and resize it on top and just
6:49
tap done to save it to your photo
6:51
library and just like that you've
6:54
combined two photos this next shortcut
6:56
is incredibly simple but it's honestly a
6:58
lifesaver open in Safari if you're ever
7:01
inside an app and you want to open what
7:03
you're looking at in the web browser but
7:05
you can't figure out how well if you can
7:07
find to the share sheet then you can tap
7:10
open in Safari to open it in Safari it's
7:15
honestly a lifesaver last but not least
7:17
one of the superpowers of the iPhone is
7:19
that it can act as a remote for the
7:21
Apple TV and it's super convenient you
7:23
can just bring up control center tap the
7:25
remote button and there it is you don't
7:28
have to download an app you don't have
7:29
to sign into anything it's built into
7:32
every iPhone but sometimes having an app
7:35
icon on your home screen would be really
7:36
convenient especially if you're an Apple
7:39
TV power user well you can add one by
7:42
making a series shortcut get started by
7:44
downloading the remote shortcut here
7:47
then in the shortcuts app tap the three
7:50
dots button to edit it then you're going
7:52
to tap Apple TV and specify which Apple
7:55
TV you want to control if you have
7:58
multiple Apple TVs in your life then you
8:00
can tap ask each time then add it to
8:03
your home screen by tapping the share
8:05
button and tap add to home screen you
8:08
can put the icon wherever you want and
8:10
now you have a faster way to access the
8:12
remote without bringing up control
8:14
center every time so those are eight
8:16
examples of what you can do with
8:17
shortcuts to check out more ways you can
8:20
customize your phone click this video
8:21
here remember to like And subscribe I'm
8:24
deerin Jones with Cult of Mach
#Clip Art & Animated GIFs