Apple’s Shortcuts App just Might be the most useful

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Apple’s Shortcuts app for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS just might be the most useful app on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch.

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A shortcut is a quick way to get one or more tasks done with your apps. The Shortcuts app lets you create your own shortcuts with multiple steps. For example, build a “Surf Time” shortcut that grabs the surf report, gives an ETA to the beach, and launches your surf music playlist.

Don’t relegate the Apple Shortcuts app to the same hidden folder as Compass and Keynote — it might be the most useful app you have.

The main limit to what you can build is your imagination. But even without any, you can search through the “Gallery” in the app to find pre-built shortcuts.

My favorite, called “Directions To Event,” lists every event in my calendar that has an address attached. Tap the appointment, and you’ll immediately get Apple Maps directions.

Things get really exciting when you start adding multiple actions to a single shortcut. I made a shortcut that can translate Spanish, Japanese and other non-English text I encounter and speak it out loud in English. I started with the “Take Photo” action, then added the “Extract Text” option, which recognizes any text in a photo you take. Then I added the “Translate Text” option, then “Speak Text.” The complete chain of action helps a ton when I’m traveling.

Via: The Wall Street Journal

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