iOS 27's Shortcuts upgrade makes automations easy to build - and will save me so much time

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ZDNET's key takeaways

Apple announced new iOS 27 features at WWDC, particularly around Apple Intelligence.

A new update to the Shortcuts app will make it easier to create and automate tasks.

iOS 27 will be available to Apple users this fall.

Apple's annual Worldwide Developers' Conference (WWDC) is taking place this week, and on Day 1, the tech giant announced new software updates for iOS 27, including Apple Intelligence and Siri AI, better photo editing, faster performance, and more.

But as a longtime iPhone user, the one feature that stood out to me during Monday's keynote was the ability to describe a Shortcut to Apple Intelligence to automate your daily tasks.

Also: iOS 27 is here: How to download the developer beta now

Apple's Shortcut app is, in my opinion, one of the most underrated apps in the Apple ecosystem. While it already has a built-in automation tool that creates custom commands and actions across hundreds of apps, my one big quibble with the Shortcuts app is how complicated it is to actually create a Shortcut. It took me a long time to figure out how, and making a new one still takes me about 10-15 minutes.

However, now in iOS 27, you'll be able to use Apple Intelligence to assemble a Shortcut for you based on your description of what you want it to do.

In Apple's example, a user wanted to let their partner know what time they'll get home each day when they leave work. The user described the main goal of the Shortcut, and Apple Intelligence automatically created a Shortcut that uses GPS to see when they leave work, calculate their ETA to home using Maps, and sends a text through Messages to their partner.

Also: Apple just announced iOS 27, and here's which iPhones support it

How might I apply this to my own life? I could ask Apple Intelligence to automatically play my workout playlist on Spotify when I hit the "start" button to record a workout in my Oura app. Or, my mom could finally utilize the Shortcuts app to solve the problem of her always misplacing her phone in her house (like mother, like daughter), by telling Apple Intelligence to turn her phone's volume to 100% and play a loud song when someone texts her "#findphone".

There really are endless ways to use the Shortcuts app, but I won't have to take the 10 minutes or so to manually create a Shortcut, and can forgo that by asking Apple Intelligence instead. This upgrade should also make the handy app more accessible to those who are less tech-savvy and haven't had the chance (or patience) to check out its useful features.

Other notable Apple Intelligence upgrades coming to iOS 27 include Messages and Mail offering suggestions to help you take quick actions based on context from your conversation, better Safari tab grouping, and the ability to create higher-quality images in Image Playground.

All of these updates are available on iOS 27 now through the developer beta, with the public beta coming in July. General users will get to experience these upgrades this fall (usually in September) when iOS 27 is officially released.

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