Siri Shortcuts Tutorial for Non-programmers (Part 1)

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'll talk about the new Siri Shortcuts and show you how to use it to automate routine iPhone and iPad actions.  This is the first of a 3 part tutorial.

Recently with iOS 12, Apple launched Siri Shortcuts.  It has hit with a splash, but it's not really a new app or even new functionality.  Instead, it is a rebranding, relaunching, and function expansion of the old Workflows app.  In fact, when installing iOS 12, Apple just turns your Workflow app and all of its data into Siri Shortcuts.

Okay -- confession time.  I found out about the Workflow App really late.  Like a couple of months ago.  I became so obsessed with automating iphone and ipad functions that I immediately did a series of 3 videos about it.  Unfortunately, these videos were still in the hopper when Apple changed Workflow to Siri Shortcuts rendering all three videos obsolete.

That was the bad news for me.  The good news is that Siri Shortcuts -- despite the new name -- really is exactly the same things as the Workflow app, with some new features.  So, here's what I decided to do.  Instead of refilming and reediting the entire series, I'm going to tell you what has been updated and then present the series "as is" with some editing tweaks where the interface has changed.  Deal?  

First -- what is Siri Shortcuts?  It's essentially an automation tool.  So, there are some things you do all the time, repetitively, which might require several steps on your iPhone.  Siri Shortcuts allows you to automate these actions so that you can perform them with one click -- or and this is new -- with a Siri Command.  So, as far as I can tell, there are really only 2 major and positive updates to Workflows with this rebranding:

• Siri Commands - The old Workflow app required that you kick off every automation with the click of a button.  Now, you can add a voice command to each shortcut and kick it off either by voice or by button.  I'll show you how to do this later in the tutorial, but it is simple and straightforward and great additional functionality as we all move towards a natural conversational relationship with our electronic devices.  The 2nd big update is that Siri Shortcuts makes
• Creating Automations Easier - this was a good move.  After all, there is a reason I named this series "Workflow for Non-programmers."  It was a bit intimidating and complicated to just casually use this app.  Now, Apple has made it a much easier entry -- of course making more complicated automations still requires some expertise.  So, how is it easier?  Two ways:
  • Suggestions - Apple has planted suggestions within its own apps and within integrated 3rd party apps.  So, for example, if I go to more options within this Evernote note, you can see "Create a Siri Shortcut" is one of the suggestions.  If I hit this, Siri Shortcuts will automatically create this automation, with a Siri command associated with it, and save it locally to my app to use as many times as I want.  Brilliant.  Apple hides Siri Shortcut suggestions in a bunch of places -- sharing sheets, your lock screen, settings, and search, so you are constantly aware of different ways to use it.  The other way they simplify automation creation is by
  • Sharing - If you have already created an automation or shortcut, you can share it with others so that they can also use it without having to create it from scratch.  This was always an option with 3rd party sites, but there seems to be a bigger proliferation of sharing sites for Shortcuts after the new launch.  One particularly robust site to check out is dubbed Sharecuts. 

One thing I'm mourning the loss of is the old integration with the Apple Watch.  I used Workflow automations to extend the functionality of my watch by being able to record my weight, send voice notes, and do a couple of other things.  These have disappeared with Siri Shortcuts, but hopefully they will be back in a future launch.  

Okay -- without further ado, here is my tutorial.  This is mostly done with the Workflow app, but where the interface is significantly different, I've provided some commentary and edits.  There were some good videos out there, but I thought I'd tailor this video to people like me -- non-programmers who just like efficiency.

Workflow has apps for both iPhone and iPad.  My iPad is faster, so I'm going to do most of the demoing on that, but I'll show you when the screens look significantly different between the 2 devices.  When you launch Workflow, there are 2 screens to choose from -- My Workflows [this is now Library], which contains all of the automations that you have created, and Gallery, which contains a bunch of automations created by others to use as samples or starting places.  If you are just starting out, you will want to look through the Gallery to get an idea of all the different automations available.  They have the automations sorted into categories.  Here are some of the possibilities:

• Start a Playlist
• Speed Dial someone
• Log Weight or Water intake
• Email a daily schedule to yourself
• Search a list on Google
• Zip a file and email it
• Convert photos to gif
• Get directions to locations on today's schedule

There are tons of already created Workflows and even more out on the Internet.  The fastest way to create a workflow is to find one that does basically what you want to do and choose to Get Workflow.  It will download to your device and appear under My Workflows [Library].  You can open it right from the Gallery here, or find it under My Workflows [Library] and open it there.  Now that it is downloaded to your device, you can edit it and make changes to your heart's content.  Okay -- let's backup a second.

What is a Workflow?

A workflow is just a series of actions linked together.  For example, take this simple workflow -- Play Playlist.  This workflow has 2 actions, which are represented by these boxes.  The first is to Get Playlist and the second action Plays that music with some additional commands -- like whether shuffle is on or off and whether or not to repeat songs or the playlist.  In order to play the workflow, you hit this arrow up here.  Watch.  I hit the play button and Workflow gets the playlist I specified and begins playing it on shuffle.  Okay -- so workflows are made up of a bunch of actions that happen one after another automatically.  

The order of the actions is important.  Workflow starts at the top and moves from one action down to the next, one at a time -- kind of like a set of dominoes.  You can switch the order of actions easily by dragging them up or down.  You can also delete actions by hitting the X here to the upper right side of the action box.  New actions can be added to your workflow by going into Actions [this is no longer labeled "Actions"] and dragging one over to your workflow.  This looks a little different on an iPhone since there isn't as much space -- you have to either swipe left to go to the Actions screen or hit the Actions icon down here [Actually, just swipe up to see the Actions now].  Then you can drag an action into your workflow just like on an iPad.  One last thing, you can see there is a faint line joining these 2 actions boxes, right?  That means that Action 1 is feeding information to Action 2.  The output of the Get Playlist action becomes the input for the Play Music action.  We'll go into more detail on that in a second.  Let's talk about

Actions

There are lots of Actions to choose from.  And again, they are split into Categories.  You can also easily keyword search for actions up top.  If you tap on an action, you'll get an explanation of what that action does, a summary of the inputs and outputs (or results), and a spot where you can mark it as a favorite.  

Think of actions as little machines.  You feed input into it, it does something with it and produces an output.  Input --> Action --> Output.  Many times the input comes from the action just before.  So that the output of the previous action, becomes the input for the current action.  We'll use our prior example.  Get Playlist doesn't have an input, but it outputs the selected playlist of songs, which it passes to the next action as input.  Play Playlist grabs this input and it's output is playing that list of songs.  This may be a little hard to understand -- but it'll become more clear as you start to use these actions.

Okay -- there are roughly three different types of actions:

• Get Actions
• Transform Actions and 
• Share Actions

Get Actions obtain information like information, photos, contacts, events, etc.  In order to act on a piece of content, it has to be introduced into the workflow and Get Actions perform this function.  Get Playlist is a good example, but there are lots of other actions that do this.  Get Actions start with words like get, search, find, or select.  Here are some examples: Search local businesses, find contacts, get latest videos, or select email address.  Get Actions obtain pieces of information and pass them to the next action as outputs.

Transform Actions take an input and do something to it -- transform it in some way.   This is the true machine action.  It takes input -- works some bit of magic on it and produces output.  Transform Actions start with words like make, filter, convert, edit, combine, translate, detect, filter, and adjust.  Here are some examples: Edit image, adjust date, make image from GIF, or make PDF.  And finally,

Share Actions take input and share it either by showing it, sending it, recording it, or opening it in an app.  This is the export function to get it from inside the process to somewhere else in the world.  Share actions start with words like add, create, post, share, send, log, save, append, and open.  Some examples are send email, log weight, append to note, or open URLs.  

Many workflows have a simple Get --> Share formula (like the Play Playlist workflow) or have a basic Get --> Transform --> Share formula like this workflow I made to convert a photo into a PDF and email it to my work address.  Take photo is a Get Action, Make PDF is a Transform Action, and Send Email is a Share Action.  Let me play this workflow to show you how it works.  <Pause>  Cool right?

Join me next time when I talk about inputs, variables, debugging, adding workflow items to your home screen, and automation for the Apple Watch [this went away unfortunately].  Comments are always appreciated and thanks for watching!