Author: Matthew Cassinelli

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Offsite Siri Shortcuts

How to Allow Untrusted Shortcuts from my Shortcuts Library 📝

If you’re just figuring out Shortcuts for the first time or checking out my Shortcuts Library, Apple’s error dialog for “Shortcut Can’t Be Added” can be a little confusing. When you go to add a shared shortcut for the first time, Shortcuts will say you’re “not allowed” to add them and that you’ll have to change your security settings, but then it doesn’t take you there to fix everything up.

To help anyone dealing with this problem out, I wrote up a guide for iMore that explains how to change the setting properly – and I have some advice for being safe with shortcuts you’re adding:

 Every person who finds a shortcut online and goes to add it should look through the actions included and try to understand what’s happening before they add it to their collection – and certainly before they run it.

Check out the full article.

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Newsletter

What’s New in Shortcuts? Issue 24

This was originally published in Issue 24 of my newsletter “What’s New in Shortcuts?” – sign up here.

Hello – this week is lowkey one of my most exciting weeks for Shortcuts, despite a bit of a lull until the next version of iOS comes out…

Plus we’ve got some fun app updates for now and our ear towards the future:

🆕 NEW THIS WEEK

I’ve revamped my Shortcuts Library (plus my membership shortcuts) — and I was on Automators!

  • Check out the new & improved Shortcuts Library
    My Shortcuts Library portion of the Catalog has been entirely updated, combining hundreds of actions into a set of 25 shortcuts that dig deep into each area they’re created for and provide a whole new way to utilize the functionality I’d previously made available across a lot of shortcuts. Check out the collection and add them to your own library!
  • Sign up to get my advanced Membership shortcuts
    My membership shortcuts collection has also been updated with a matching set of 25 more advanced shortcuts dedicated to more particular workflows or apps that I’m utilizing. This collection will be the main resource I’ll be updating weekly, with member shortcuts moving to public release after I publish content or processes around it – there’s a fancy new gallery to make them easy to grab too.
  • Automators #70: Matthew Cassinelli and Changing Your Shortcuts Usage
    My episode of Automators with David Sparks and Rosemary Orchard has gone out – we talked for 96 minutes about everything Shortcuts, my whole new approach to Shortcuts, and what we want out of the service going into iOS 15. Make sure to listen to the episode, and subscribe to the show.
    Continue reading “What’s New in Shortcuts? Issue 24”
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Guest appearances Links Siri Shortcuts

Guest spot: Automators #70 – Matthew Cassinelli and Changing Your Shortcuts Usage

Last Friday, the episode of Automators that I recorded with Rosemary Orchard and David Sparks dropped — and it’s a great hour-and-a-half conversation about the current state of Shortcuts.

Rose, David, & I haven’t talked since the release of iOS 14, so this is a dive into how I’ve been applying those features, my latest breakthrough with my shortcuts, and my updated Shortcuts Library.

Rose & David are my kind of people, so this conversation was naturally a blast — listen to the full episode:

Continue reading “Guest spot: Automators #70 – Matthew Cassinelli and Changing Your Shortcuts Usage”
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Newsletter

What’s New in Shortcuts? Issue 23

Originally posted as What’s New in Shortcuts? Issue 23 – sign up for the newsletter here.

Welcome to Issue 23 of “What’s New in Shortcuts?”

I’ve finally done it! My whole Shortcuts library has been fully rebuilt according to my new system and I’m truly loving it – plus I figured out another level of what should go on my true Home Screens, so that’s been really exciting and already proving itself out in usefulness.

Thankfully David Sparks and Rosemary Orchard swooped in at just the right time and had me as a guest on the Automators podcast – look for the excellent conversation this Friday when the episode drops!

Until then, here’s two more of my new shortcuts and some great Shortcuts tips I found in the community – plus, look for the fully-updated Shortcuts Catalog coming very soon!

🆕 NEW THIS WEEK

Controlling your smart speakers, managing your own Twitterverse, and chapters for my latest stream:

Continue reading “What’s New in Shortcuts? Issue 23”
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Newsletter

What’s New in Shortcuts? Issue 22

Originally posted as What’s New in Shortcuts? Issue 22 – sign up for the newsletter here.

Welcome to Issue 22 of “What’s New in Shortcuts?”

Hey there,

There’s a good amount of Shortcuts news this week, but there’s no pressure to learn it all right away – take what you want now and save the rest for later.

I’m putting together a bit more of a guided path through Shortcuts for folks like you soon, so absorb what sticks now and I’ll reinforce it with some good lessons down the line.

🗓 NEW THIS WEEK

One new stream, three podcast shortcuts, and a ton of new actions from Toolbox Pro:

Continue reading “What’s New in Shortcuts? Issue 22”
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Newsletter

What’s New in Shortcuts? Issue 21

Originally posted as What’s New in Shortcuts? Issue 21 – sign up for the newsletter here.

Welcome to Issue 21 of “What’s New in Shortcuts?”

After the amazing results from the survey I sent around, I’ve made a few changes to this newsletter – first by moving it to Wednesday afternoon (PST) instead of Sunday evenings.

I’m also going to create less single-serving shortcuts and fewer but more powerful shortcuts that solve particular use cases & provide more continued utility over time.

In many ways, it’ll be the same content, condensed into bigger shortcuts that handle multiple tasks in one tool.

In addition, I’ll be taking some of the writing here and building it out more on my blog & other channels, then linking back to that each week – for example, I’ll be pausing my Scripting series here and turning it into more useful blog posts.

That being said, you’ll still see lots of inklings of future content in the newsletter in smaller tips as we go.

Thank you so much for being a subscriber and/or a member – with this helpful feedback and my new approach, I’m truly more excited than ever to synthesize and translate what I know into useful resources for you all!

🗓 NEW THIS WEEK

This week I’ve got two new shortcuts available–one for the public and one for members only — plus I’m doing a livestream this afternoon:

Continue reading “What’s New in Shortcuts? Issue 21”
Categories
Newsletter

What’s New in Shortcuts? Issue 20

Originally posted as What’s New in Shortcuts? Issue 20 – sign up for the newsletter here.

Welcome to Issue 20 of “What’s New in Shortcuts?”

This week was somewhat quiet on the Shortcuts front – there’s likely a new version of iOS coming out soon so we’re in the calm before the storm – but that won’t stop us from having fun with it.

This week I’ve got a set for better note-taking habits, working through Item actions in the Scripting category, links to Automations, some of my streaming shortcuts, and handwriting shortcuts for Members:

📝 TAKING NOTE OF WHAT’S TO COME

As we’re headed into the last week of January, I wanted to help reinforce the building of new habits aided by technology – especially with a bit of smarts built in so there’s no setup required:

Continue reading “What’s New in Shortcuts? Issue 20”
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Newsletter

What’s New in Shortcuts? Issue 19

Originally posted as What’s New in Shortcuts? Issue 19 – sign up for the newsletter here.

Welcome to Issue 19 of “What’s New in Shortcuts?”

Believe it or not, we’re still just out of the second full calendar week of 2021 – it’s felt way longer than that though thanks to ~current events~.

This week was a bit quiet on the technology news front, but that just means more room for building up new routines with Shortcuts – here’s how I’m using it to gain momentum and avoid doing the same work twice:

🤓 CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHORTCUTS

With the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) going all-digital, this week was full of new products, new ideas, and 100% less walking than I did last year at my first time at the conference in Las Vegas – here’s how I tuned in without overdoing it: 

Continue reading “What’s New in Shortcuts? Issue 19”
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Newsletter Offsite Siri Shortcuts

What’s New in Shortcuts? Issue 18

This was originally published in Issue 18 of my newsletter “What’s New in Shortcuts?” – sign up here.

Hello all — I’m assuming 2021 did not start off the way many of us expected.

I hope you all are taking care of yourselves and your loved ones as much as possible, which is always important but even more so during stressful times. Engage as needed, take breaks, and do what needs to be done.

Continue reading “What’s New in Shortcuts? Issue 18”
Categories
Siri Shortcuts

Announcing the Shortcuts User Group

Hello Shortcuts friends!

If you’d like to be part of a community of people talking about and sharing Siri Shortcuts, you’re welcome to join my new Shortcuts User Group on Slack.

Announcing the Shortcuts User GroupI’ve been running this small community for about a year now, consisting of a cohort of people who are interested in Shortcuts and want to learn from other people directly about how to integrate Siri Shortcuts into their lives.

If you join, you’ll get a chance to see how other individuals are using Shortcuts in creative ways, get ideas or inspiration on your own automations, and be able to check in with a group of like-minded folks.

We have channels for things like:

  • getting help & asking questions,
  • sharing your own shortcuts or write-ups, and
  • having places to just talk and have fun.

The community is open for anyone to join, although I do ask new members to be intentional and try to invite friends who’d want to actively participate over trying to grow the community as large as possible – these tend to work best when we all get a chance to know each other a bit. 😇

Subscribers to my website membership will also be added to a private members-only channel so I can share the exclusive content there and chat with members directly.

Thanks for checking the Shortcuts User Group out – I look forward to meeting you in there!