iOS 16.4 and macOS 13.3 Gain Multiple New Shortcut Action Options

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The iOS 16.4, iPadOS 16.4, macOS 13.3, and watchOS 9.4 updates add a long list of new actions and improvements to the dedicated Shortcuts app that is available on Apple's iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watches.

shortcuts app 1
There's now a Find Books action for locating content in the Books app, along with an Intercom action for sending announcements to HomePods in your home through iOS devices. There are dedicated actions for activating always-on display on supported devices, and on the Mac, there are options for logging out and putting a Mac to sleep.

  • Find Books searches your library for books or PDFs matching a given title, author, genre, purchase date, or content type on iOS and macOS
  • Intercom broadcasts announcements to your home on iOS and watchOS
  • Set VPN connects, disconnects, or sets the On Demand setting for any VPN on iOS and macOS
  • Set AirDrop Receiving sets the AirDrop Receiving preference to Everyone, Contacts Only, or Nobody on iOS and macOS
  • Set Stage Manager enables or disables and changes the settings for ‌Stage Manager‌ on iPadOS and macOS
  • Set Announce Notifications toggles the Announce Notifications setting on iOS and watchOS
  • Set Silence Unknown Callers toggles the Silence Unknown Callers setting on iOS
  • Set Night Shift and Set True Tone toggle the display settings on iOS and macOS
  • Set Always-On Display toggles the Always-On Display on supported iOS devices
  • Find Apps finds and filters apps installed on macOS
  • Find Displays finds and filters displays on macOS
  • Shut Down, Restart, and Lock Display are now available on iOS and macOS
  • Log Out, Sleep and Put Display to Sleep are now available on macOS

Several actions have also been updated. Find Photos, for example, can be used to find screen recordings, and the Get Device action can now show the OS build number.

  • Move Window now allows moving a window to a display on macOS
  • Ask for Input has a new "Allow Multiple Lines" option, which can be disabled for single-line text input
  • Find ‌Photos‌ can now find screen recordings
  • Find Contacts now filters by birthday more accurately
  • Get Device Details can now get the OS build number
  • Get Device Details now rounds numbers, including the current battery level, volume, and brightness, to remove unnecessary decimal digits
  • Set Playback Destination now works when run from Siri
  • Play Music once again resumes currently playing music if no music is passed as input
  • Run AppleScript can now produce dictionaries as output from AppleScript records
  • Nothing now produces a variable with zero items, instead of producing no variable at all
  • Repeat can now be set to run 0 times

These actions and updated action options can be found in the Shortcuts app on iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watch models running iOS 16.4, iPadOS 16.4, macOS Ventura 13.3, and watchOS 9.4, respectively.

Related Forums: iOS 16, macOS Ventura

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Top Rated Comments

TheYayAreaLiving ?️ Avatar
TheYayAreaLiving ?️
32 months ago
Does anyone know a good Short Cut Action to set the iPhone Charging not to exceed 80% for the battery?
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cosmogfd Avatar
cosmogfd
32 months ago
All I want is to be able to make a shortcut to automatically set Do Not Disturb if I have a calendar appointment ?
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DocMultimedia Avatar
DocMultimedia
32 months ago
I'm a geek, but old. I really haven't spent time to learn how shortcuts work, and I'm a bit depressed that these sort of things aren't simple. But as I said, I'm no longer a young geek and just don't want to spend time learning.

Just a mild rant. Don't mean to offend anyone. In the old days the QT scripting stuff that very few people investigated was so important to me. Times change.?
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Razorpit Avatar
Razorpit
32 months ago

I'm a geek, but old. I really haven't spent time to learn how shortcuts work, and I'm a bit depressed that these sort of things aren't simple. But as I said, I'm no longer a young geek and just don't want to spend time learning.

Just a mild rant. Don't mean to offend anyone. In the old days the QT scripting stuff that very few people investigated was so important to me. Times change.?
Same here. Shortcuts appears to be nothing more than a method to add features the original developer did not think to include in their apps. Worse, apps that need some of these features added to them do not allow you to access their internals vis shortcuts. ?
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JMO1 Avatar
JMO1
32 months ago

MacRumors content image ('https://www.macrumors.com/2023/03/27/ios-16-4-macos-13-3-shortcut-actions/')

The iOS 16.4, iPadOS 16.4, macOS 13.3, and watchOS 9.4 updates add a long list of new actions and improvements to the dedicated Shortcuts app that is available on Apple's iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watches.

MacRumors content image

There's now a Find Books action for locating content in the Books app, along with an Intercom action for sending announcements to HomePods in your home through iOS devices. There are dedicated actions for activating always-on display on supported devices, and on the Mac, there are options for logging out and putting a Mac to sleep.

* Find Books searches your library for books or PDFs matching a given title, author, genre, purchase date, or content type on iOS and macOS

* Intercom broadcasts announcements to your home on iOS and watchOS

* Set VPN connects, disconnects, or sets the On Demand setting for any VPN on iOS and macOS

* Set AirDrop Receiving sets the AirDrop Receiving preference to Everyone, Contacts Only, or Nobody on iOS and macOS

* Set Stage Manager enables or disables and changes the settings for Stage Manager on iPadOS and macOS

* Set Announce Notifications toggles the Announce Notifications setting on iOS and watchOS

* Set Silence Unknown Callers toggles the Silence Unknown Callers setting on iOS

* Set Night Shift and Set True Tone toggle the display settings on iOS and macOS

* Set Always-On Display toggles the Always-On Display on supported iOS devices

* Find Apps finds and filters apps installed on macOS

* Find Displays finds and filters displays on macOS

* Shut Down, Restart, and Lock Display are now available on iOS and macOS

* Log Out, Sleep and Put Display to Sleep are now available on macOS

Several actions have also been updated. Find Photos, for example, can be used to find screen recordings, and the Get Device action can now show the OS build number.

* Move Window now allows moving a window to a display on macOS

* Ask for Input has a new "Allow Multiple Lines" option, which can be disabled for single-line text input

* Find Photos can now find screen recordings

* Find Contacts now filters by birthday more accurately

* Get Device Details can now get the OS build number

* Get Device Details now rounds numbers, including the current battery level, volume, and brightness, to remove unnecessary decimal digits

* Set Playback Destination now works when run from Siri

* Play Music once again resumes currently playing music if no music is passed as input

* Run AppleScript can now produce dictionaries as output from AppleScript records

* Nothing now produces a variable with zero items, instead of producing no variable at all

* Repeat can now be set to run 0 times

These actions and updated action options can be found in the Shortcuts app on iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watch models running iOS 16.4, iPadOS 16.4, macOS Ventura 13.3, and watchOS 9.4, respectively.

Article Link: iOS 16.4 and macOS 13.3 Gain Multiple New Shortcut Action Options ('https://www.macrumors.com/2023/03/27/ios-16-4-macos-13-3-shortcut-actions/')
Well this needs a ChatGPT LLM engine. This approach is OUTDATED. In its current form, why spend the time when you should be able to write a prompt and get the intended action. Time to really power Siri as an assistant, otherwise, they will lose to MSFT
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ikjadoon Avatar
ikjadoon
32 months ago

All I want is to be able to make a shortcut to automatically set Do Not Disturb if I have a calendar appointment ?
I've been asking for this feature for YEARS. It's so important now with hybrid work and too many meetings on multiple calendars.

You can hack around it with Shortcuts now, but it's so complex and breaks every other iOS update.

Apple, make Focus Modes a tiny teeny bit more intuitive. They're such a mess and this one feature would be so beneficial to anyone that is constantly moving.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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