How to run personal Shortcuts automations without the pesky notification banner

Learn how to execute personal iOS automations in Apple’s Shortcuts app on your iPhone and iPad completely silently, without ever seeing the annoying notification banner.

An image of an icon for Apple's Shortcuts app, set against a dark blue background

Shortcuts Automations: iOS 15.4 versus before

Fans of Apple’s Shortcuts app have been asking for silent execution of their personal automations, and Apple has finally delivered. With iOS 15.4 and iPadOS 15.4, a new option is available when editing personal automation in the Shortcuts app. Toggling off that switch will get rid of the notification banner when executing a particular notification.

Apple hasn’t provided a global toggle to turn off notifications for all Shortcuts automations, but we’re not complaining as this is one of those little quality-of-life improvements you won’t be able to live without once you become familiar with it.

Let’s see how you can disable the distracting notification banner for an iOS automation.

How to disable the notification banner when running a Shortcuts automation

When editing your iOS automation in the Shortcuts app, switch off the Ask Before Running toggle, then disable the Notify When Run option to run it without the notification.

  1. Open the Shortcuts app on your iPhone with iOS 15.4 or later
  2. Touch the “Automation” tab at the bottom
  3. Hit a personal iOS automation from the list to edit it
  4. Scroll down and switch off the option labeled “Ask Before Running”
  5. Disable the “Notify When Run” option that appears

Now whenever this particular automation is triggered, it will perform actions without asking first and without showing you the annoying banner notification.

You must first switch off the “Ask Before Running” option for the “Notify When Run” toggle to appear. If “Notify When Run” won’t appear after you switch off the “Ask Before Running” switch, your device is running a version of the iOS operating system software that’s older than iOS 15.4 or iPadOS 15.4. Read: How to use folders in the Shortcuts app

To see the iOS or iPadOS version your device is currently running, go to Settings → General → About. You can manually check for available updates in Settings → General → Software Update. You’ll see a message if a server check finds an iOS or iPadOS update. Your iPhone must be connected to power and Wi-Fi to download an update.

Don’t worry, you’ll be prompted before the downloaded software is installed.

One word: Finally!

You may be totally unfazed by any of this, which means you’re not using iOS automation. But people with an impressive collection of personal iOS automations will see this as a much-needed addition to Apple’s Shortcuts app. I have created several iOS automation scripts which carry out specific actions on my behalf.

For example, I have created personal automation that changes my iPhone wallpaper whenever I touch its icon on the home screen. I could also adjust it to change the wallpaper every time I’m connected to power or at certain times of day, for instance.

Before iOS 15.4, running personal automation in the Shortcuts app would show a banner notification to inform you that the script was running. With that in mind, you can see for yourself how a small change like this can make a big difference in terms of usability.

For more info about Shortcuts, read the Shortcuts User Guide on Apple’s website.