Learn everything you need to know about App Shortcuts in Spotlight with this tutorial. Enhance your search experience and quickly trigger actions or navigate to specific sections of the app on your iPhone or iPad running iOS 17 or iPadOS 17.
This year’s iOS update has introduced multiple small but meaningful features. For instance, it can identify warning lights and symbols on car dashboards, decipher washing symbols on clothing tags, lets you set beautiful contact posters, AirDrop by tapping your iPhone over another, quickly share each other’s contact details using NameDrop, and more.
Another such minor life improvement feature is App Shortcuts.
Up until now, when you typed an app’s name in Spotlight Search, it would just show that app or media from that app. However, with iOS 17, when you enter an app’s name, Spotlight can intelligently show a few of that app’s internal sub-options.
For example, if you type Voice Memos in Spotlight Search, it will also show you quick shortcuts to record a new voice memo or play the last recorded voice note.
Here are the step-by-step instructions if you need more help to figure it out.
Note: iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 are currently in the developer beta stage, and you can follow our easy tutorial to install them on your device.
How to use App Shortcuts in Spotlight Search
- Swipe down on the iPhone or iPad Home Screen or tap the Search button to enter Spotlight.
- Type the app name. But make sure not to hit the go or return key.
- If the app supports shortcuts, you will see them in the Top Hit section. Tap an app shortcut to jump right in.
Quick settings shortcuts
You will find App Shortcuts in the Top Hit tile next to the app name. But some apps like Settings can also display a huge list of easy shortcuts or actions that you can toggle on or off right on the Spotlight Screen. Here’s how it looks:
Additionally, you can perform some other basic functions straight from Spotlight. For example, if you type Do Not Disturb, you get a toggle to enable or disable it from Spotlight. There is no need to dive into Settings or open the Control Center.
Similarly, typing Focus (the feature, not an app) in Spotlight will show you a list of your Focus modes, and you can quickly toggle them on or off from Spotlight.
And typing Files will show you a shortcut to Scan Documents.
App shortcut behavior
The App Shortcuts you see in Spotlight can work straight from there or take you to that spot inside the app.
As an example, suppose you type Voice Memos and tap the Record app shortcut. Now, instead of taking you inside the Voice Memos app and then starting the recording, it will instantly start a new recording and show it as a small notification-style interface on the top.
Alternatively, other shortcuts may take you inside their respective app. For example, if you search for Photos and the Favorites shortcut comes up, tapping it will take you to your favorite images.
Not all apps support Spotlight shortcuts
I’m currently running the latest iOS 17 developer beta 3 on my iPhone and its equivalent on my iPad. On both devices, I tried several Apple and third-party apps. In total, a few of them support App Shortcuts, while the rest don’t.
Several third-party app developers may jump on board with time and add this handy functionality to have key features of their app surface in Spotlight if the user enters their app name.
I can imagine Overcast letting me instantly resume my recent podcast or Spotify playing my Liked songs straight from iOS Spotlight search. See this Apple video if you’re an app developer.
Apps that support Spotlight shortcuts in iOS 17
As of now, here are some popular apps that show App Shortcuts when you enter their name in Spotlight Search on your iPhone or iPad:
- Freeform: Gives you the option to create a new board.
- Photos (Apple claims that Photos supports App Shortcuts, but I couldn’t see it on my iPhone or iPad. Maybe it will once it has finished indexing my photo library.)
- Shortcuts: Will show some iOS shortcuts
- Files: Scan Documents
- Fitness: Gives you the option to turn on Fitness Focus.
- FaceTime: May show an option to call a suggested person in one tap.
- Apple Music: May show some recommendations and a Shazam shortcut to recognize music.
- Notes: Gives you the option to create a new note without going inside the Notes app.
- Voice Memos: Lets you start recording or play the last recording without taking you inside the Voice Memes app.
- Shortcuts: May show some useful iOS shortcuts here.
Note:
- The App Shortcuts you see in Spotlight may depend on your usage on that device. For example, the Shortcuts app shows two shortcuts I frequently use on my iPhone as App Shortcuts, but it doesn’t show them on my iPad (where those shortcuts are added, but I never use them there).
- Some apps like Stocks, Tips, TV, and Measure show a useless “Extra” text in the Top Hit section of Spotlight search. This serves no purpose and seems to be a bug.
See all App Shortcuts in the Shortcuts app
You can go to the pre-installed Apple Shortcuts app and scroll down the Shortcuts screen to view your App Shortcuts.
Secondly, you can tap < Shortcuts from the top left and see the App Shortcuts section that lists apps with this handy feature.
Can’t see Spotlight App Shortcuts?
- Make sure your iPhone or iPad is on iOS 17 or iPadOS 17.
- Update the app if it’s known to have App Shortcuts, but they don’t show up on your device.
- Restart your iPhone or iPad.
- Open the app, go past its intro splash screens, and use it.
- Go to iPhone Settings > Siri & Search > select the app and make sure Learn from this App, Show App in Search, and Show Content in Search are enabled.
- Contact the app developer and ask first-hand if they have updated their app and added support for Spotlight App Shortcuts.
Read next: How to fix slow Spotlight Search on iPhone and iPad