Turn your ideas and needs into powerful Apple Shortcuts just by describing what you want to do on your iPhone or iPad running iOS 27.
Apple Shortcuts was first introduced nearly a decade ago with iOS 12. And since iOS 13, it has been preinstalled on all supported iPhones and iPads. Even though each action-based build seems simple, most users were not tech-savvy enough to make full use of it.
But all that changes with iOS 27. Now, the only limitations are what you want to do and how well you can describe your need in plain language.
The revamped Apple Shortcuts app uses AI (Artificial Intelligence or Apple Intelligence) to understand what you want the shortcut to do. Then it automatically picks out all the right actions (i.e., the building blocks of a shortcut) and assembles everything into a neat package.
You can run the shortcut AI built for you, and if something doesn’t seem right, you can ask Apple’s AI to make the change or jump into the good-old editor and fine-tune it yourself.
Describe a shortcut and have Apple’s AI build it for you
1) Update your iPhone or iPad to iOS 27 or iPadOS 27 (as of writing, they are in developer beta stage) and set up the new Siri AI.
2) Open the Shortcuts app and tap the New Shortcut button.
3) Describe what you want your shortcut to do. Don’t forget to mention any core or side features you want in the shortcut. In my opinion, the AI builder in the Shortcuts app works faster than Siri AI, and you’ll soon see a confirmation explaining what this new shortcut will do.
For some shortcuts, you’ll get additional option(s) to make a choice (see the screenshots below); so do that.
Once the shortcut is built, tap the triangle run button to check if it works properly. If it does, tap the back button to return to your list of shortcuts.
4) If the shortcut doesn’t work how you want, use the text field to describe the change.
In case you’re unable to describe the exact change, or if you want to see how this shortcut works, tap the hamburger icon in the upper-right corner to open the old shortcut editor. Make changes if you want, then tap the back button to save. You can also tap the Apple Intelligence icon to return to the AI builder screen.
Once the shortcut is built, touch and hold it to see a bunch of menus. Edit, Rename, Share, Duplicate, Move, and Delete do just what they mean. The important one is ‘Details’; tapping it lets you add this shortcut to the Home Screen for faster launch. You can also show this shortcut in the Share Sheet or on Apple Watch.
If what you want the shortcut to do is impossible for the AI builder, it will say so and ask you to describe something else, as seen in the screenshot below.
Also, new in iOS 27: