What’s new in Shortcuts

Key Takeaways

• 🔁 New automation types — screenshot, keyboard connection, and notifications

• 🔬 Inspector shows the model’s transcript for your actions

• 💾 Persistent storage for variables can be accessed across devices

• 🆔 App Entities need stable, device-consistent IDs for cross-device recognition

Automations

• Three new automation trigger types:

  • Screenshot — run a shortcut when a screenshot is taken

  • Keyboard connection — react when a keyboard is connected or disconnected

  • Notification — trigger on incoming notifications

    • Can filter based on notification content

    • Design notifications with automation in mind: clear titles and bodies help users build reliable keyword-based triggers

Use Model

• The Use Model action runs the latest Apple Intelligence models and can retrieve information from the web

• When a shortcut passes your app’s App Intent entities to the model, the model transcript inspector shows exactly what data is sent

• Use the inspector to verify entity properties, tune @Property titles, and refine what the model sees

• Rich @Property annotations on entities improve how content is represented in the transcript

import AppIntents

struct SoupEntity: AppEntity, Identifiable {
    static var typeDisplayRepresentation = TypeDisplayRepresentation(
        name: "Soup",
        numericFormat: "\(placeholder: .int) soups"
    )
    static var defaultQuery = SoupEntityQuery()

    var id: Soup.ID

    @Property var name: String

    @Property(title: "Available Today")
    var isAvailableToday: Bool

    @Property(title: "Ingredients")
    var ingredients: String

    var displayRepresentation: DisplayRepresentation {
        DisplayRepresentation(title: "\(name)", subtitle: SoupStore.description(for: id))
    }
}

Storage

• Storage lets shortcuts persist data between runs with Get, Set, and global storage values

• Global storage syncs across all of a person’s devices via iCloud

• Combine storage with Use Model to give a shortcut “memory” — e.g. save prior model output or user preferences for the next run

• For App Intent entities referenced in storage or passed to Use Model, use a stable, device-consistent identifier so entities are recognized correctly on every device