> Shortcuts also has a much more sophisticated integration with iOS
Anecdotally, here is the first shortcut I wanted to create when Shortcuts appeared on my iPhone: switch off Slack notifications at 6pm on Fridays, switch them back on every Monday at 6am. This is still not doable as of iOS 14.
I really don't get the hype around fancy automation (stuff you can see on website like MacStories for example) if simple toggles I need to improve my life are not there yet.
> switch off Slack notifications at 6pm on Fridays, switch them back on every Monday at 6am. This is still not doable as of iOS 14.
FWIW, you can do this in Slack itself (on iOS, see You > Notifications > Notification Schedule).
iOS 13 added time- and location-triggered Shortcuts (see Automation, but Slack doesn't expose this functionality to Shortcuts, and (as you note) Apple hasn't yet exposed iOS notification controls to Shortcuts.
Shortcuts isn't really automation. Its just what it says - shortcuts. I tried getting shortcuts to do things for me and all it did was give me more notifications. Sucks.
For example, when I get to work, i wanted it to log the time, all it did was showed me a notification that I had to click (!) before it did the task I asked it to. Silly.
One feature I'm using more these days is the "share" popup. For example, one shortcut [1] i hacked up accepts an amazon url, extracts the product id and opens that product on camelcamelcamel. So now I can be in the amazon app, hit the share button, click this shortcut and see the product price history. pretty useful. Without this shortcut it was pretty annoying. CamelCamelCamel folks could use something like this to increase their usage :)
> For example, when I get to work, i wanted it to log the time, all it did was showed me a notification that I had to click (!) before it did the task I asked it to. Silly.
In iOS 14 you can run more triggered shortcuts without needing user confirmation — I would see if this is possible for you now.
> Shortcuts isn't really automation. Its just what it says - shortcuts.
No, it's automation, in the quite literal sense. You ran into trouble running shortcuts based on triggers, but that doesn't change the fact that it's essentially a scripting language that allows you to automate tasks that would otherwise be tedious.
As another hardcore Shortcuts user, while it may be a scripting language the standard library is woefully inadequate. I have to use third party apps like Toolbox Pro to "fill in the blanks" and even then, there's things iOS just won't let you do - automating responses to iMessages, for example, or sending iMessages in the background, or responding to arbitrary notifications (wouldn't it be great if I could have iOS notify all my friends I'm driving on any chat app, rather than just Messages?)
A good starting point would seem to be what OP wanted - enable Shortcuts access to every toggle in the Settings app. Let me programmatically read and update notification, widget, screen, background, accessibility, Siri, battery, privacy, etc. settings that I can only access through the Settings app. Yes, I know I can do this for WiFi or Bluetooth settings, but there should be much, much more. And I should be able to consent to Shortcuts doing things in the background without my explicit permission, much like I can set up cron jobs on my home PC.
Totally agree with you. I just disagreed with the OP's statement that it's not "real automation" just because some triggers don't work without user input.
> And I should be able to consent to Shortcuts doing things in the background without my explicit permission, much like I can set up cron jobs on my home PC.
Again, this is now the case for many triggers (not all, I don't think) on iOS 14.
Yeah, the "not all" is what I was referring to. I should be able to do it for everything, not cherry-picked actions.
My guess though, is that they've already got this working, they're just going to wait until iOS 15 to drop it. The integration of Shortcuts into iOS has been slow but steady ever since they were acquired, and I think eventually it will do everything we want.
Personally I don’t see shortcuts having “everything we want” until they merge iOS and macOS automation. I do think it will eventually happen, but I think it will indeed be slow and steady, and will take a lot of engineers pushing for automation, which isn’t always a flashy selling point, strangely enough...
And that involves a third party app. I wanted to do a shortcut to modify my wake-up alarm for the next day (in the "Health" sleep schedule). Not possible.
Anecdotally, here is the first shortcut I wanted to create when Shortcuts appeared on my iPhone: switch off Slack notifications at 6pm on Fridays, switch them back on every Monday at 6am. This is still not doable as of iOS 14.
I really don't get the hype around fancy automation (stuff you can see on website like MacStories for example) if simple toggles I need to improve my life are not there yet.