An underrated iPhone app that makes everyday tasks easier

YOU’VE PROBABLY deleted most of the preloaded apps on your iPhone without remorse. Goodbye compass! Adieu Keynote! Sayonara Freeform! You have my blessing to send them into oblivion without delay, with one exception: don’t ignore the Shortcuts app.

Shortcuts is Apple’s automation app that you can use in virtually countless ways. For example, I keep losing track of where I parked my car, so I created a shortcut to save my spot with one tap. To do this, I opened the app, tapped the “+” button in the top right corner, and then hit “Add Action.” Of the various actions you can add to a new shortcut, organized into several categories that include all the other apps on your phone, I found one called “Set Parked Car” (with “Location” actions) and saved it. Now, when I park to go hiking, I open the app and tap the shortcut to make sure I don’t go back to the wrong trailhead.

Tip: You can save any shortcut you create to your home screen, so you don’t have to open the app to use it. Press the shortcut down, tap “Share” in the drop-down menu, then scroll down until you see the “Add to Home Screen” option.

The main limit to what you can build is your imagination. But even without any, you can search through the app’s “Gallery” to find pre-built shortcuts.

My favorite, called “Directions to Events,” lists every event on my calendar that has an address attached. Tap a meeting and you’ll get instant Apple Maps directions.

Things get really exciting when you start adding multiple actions to one shortcut. I created a shortcut that can translate Spanish, Japanese, and other non-English text I come across and speak it out loud in English. I started with the “Take Photo” action, then added the “Extract Text” option, which recognizes any text in the photo you take. Then I added the option “Translate text”, then “Speak text”. The whole chain of shops helps me a lot when I travel.

You can use the “Automation” section to make the shortcut happen automatically. I use this to feed my cat, Mira. She always complains that I feed her late, so I set an alarm for her meal time. my location data, the shortcuts will disable alarms when I leave the house and re-enable them when I return, which prevents the alarm from going off in the middle of, say, a very important conversation at the taproom.

Of course, these are all just examples. The best thing about Shortcuts is that you can build whatever you want. Almost as important? You’ll feel smugly tech-savvy, no programming lessons necessary.