The other day at the office, @Jayholler was evangelizing the new Shortcuts app in iOS 12.

Jay’s stoke about things is infectious and his instincts are usually on point, so this weekend I upgraded my phone and tried out the app.

Despite a few bugs in the editor, Shortcuts finally brings legit scripting to the phone. Within minutes I’d solved a frustrating iOS itch.

Here’s what was annoying me and how I fixed it via Shortcuts:

My wife and I are the parents of two girls (one 4 year old and one 4 month old). The girls’s grandparents are always demanding photos.

@pgarg’s parents live in India, and my folks live in the US. As is often the case, different countries use different messaging apps.

My in-laws, like many folks in India, use WhatsApp. My folks tend to use Messages.

When sharing photos, I spend time selecting a few photos from scores taken during the day or at an event...

...and then share via one of the messaging apps. I then have to go back into Photos and find the same images...

...and send them with the *other* messaging app. At first pass this doesn’t seem like a big deal...

...but we take so many photos these days, and often spend time editing a few for the right crop, exposure, etc....

...so it’s non-trivial to find the same images each time. Especially if you’re sending images while walking or calming a crying baby.