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.
Enter Shortcuts! I was able to create a workflow with the following steps:
Ian Brown @igb
1) select N photos from Photos app
2) bind selected photos to variable "My Photos"
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3) send photos in variable "My Photos" to my folks via Messages
4) send photos in variable "My Photos" to my in-laws via WhatsApp
Now I can save tons of time and effort while making sure both sets of grandparents get the same photos!
So if you haven’t already, upgrade to iOS 12 and get the Shortcuts app.

itunes.apple.com/us/app/shortcu…
And once you do, please share your automations, shortcuts, and life hacks!