The underrated iPhone app that makes everyday tasks easier | Laptop News

Shortcuts is Apple’s automations app, which you can use in practically infinite ways. For example, I constantly lose track of where I parked my car, so I made a shortcut to save my spot in one tap. To make it, I opened the app, tapped the “+” button in the top right corner, then hit “Add action.” From the variety of actions that one can add to a new shortcut, organized in a few categories involving all the other apps on your phone, I found the one called “Set Parked Car” (with the “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 return to the wrong trail head.

A tip: you can save any shortcut you make to your home screen, so you don’t have to open the app to use it. Press down on the shortcut, tap “Share” from 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 “Gallery” in the app to find pre-built shortcuts.

My favorite, called “Directions To Event,” lists every event in my calendar that has an address attached. Tap the appointment, and you’ll immediately get Apple Maps directions.

Things get really exciting when you start adding multiple actions to a single shortcut. I made a shortcut that can translate Spanish, Japanese and other…