There are a multitude of ways to launch a shortcut, including the shortcut app, Siri and widgets. But the quickest way is to use a shortcut on the home screen. See how to use shortcuts directly from the iPhone and iPad home screen.
There is a clear advantage to launching shortcuts directly from the home screen. If you’re running iOS 14.3 and iPadOS 14.3 or higher, you can run and use shortcuts without actually opening the Shortcuts app. If it is a headless and no interaction shortcut, the shortcut will run on its own and you will see a notification.
If it’s an interactive shortcut, you’ll see a compact UI card at the top of the screen, where you can make selections, enter data and more. The Shortcuts widget also offers the same functionality, but it takes up a lot of space. You can have four shortcut icons in place of a single shortcut widget.
You can add a shortcut to the home screen (with a custom name and icon) in the Shortcuts application.
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Open the “Shortcuts” app on your iPhone or iPad (you can do this quickly using the Universal Search feature).
Go to the “My shortcuts” tab and tap the three-point menu button for the shortcut you want to add to the home screen.
Touch the three-point menu button in the upper right corner of the screen.
In the “Details” screen, select the “Add to home screen” button.
On this page, you can customize the shortcut icon and its name. Touch the icon to change it.
You can add an icon in the Files application or select a photo in the Photos application. In this example, we will use the Photos application. Touch the “Choose photo” option.
Select the photo you want to use as an icon.
You can now zoom in or out of the photo, if desired. Then, tap the “Choose” button.
You can change the name of the shortcut if you wish. When finished, select the “Add” button.
The shortcut will now be added to the home screen. Touch the shortcut icon on the home screen to run the shortcut.
If you no longer need the shortcut, just press and hold the shortcut icon and choose the “Delete favorite” option.
In the pop-up message, tap the “Delete” button. The shortcut will now be removed from the home screen.
Third party shortcuts are the best part of using the Shortcuts app. You can add additional functionality to your iPhone or iPad without doing anything! See how to find and add amazing third-party shortcuts.
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