Is there a Shortcut (can one be created) to go directly to “Edit Home Screen” in IOS 14 w/o having to press icon/wait for menu to select that option?

[pollybrowne]

This question, I realize, may expose how uninformed I am when it comes to creating Shortcuts and finding guides to creating a particular shortcut. I‘m completely illiterate when it comes to the coding or coding-lite that is required for creating shortcuts myself. I usually have to find the instructions for how to create a specific shortcut online.

But I’ve googled this several times and have not been able to find what I’m looking for specifically.

Essentially I just want to be able to activate the jiggling “Edit Home Screen“ mode that I usually have to press on an individual icon, wait for the menu to pop up, select “Edit Home Screen” in the menu (where often times especially on my iPad Pro running ios14 without the App Library feature which would allow me to avoid having to manage so many apps individually on various pages) and then select “Edit Home Screen“ while waiting for the icon to jiggle.

It gets really annoying, as I mentioned, especially with iOS14 on the iPad Pro not including the App Library feature.

So I’d like to create a shortcut to get to that point where I can move icons around etc. without having to go through the aforementioned steps each time.

Any help would be awesome. THANKS

*I have the MK for my iPad so I was also looking for shortcuts where I could use those keys (as part of my problem with “Edit Home Screen” as I have to perform that task now, is that it forces me to have to use the touchscreen in so many situations where I’m trying to perform a number of tasks fully in keyboard, so if anyone has any ideas there I’d be grateful too!

 

[gwhizkids]

Unfortunately, I don’t think Shortcuts can do what you’re looking for. Right now (and which has been the case fairly constantly since Shortcuts were introduced 2 years ago) only certain device actions are accessible. You can find those in the Shortcuts app under Actions>Scripting>Devices. I’ve reproduced that below:

You’ll notice that most of these are pretty harmless if triggered by accident. I think Apple would avoid what you are looking for simply because, if triggered accidentally (say you assign it to a back tap), its not completely impossible that you could delete one or more apps. Unlikely, but not impossible.

 

[pollybrowne]

Okay, Thanks for your response. I understand what your are saying about why Apple might be concerned—however, I think that its just as easy to accidentally hit “Delete App” on the menu that pops up when you press/hold an icon, rather than “Edit Home Screen” as ”Delete App” is actually listed nearer on the menu to where you are pressing the icon.

Since I‘m only looking to create a shortcut to activate “Edit Home Screen”, putting the icons in jiggle mode—I don’t see how calling up that shortcut accidentally (as you described) would pose any greater risk of unintentionally deleting an app than the method Apple requires you to use to get to the “Edit Home Screen”.

In the scenario that I wish existed where a shortcut could take you directly to the “Edit Home Screen” jiggle mode, you would then have to select the delete symbol in the corner of the jiggling icon (with the trackpad or touchscreen) before it could be deleted. Also, to do that you would have to be on the homepage where you would obviously notice that all the icons were jiggling and would probably escape from the mode, if the OS hadn’t already done so for you as, when you activate “edit Home Screen” currently, if you haven’t touched and of the jiggling icons for a period of time they automatically stop.

I can‘t imagine that anyone would both accidentally call up the shortcut to get to “Edit Home Screen”, not realize that had happened and then also accidentally click or press one of the small delete symbols in the corners of one of their app’s icons.

 

[gwhizkids]

Okay, Thanks for your response. I understand what your are saying about why Apple might be concerned—however, I think that its just as easy to accidentally hit “Delete App” on the menu that pops up when you press/hold an icon, rather than “Edit Home Screen” as ”Delete App” is actually listed nearer on the menu to where you are pressing the icon.

Since I‘m only looking to create a shortcut to activate “Edit Home Screen”, putting the icons in jiggle mode—I don’t see how calling up that shortcut accidentally (as you described) would pose any greater risk of unintentionally deleting an app than the method Apple requires you to use to get to the “Edit Home Screen”.

In the scenario that I wish existed where a shortcut could take you directly to the “Edit Home Screen” jiggle mode, you would then have to select the delete symbol in the corner of the jiggling icon (with the trackpad or touchscreen) before it could be deleted. Also, to do that you would have to be on the homepage where you would obviously notice that all the icons were jiggling and would probably escape from the mode, if the OS hadn’t already done so for you as, when you activate “edit Home Screen” currently, if you haven’t touched and of the jiggling icons for a period of time they automatically stop.

I can‘t imagine that anyone would both accidentally call up the shortcut to get to “Edit Home Screen”, not realize that had happened and then also accidentally click or press one of the small delete symbols in the corners of one of their app’s icons.

Realize that I am only hypothesizing about the reason this is not a Shortcuts action. The real reason may be no more complicated than that the Shortcuts team has limited resources and that narrow an action is not on their to do list. I think their priority is to get the low hanging fruit, i.e., actions that are used frequently by a wide swath of the user base.