This reminds me of the same situation Windows Phone had where voice command app extendability was dependent upon the developer coding for it. Most of the shortcuts that are available are things Siri can already do or are pretty useless (settings alarms, going to certain websites, etc). The only two I use (or even have for that matter) are YouTube and Walmart. Have you all reached out to developers and gotten them to respond with creating Siri shortcuts, or is it complicated for developers to do this? For example, I would like WebEx to have a shortcut that extends being able to call into a meeting.
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So Siri Shortcuts are basically useless if the developer doesn't code for them...?
- Thread starter jrdatrackstar1223
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Right, the developers have to design these to happen, just as they have to code every button, drop-down list, graphic, and computation. Nothing happens in an app without explicit code.
Apple has made it pretty easy for developers to add those Siri actions (see https://developer.apple.com/sirikit/), but so far, Apple has done nothing to force them to add Siri Shortcuts.
Not every developer can come up with a good, business/cost justification for adding a particular feature, and when they do add one, they are often acting on user feedback. Not just suggestions/requests, but based on app analytics. If a developer adds a few Siri Shortcuts, they can use analytics to learn if people are using them. Only thing is, the users also have to allow "Share (Analytics) With App Developers" in their Privacy settings.
Overall, Siri Shortcuts is a chicken-or-egg situation. People are under-utilizing Siri because it doesn't do nearly as much as they'd imagine it should. Overall, developers have little motive to incorporate Siri Shortcuts because Siri utilization is relatively low.
Apple has made it pretty easy for developers to add those Siri actions (see https://developer.apple.com/sirikit/), but so far, Apple has done nothing to force them to add Siri Shortcuts.
Not every developer can come up with a good, business/cost justification for adding a particular feature, and when they do add one, they are often acting on user feedback. Not just suggestions/requests, but based on app analytics. If a developer adds a few Siri Shortcuts, they can use analytics to learn if people are using them. Only thing is, the users also have to allow "Share (Analytics) With App Developers" in their Privacy settings.
Overall, Siri Shortcuts is a chicken-or-egg situation. People are under-utilizing Siri because it doesn't do nearly as much as they'd imagine it should. Overall, developers have little motive to incorporate Siri Shortcuts because Siri utilization is relatively low.
But don't think you need to have intents installed in every app for a Shortcut to be useful. I use Expensify to capture my work expenses. I created a Shortcut that grabs a screenshot of a receipt and emails it to Expensify's receipt concierge for processing. Takes a bunch of steps out that I used to have to do. It would be great if every developer installed the necessary intents, but its not a deal killer.
I think I understand what you mean but wouldn’t that only apply to your case since taking screenshots is an action available in iOS itself (i.e., I could have a command that takes screenshots within any app)? In my example with WebEx, would there be a potential way to do a similar workaround (such as opening my IBM Verse, somehow getting my meeting information from it, then using that to make a call in WebEx)?
To some extent, you are correct. Expensify happens to have a function allowing it to receive emailed receipts and process them. Without that, it would not have any Shortcuts support natively. But there are lots of cases like that that can cut down the number of actions you need to do routine tasks.
I'm not familiar with IBM Verse (some sort of calendaring app?), but WebEx will create calendar entries in iOS. Use that, use a Shortcut to grab the meeting details and have it dial. That is attainable.
I use Webex with Siri all the time. Not with the dedicated app, but by simply dialling the external access phone number (which is toll-free). I have this number and various extensions stored in my contacts book.
"Call my manager on mobile" will do just that, whereas "call my manager at work" will dial the Webex access number plus my manager's meeting room number followed by two pound signs.
"Call Webex at work" will dial the access number plus my own meeting room number followed by a pound sign, followed by my PIN and another pound sign. "Call Webex at home" will dial the access number alone, allowing me to manually type any meeting room number afterwards.
"Call my manager on mobile" will do just that, whereas "call my manager at work" will dial the Webex access number plus my manager's meeting room number followed by two pound signs.
"Call Webex at work" will dial the access number plus my own meeting room number followed by a pound sign, followed by my PIN and another pound sign. "Call Webex at home" will dial the access number alone, allowing me to manually type any meeting room number afterwards.
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Thanks for the tips everyone. I created one that hooks into apps that have share extensions. For example, although GroupMe doesn't have siri extendability, I can run this shortcut to take speech input, confirm it's what I meant to say (and display it), then proceed (if I confirm) to open "share" and choose any app that is there. In this case, I choose GroupMe and it pastes it in the message where I can choose the group I want to send it to. I have been wanting a Shortcut that would allow me to just send a message to a group in the app but they haven't made it yet.
WOuld you mind taking a screenshot(s) of your shortcut and posting here, along with an icloud link to it? That would be helpful to others learning how to do some of the things you're referring to. Thanks!
https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/de19b52fc86547b1921f6f854c58b895
Here is a link to the one I made, good suggestion! If there are any suggestions for how I can improve it (particularly how to run a repeat of starting over if cancelled) let me know and post here!
Put a Repeat loop around the core code. Set Until value to something ridiculously high (eg. 1000). If not cancel, Exit Shortcut, otherwise will loop back to start of main code.
ADD: personally, not a fan of this. Would code it to exit if cancel and be done with it. Can always tap the Shortcut a second time to go back, since probably at the widget or in Shortcuts app (ie. Not an inconvenience) and semi-infinite loop can have some bad/unintended consequences.
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Also would be helpful to post screenshots here of the Shortcut. Not everyone wants to/is comfortable with downloading Shortcuts that they can't see until they install it. You'll also get more constructive criticism here that way too.
Really? I'd rather look at them here than even have to pick up my phone to do so. Plus, gives others opportunity to see how the Shortcuts work and offer suggestions on how to improve them.
This is one of mine. Is is that offensive to see it here? If you don't like seeing it, skip over it.
Thanks for sharing that! The Tailor app (Tailor - Screenshot Stitching by Foundry 63 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tailor-screenshot-stitching/id926653095?mt=8) is s good way to do these.
Yea, I noticed you used that and I tried to use it but didn't have great results. It worked fine on my first screenshots, but when I would take other ones it wouldn't pick up the new shots I took (after deleting the previous ones I had taken).
I've had some issues with that as well using it on Shorcuts. For me, the key to resolving that has been to move the sceen only a little between screenshots so it has stuff to "grab" onto between shots (i.e., the same thing obviously appearing in both shots). Still doesn't always work...
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