The shortcut application obtains several upgrades in iOS 26 and MacOS Tahoe which unlock new automation possibilities on Apple platforms. This is what happens.
Liquid glass design and new icon
The shortcuts in iOS 26 start with a new updated application icon. No more light blue colors of the past, replaced by a more coherent pink-purple look.
After opening the application, the liquid glass means that shortcuts also feel refreshed in several ways.
The shortcut navigation tab is now floating and transparent thanks to the liquid glass, and user interface elements such as buttons and menus have all received a new design.
New powerful Apple Intelligence Actions
A major highlight of the shortened application of iOS 26 is the new Apple Intelligence actions set.
When building a shortcut, there are now nine Apple intelligence actions to choose:
- Use the model
- Open visual intelligence
- Create an image
- Adjust the tone of the text
- List from the text
- Make the table from the text
- Proofreading text
- Rewrite the text
- Summarize the text
Many of them are explicit and use image image features and writing tools introduced last year.
But “using the model” is undoubtedly the most exciting of new additions.
Rherscots offers users the choice of three models:
- Calculation of private cloud
- Disk model
- Cat
As you can imagine, the possibility of drawing directly from the above models via shortcuts opens up many new automation opportunities.
For example, a student can build a shortcut that uses Apple Intelligence models to compare an audio transcription of a class conference to the notes they have taken and add all the key points they could have missed. Users can also choose to draw from Chatgpt for their global knowledge and expertise.
IOS 26 also includes a handful of Apple Intelligence shortcuts ready for you in the gallery section, such as a summary morning shortcut, the one that suggests recipes for all the ingredients you have, another that sums up the content of a PDF, and more.
The automation section arrives on the Mac
On the iPhone and iPad, the shortcut app has long offered an automation tab to automatically run shortcuts. Now this option also arrives at Mac.
MacOS Tahoe has a new automation section in shortcuts where you can define the shortcuts to trigger according to parameters like:
- time of day
- A file is moved to a specific folder
- External display connection
- And more
Mac users have long been able to carry out automatic actions in the background by other means, but bringing the functionality to the shortcut application is a welcome change.
What functions of new features of the application of shortcuts are you the most excited? Let us know in the comments.
