Apple
- At Apple's developer conference Monday, the company announced a new app, called Shortcuts, that will allow you to customize app actions and reminders using Siri.
- Shortcuts will team up with other apps on your smartphone to allow iPhone users to access apps and their functions from the lock screen.
- The tool will be included in next month's iOS 12 update.
Apple showed off a new trick for its Siri assistant on Monday, with a new tool that lets you essentially "program" the virtual assistant to do things that ordinarily would require you to poke around in various apps.
It's called Shortcuts, and the idea is that you can tell Siri to do something for you - like ordering your morning coffee, finding your lost keys or making restaurant reservations - when you say customized trigger phrases.
For example, you can add a shortcut that will alert Siri to find your keys via Bluetooth tracking service Tile simply by saying "Hey Siri, I lost my keys." You'll also be able to simply switch on shortcut settings for the apps of your choosing that will send reminders to your lock screen without having to send a voice prompt.
The feature will be included in next month's iOS 12 update, which Apple showcased at its annual developers conference on Monday. And with Siri increasingly looking behind the times compared to voice-based assistants like Amazon's Alexa and Google's Assistant, Shortcuts should make Siri much more useful to iPhone users and owners of the Apple Home smart speaker.
Here's how it will work: