Apple has released the Shortcuts 2.1 update and there are loads of new features that come with this update. For starters, Apple has fixed the iCloud sync issues of Shortcuts that used to be quite problematic. Apple has also improved the sharing action in Shortcuts.
It now allows users to remove a shortcut by deleting its connection and associated data from Apple servers. Alongside these various improvements, Apple also introduced two new shortcut actions. The newly added Clock and Weather operations allow users to set timers and alarms and retrieve weather data for their location. In this article, we’ll show you how you can use these actions to create your own nifty shortcuts:
Using Clock and Weather Actions
As I said, Apple brought two new actions with the Shortcuts 2.1 update, and these actions are really good. Before the update, users had to rely on Siri-recommended shortcuts to create or activate alarms. However, with the new clock action, users can set their own time and create or activate their own alarms. The new Weather action is also quite powerful and allows users to get three different weather data. The data includes current weather conditions, hourly and daily forecasts and gets details for specific data points like high, low, humidity, pressure and more. Now let’s see how we can use these new actions:
Using the New Clock Action in Shortcuts 2.1
The new clock action in Shortcuts 2.1 allows three separate actions to be executed. You can create an alarm, disable/enable an alarm or create a timer. Let’s see how you can use these actions:
- Launch the Shortcuts app and tap the “Create Shortcut” button. Now tap on the search bar and Scroll down to find the “Clock” action and tap on it.
2. As you can see, you are presented with three options. You can create an alarm, set a timer, or switch between an alarm.. Let’s use the create an alarm action for this tutorial. Tap the “Create Alarm” button to add it to your shortcut.
3. Here you can do several things. You can set the Alarm Tag, the alarm time and decide whether you want to repeat this alarm or not.. For this tutorial, I’ll tag it as a test and set it to 9:30 am. You can also tap “Never” to get repeat options. Let’s say I want the alarm to repeat on Monday.
4. Now our shortcut is ready. To test if it works, just tap the play button marked in the picture below. Now open the Clock app to find your pre-created Alarm.
Using Weather Action in Shortcuts 2.1
- The first step is pretty similar to the one we used in the Clock action. So we will launch the Shortcuts app and tap on the “Create Shortcut” button. Next, Tap the search bar and scroll down to find the Weather action. Weather action has three different options to choose from. To keep it simple, we will use the first option, which is the “Get Current Weather” action.
2. Since the weather app will need your current location access to work, Grant access by tapping the “Allow Access” button.
3. Now our shortcut is ready. However, if you tap the play button to test the shortcut, you will see this. it just shows the result inside the shortcut.
4. We will use the “Show Result” action to make sure we can get the results wherever we run the shortcut. To use this action, simply tap the search bar and search for “Show Result” and then select the appropriate result by tapping on it.
5. Now we want to show the current weather data as a result, so we will use it within the “Show Result” action. To do this, just Tap the “Show Results” field, then tap “Weather”.
10. Now, you can tap the play button and the shortcut should work just fine.
SEE ALSO: How to Save on Amazon Using Shortcuts in iOS 12
Learn to Use Clock and Weather Actions in Shortcuts 2.1
As you can see, these new actions are quite useful. You can do a lot with these actions, and the simple shortcuts I show you here are just the tip of the iceberg. Play around with these actions to create your own shortcuts and if you run into any issues let us know by writing in the comments section below.
