With the release of iOS 13.1 on Tuesday, the included Apple Shortcuts app takes a big step forward with the addition of automation triggers, features that let you control your iPhone, iPad and HomeKit setup like never before. Among all the features added to the shortcuts in iOS 13, this has the most potential. And for iPad users, Tuesday's version grants access to a major upgrade to Shortcuts that will make it easier to create and edit iPads.

First of all, the big update

iPadOS 13.1 is the gateway to all the new features that came out last week on the iPhone under iOS 13.0. This includes some important additions to shortcuts, including a redesign of how each element of a shortcut accesses the previous elements.

Jason Snell

The shortcut automations function as a flowchart, with the elements being cascaded downward, with each lower element acting on the previous one. This simple view could be useful, but it also complicated the execution of tasks that must act on different types of information. There were a lot of variable settings and getting variables in order to put the right information in the right place at the right time - and all those extra elements made it difficult to read Shortcut automations.

In iOS 13, the elements of a shortcut automation look like sentences, with topics and objects. As a result, the data on which an element acts is always clearly defined. Individual items end up containing phrases such as "extract content from elements from an RSS feed" - a complete thought that clearly indicates that it is the RSS feed on which one is acting. The automations of My shortcuts are clearer and simpler because of this.

IOS 13 represents another significant advance: individual applications can now choose how to transmit information in shortcuts. In the past, application developers had invented clever workarounds for transmitting data, either by placing this data on the clipboard or by embedding it in a URL. There is now an official method, approved by Apple, of moving data and letting shortcut automations specify exactly what they want from an application. As applications update to support this new format, the automations will become much more powerful.

Finally, shortcuts can now be fully interactive via Siri. You can trigger a shortcut automation with your voice, answer a few questions, and make automation change its behavior based on your answers.

Triggers change the game

Jason Snell

But from Tuesday, the set of shortcuts has been changed again with the addition of the new Automation tab. This tab actually contains two types of automations, Personal and Home.

Home automation is not new - it's the kind of basic automation you've been able to create in the Home app for quite some time now. Under iOS 12, they were not particularly sophisticated, but they still allowed a decent level of complexity. For example, under iOS 12, I built a HomeKit automation that turned on many lights in my house when my smart lock detected the late arrival of a member of my household. That means I could get into the driveway after going home after a night flight, and the lights on my indoor and outdoor entrance would light up.

In iOS 13, home automation can always be so simple. In fact, you will see all these same automations in the Automation tab of Shortcuts. But they have been supplemented by a new option, Convert to shortcut. When you choose this option, you can go beyond changing the status of HomeKit items to perform other tasks using shortcuts.

Jason Snell

In a few minutes, I created a shortcut that turns off a series of my HomeKit devices at 4 pm, but if the outside temperature is above 80, turn on the ceiling fan in my room. These automations work even if you're not home, via the device you're using as a HomeKit hub [Apple TV or iPad]. As a result, you are limited in your possibilities, but I could still create a home automation that queried a web service and then, based on what it found, triggered a different web service. So there is a lot of complexity left.

Personal automation goes off

Jason Snell

Then there is the big: the personal automations, which work on your iPad or iPhone and have all the power of the shortcuts behind them. There are many different ways to trigger personal automation. The simplest involve the time of day, when you interact with an alarm clock application or when you start a workout on your Apple Watch. You can also connect to your device's location services to perform automation when you leave or arrive at a particular location or when you sign in to CarPlay.

There are also triggers based on parameters. You can create shortcuts that run when Airplane Mode, Power Down Mode, or Do Not Disturb feature are turned on or off. or when you join a particular Wi-Fi network or connect to a Bluetooth device.

There are two other types of triggers, and they are extraordinary. The Open App trigger will initiate an automation each time you open a particular application. I know some people who are thinking of creating automations that automatically start logging into a time tracking app as soon as they open specific work-related applications.

Then there is the NFC trigger. This will run a shortcut each time you tap your phone on a wireless label. This technology uses the same near-field communication technology that your phone uses to detect proximity to an Apple Pay reader, but this automation works with passive devices that have unique identifiers associated with it. NFC stickers and plastic labels are quite easy to find online. You can even use children's toys with NFC tags, such as Nintendo Amiibo.

Jason Snell