Shortcuts

A lot of people like to (or at least used to like to, before they started using smart phones as alarm clocks instead of good old clock radios) wake up to a local news station to hear traffic, weather, sports scores and more, or to their favorite music station. Since your iPhone is capable of tuning into just about any radio station you'd think there would be an option to have the alarm automatically tune to one of your choice.

Shortcuts is Apple's new version of Workflow that launched with iOS 12. It is a productivity tool that does what its name implies - each shortcut is basically a program or 'workflow' that runs through a set of steps to produce a desired result. For example, Home ETA is a navigation shortcut that uses Maps and Messages to send someone (pre-determined by you) your arrival time with a single tap.

Apple's Shortcuts app offers hundreds of pre-written algorithms designed to accomplish tasks that would normally take many steps in just one or a few steps. For example, the Home ETA shortcut uses Maps and Messages to find your location, find a route home, estimate the time that route takes and text that time to whoever you set up the shortcut to send it to, all with a single tap.