Using iOS “Shortcuts” app, once I define a shortcut, how can I call it from the automations tab?

Question

So basically what I have done is define a simple iOS “Shortcut” that has a name (“Ask the cleaning lady to come”). It simply cues up a short text message to a lady in my contacts and asks me if I want to send it before it goes out.

That’s great, now I just need to create an Automation (same iOS app, but the center nav option currently) that will run “Ask the cleaning lady to come” every Monday at 10AM, let’s say.

Right now, I can’t figure out a way to do this other than rewrite all of the instructions inside of the Automation itself. I can’t call the previously written “Shortcut”. Even worse, when the automation is run, it’s only telling me “Do you want to Send Message?”.

I should be able to have it ask me if I want to “Ask the cleaning lady to come”, while not making me rewrite the instructions, and hopefully I’ve just overlooked that capability. It seems so obvious that you could call your Shortcuts for Automations run from within from the same app

I hope I’ve made myself clear, thanks for your help

Answer 1

You need to use the action Run from Shortcuts app. Let me explain:

Create the automation, choose the time of the day or whatever... I'm assuming you know how to do that part. At some moment in the process you'll get to a screen where it says in a button Add action. Here is when you can call that Shortcut that already exists:

1. Tap Add Action

2. Choose the Apps tab

3. Scroll down looking for the app Shortcuts

4. Select it and choose the option Run Shortcut

5. Tap the input to be able to choose a Shortcut

NOTE: Tapping in the rounded arrow you'll see an input to pass a variable to the shortcut. This is useful if your shortcut needs to receive some value to perform the operations.

6. Choose your shortcut in the list. After choosing it, you should see something like this. At this moment you're almost done with the automation. Tap on Next.

7. You'll get to the following screen. Here, before confirming the automation creation, disable the Ask Before Running toggle so you don't need to interact with the phone before the execution starts. When tapping the toggle, you'll be asked to confirm.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If your shortcut requires you to answer some question, you'll also need to interact with the phone. You'll get a notification to do this when the shortcut arrives the point where you need to interact.

8. After all these steps you're ready to confirm the automation creation by tapping the button Done.