How to Use iPhone Automation [with 10 Automation Ideas]

In recent years, iPhones have become far more customizable than they used to be, partially thanks to their 'Shortcuts' app, which allows you to create pretty specific and in-depth automation to 'automate' a lot of your daily routine.

So today we're diving deep into everything you need to know about iPhone automation. Let's get straight into it!

Part 1: What Is iPhone Automation

'iPhone automations' are automatic tasks that can be triggered to run at specified times, events, locations, and other built-in triggers. Once your iPhone detects it meets the requirement for the automation, it will trigger your set actions.

This allows you to create pretty intricate automations that can help you on your daily routines without requiring you to manually open an app, check notifications, and much more.

As mentioned above, there are currently four types of automation triggers the iPhone supports.

Here's a brief rundown on each to get a better idea of what you can set up with automation:

Another thing to note is there are two types of automations: personal automations and Home automations. To keep it simple, personal automations are automations that you want to only run on your iPhone to perform specific tasks.

Home automations are automations for your 'Home' set up in the app. This means you can trigger any connected accessory or scene based on location, sensor detection, and more. Home automations will be also shared and controlled by others.

Part 2: How to Set Up iPhone Automation

Now that you know what iPhone automation is, we'll show you a basic method to create and set up your first iPhone automation. For this, we'll be using Apple's 'Shortcuts' app. Most devices should already have the app pre-installed, but you can find it on the App Store if required.

Follow the general steps below to start creating iPhone automations:

After that, depending on the automation settings you choose, you might be prompted to configure whether you want to run the automation without asking. If you want to run the automation without asking you again, simply go to Shortcuts app > Automation > select the automation > Turn off Ask Before Running > tap Don't Ask to confirm.

As far as I think, it's recommended to set most automations to run automatically without asking you, which makes the whole process more automatic and convenient. Most automations in my iPhone are set to run automatically and I don't even have to touch my iPhone and it does what I set. What a game-changer in my life!

Part 3: iPhone Automation Ideas

After learning how to set up automation on iPhone, you may be wondering in what cases you can use iPhone automation. Don't worry. This part shares some iPhone automation examples for you to try:

Send Automated Text Messages When Arriving a Location

For the first automation, we'll show you how to sent automated text message when you 'arrive' at a specified location.

This can be useful for multiple reasons for example, when arriving at work to send a check in with your manager/colleague, or let parents/families know when you are home, in the office, or at the supermarket.

Since these are messages you'd send normally anyway, an automation just makes the whole routine smoother and automatic.

Here's how to automate text messages on iPhone:

During the configuration, you can choose to send the same automated messages to different people, or send different automated messages to different recipients for the same automation by tapping 'Send Message' again.

I found this trigger supper helpful because I can send the automated messages when I leave the office and go to the party, so that my friends know where I am. Or some of my friends set this automation in their kid's iPhone, so that they receive a message if their kid leaves the school.

2. Automatically Launch Music App when Connecting to a Speaker/Headphones

Another great use of automations is to streamline your daily routines. For example, when you connect your phone to Bluetooh speakers or AirPods, most times you'll want to launch the music app right after.

With this automation, your iPhone will automatically open the music app as soon as you put on some earphones or connect to a speaker which just saves you that bit of time between connecting and opening up the music app manually.

Here's how to get it set up:

If you use headphones quite often in your daily life, for example, writing something or focusing on your work, you can simple put on your headphones, and your iPhone will automatically play music and you don't have to touch your iPhone screen at all. You can even use this automation to play your favorite music playlist while connected to CarPlay.

3. Set WiFi/Cellular/Bluetooth On/Off at a Specific Time

For our next automation, we'll show you how to switch off specific settings on your iPhone automatically at a specified time.

We'll show you how to do this using the 'Wi-Fi' setting but the process is pretty much identical for Cellular/Bluetooth automations:

This can be useful for cases where you're leaving work and need to turn on your Cellular, or maybe turn on Bluetooth before your commute to listen to music. It's quite flexible to adjust your iPhone settings according to your habits.

4. Automatically Turn on Workout Mode When Arriving at the Gym

If you're a frequent gym-goer, you can set an automation that automatically detects when you're at the gym and switches over to your 'Wokout Mode'. There isn't a dedicated 'Workout Mode' shortcut, but you can set multiple actions to change your Focus mode for the gym and open your fitness tracker and music apps.

Here's how to create a dedicated 'Workout Mode' automation to get you in the zone:

This automation is relative more complex because it requires several actions, such as turning on Focus mode, playing music, and opening a fitness app.

5. Automatically Start Morning Routine

One of our favorite automations we've tried so far has to be the 'morning routine' automation. This works in tandem with your Alarm as a trigger and automatically sets up the rest of your routine as soon as you wake up.

For example, if you'd like to listen to the news first thing, or checking the weather for the day.

Here's how to get it set up to play a news Podcast after your alarm is stopped:

This way, after the alarm is stopped, iPhone will play podcast or news so that you get to know the news to start your day.

Alternatively, some people, or most people (including myself) would like to snooze the alarm to sleep for longer or get prepared to get up. In that case, you can set the trigger to be 'Is Snoozed' and choose to play gentle music to wake you up.

6. Automatically Move Emails from Specific Sender to a Folder

If you'd like to manage your email inbox more efficiently on your iPhone, you can set an automation to open a folder of emails from a specified sender.

But you'll need to use the stock 'Mail' Apple app since it supports shortcuts. For this method, we'll use the 'VIP Inbox' as a way to automatically keep emails from the sender in a separate folder. You'll need to add the sender to your VIP Inbox in the Mail app on your iPhone first before proceeding with the below steps:

Once done you can simply check all the important emails in the specific folder, without having to scroll and review all the inbox emails, and you can prioritize reading and responding to these messages.

7. Automatically Read Aloud Emails

Alternatively, you can also make iPhone automatically read aloud the important emails for you.

If you are in situation where you are driving to your office and can't read your emails, you can easily make iPhone read aloud the important emails for you.

8. Automatically Start Sleep Mode

Another great use for automations is to integrate with other apps, like the Health app which tracks your Sleep Schedule. Using this set Sleep Schedule, you can set up an automation to turn off the lights or change your Focus mode to minimize notifications when you're going to sleep.

Here's how to get it set up:

9. Change Wallpaper Based on Time of Day

If you, like us, enjoy frequently mixing up your Wallpaper, an automation that automatically switches over to a specified Wallpaper layout at specified times can be pretty useful.

For example, you can have your wallpaper set to one at Sunrise, and change it to a more night-appropriate Wallpaper layout at Sunset. Here's how you can do this using automations:

Then you can see different wallpaper on your iPhone, and use different wallpapers in different time range to cheer your day up!

10. Track Water Intake

The last automation idea we're featuring is a way to 'track' your daily water intake. With this automation, your iPhone can automatically send you automated notifications to remind you to drink water at scheduled intervals.

You will need to manually set separate automation times for the reminder every few hours or so but once you've created the Shortcut it's a simple process.

Part 4: Common Automation Pitfalls to Avoid

Although iPhone Automation is pretty versatile and customizble, the more automations and actions doesn't mean the better. There are some common pitfalls to avoid.

1. Overloading automations with too many actions

When creating new automations, it's best not to overwhelm just one automation with too many 'actions'. Since automations will run them in order, the automation might face problems where it's not displaying or functioning properly.

Keep automations segmented and create extra if required rather than stuffing all actions on one automation.

2. Forgetting to turn off or edit automations that no longer serve a purpose.

It's easy to get lost with 'automation' to a point where there are plenty you don't use anymore. For example, you might've switch jobs or gyms and no longer need a dedicated location automation for that address.

This could unnecessarily consume resources on your device so it's best to remove older automations you use less frequently when you can.

3. Security and privacy considerations when automating sensitive actions.

Since we can set automations to access sensitive data like emails or text messages, it can be security concern if you have the automation to read something aloud for example.

Plus, you'll want to keep an eye on your automations that send messages/emails to make sure they're working as intended and is being sent to the intended receiver.

Part 5: Final Words

And that's pretty much everything you need to know about iPhone automations and how to get started. Hopefully with our examples you get a better idea of what's possible but honestly speaking, we're just scratching the surface.

We highly recommend toying around in the Shortcuts app to get familiar with what it can do, and how you can use it to streamline your daily life.