A few months ago, I got sick of fumbling with my phone as I left the subway, so I created a Shortcut on my iPhone to open my gym's app. This was the first time I used the Shortcuts app, and while creating a custom shortcut for my specific need wasn't difficult, it wasn't easy or intuitive for someone unfamiliar with automation either.

First, you have to create a "Do" command. For this purpose, my command was to open my gym app. Then you have to go into the Automation tab, add a new Shortcut, and link a "When" (When I arrive at my gym's location) to a "Do" (Open my gym's app). Again, not difficult but not seamless.

Apple has seemingly acknowledged Shortcuts' stickiness. At its software developer conference last week, the tech giant unveiled a new feature coming to iOS 27 that eliminates some of the tedium of creating Shortcuts. Now, all a person has to do to create a Shortcut is describe it, and Apple's AI does the bulk of the brunt work. The feature arrives alongside Apple's revamped, more capable Siri.

Also: iOS 27's Shortcuts upgrade makes automations easy to build - and will save me so much time