iOS 27 Shortcuts App New Actions: Who Can Use Them

iOS 27 arrived earlier this month, and among its Apple Intelligence features is a new way to build automations: describe what you want in plain language, and the Shortcuts app builds it for you (MacRumors; EFF). Tap New Shortcut and the app can open to a "Describe a Shortcut" screen instead of dropping straight into the manual action editor, based on MacRumors' testing during the beta this summer (MacRumors). The update also brings new automation triggers and several new actions across Messages, Photos, Reminders, and Notes (MacRumors).

Not everything here needs the same hardware. The device requirements below apply specifically to AI-generated shortcuts. The available reporting doesn't establish whether every new manual action carries that same requirement, so it's worth checking the Shortcuts action list on your own device rather than assuming either universal access or universal exclusion.

Who can actually use the new Shortcuts actions

Describe a Shortcut and the rest of the Apple Intelligence features built into Shortcuts require an iPhone 15 Pro or later, an iPad with an M-series chip or the A17 Pro iPad mini, or an Apple silicon Mac (MacRumors). That's a narrower list than "anyone who installs iOS 27." It roughly lines up with the hardware floor EFF cites separately for Siri's own AI features, iPhone 15 Pro, Pro Max, or iPhone 16 and newer, though that comparison doesn't prove Shortcuts uses an identical requirement (EFF).

The cited reporting is specific about hardware for AI-built shortcuts, but it's silent on whether the new manual actions, the Messages delete option or the Photos auto-enhance action, for instance, need the same chip. Anyone whose device supports iOS 27, including older hardware, should check the Shortcuts action list directly rather than assume a given action is gated behind Apple Intelligence.

Language support for Describe a Shortcut is broader than some other Apple Intelligence tools: it works in English, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Vietnamese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Japanese, and Korean (MacRumors). Siri's separate AI features remain English-only and unavailable worldwide, according to EFF, a reminder that language and region support on one Apple Intelligence feature don't automatically carry over to another (EFF).

During the beta this summer, Apple added a toggle for whether the New Shortcut button opens to Describe a Shortcut or the manual editor by default (MacRumors).

New Shortcuts actions and triggers in iOS 27

Automation itself now lives differently in the app. Rather than sitting in a separate top-level tab, triggers appear inside the general Shortcuts actions list alongside everything else the app can do (MacRumors; iOS Today transcript). On iOS Today, host Rosemary Orchard said the change takes some getting used to, but for longtime users who miss the old tab, it's still there, just harder to find (iOS Today transcript).

Two things here are confirmed by post-release coverage: iOS 27 shipped this month, and creating shortcuts by description is among its live Apple Intelligence features (MacRumors). The specific trigger and action names below come from MacRumors' pre-release testing in June, before the public launch, and Apple hasn't published an itemized post-release list confirming each one shipped unchanged. Treat the catalog as reported pre-release behavior until current testing confirms it.

New triggers include a notification being received, a screenshot being captured, a keyboard connecting, and an Apple Watch workout starting. Notification triggers can be filtered by title, subtitle, or message content (MacRumors; iOS Today transcript).

On the action side:

• Messages: search, mark as read, send a Tapback, delete conversations or messages, open the inbox, and message a group
• Photos: auto-enhance, delete, favorite, hide, and open
• Reminders: create or delete groups and sections, edit a list
• Notes: automate a recording
• General: a "Choose an item from a list" action, plus accessibility toggles for Hearing Aid Mute and Vehicle Motion Cues

(MacRumors)

The updated Get What's On Screen action now pulls context, text, titles, or links, from whatever's currently on the display (MacRumors).

Three automations these additions unlock

A filtered notification trigger can route work alerts differently from personal ones. Set it to watch for a specific app and message content, Outlook, for example, and have it flash the flashlight instead of buzzing like everything else, separating work pings from the rest of the noise (iOS Today transcript).

Shortcuts can also lean on a smarter model now. The new Cloud Pro model can search the web, which Rosemary Orchard tested by building a shortcut from a conference schedule page ahead of an event she was attending. It got the gist right but needed manual correction to handle the gaps between sessions. The example shows why generated shortcuts still require review (MacRumors; iOS Today transcript).

A new "store" capability lets a shortcut save and update data, a running tally or a list, across separate runs, and three, five, or ten shortcuts can access that same stored data (iOS Today transcript). That closes a gap users previously had to work around just to preserve data between runs (MacRumors).

What AI-built shortcuts get right, and what to verify

MacRumors reports that the flow lets users describe a shortcut, review the proposed actions, test it with the play button, and have it save automatically. A "Describe a change" option handles refinements afterward without starting over (MacRumors).

MacRumors described the feature as beta during its June coverage, meaning manual edits may still be necessary to get a result that actually works (MacRumors). The risk is higher for actions that delete messages, photos, albums, or reminder lists.

The available reporting doesn't establish whether Shortcuts requires a confirmation step before an AI-built shortcut executes one of those delete actions, or whether such a shortcut could run unattended. Test any shortcut with a delete action manually before letting it run on its own.

Separately, EFF notes that Siri's on-screen-awareness feature, a different part of Apple Intelligence from the Shortcuts action of a similar name, may send the content of an on-screen conversation to Apple's Private Cloud Compute, with no current way to turn that off (EFF).

Should you use the new Shortcuts actions now?

AI-built shortcuts require Apple Intelligence-capable hardware; the reporting doesn't establish the same requirement for every new manual action. Without that hardware, the Apple Intelligence-based Describe a Shortcut feature is not confirmed to be available, so check the requirements above before expecting it to appear.

On older supported devices, check the action list directly. The available reporting doesn't establish whether every manual action is hardware-gated one way or the other. Review every AI-proposed action before saving it, and test any shortcut that deletes messages, photos, or reminders manually before trusting it to run unattended. Until Apple documents the hardware and confirmation behavior for each action, treat a generated workflow as a draft to check, not a finished automation to rely on.