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THE USEFUL TECH
📘 THE DEEP DIVE · WEDNESDAY TUTORIAL · ISSUE #003
👋 HEY, IT'S RAJA
Last Deep Dive, we taught the Mac to run its own automations, and every one of them meant wiring up actions by hand. This week iOS 27 flips that around. You type what you want in one plain sentence, and Apple Intelligence assembles the Shortcut for you. I ignored the Shortcuts app for years. This is the update that changed my mind.
⚠️ Heads up before we start: this lives in the iOS 27 public beta, which landed on July 13. Betas break things, so if this is your only iPhone, it is worth waiting or installing it on a spare device.
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📘 Build an iPhone automation by describing it in one sentence
iOS 27 lets you type what you want in plain English, and Apple Intelligence assembles the working Shortcut for you. Here is how to build your first one tonight.
What you'll need
An iPhone running the iOS 27 update
An Apple Intelligence-capable iPhone (iPhone 15 Pro or newer)
To be signed into iCloud, with Apple Intelligence turned on in Settings
Step 1: Start a new shortcut
Open the Shortcuts app, tap the plus icon in the top corner, and look for the new Describe a Shortcut field at the top of the editor. That box is where all the work happens now.
Step 2: Describe what you want in plain English
Write your request the way you would explain it to a friend. For your first one, try something you will actually use, like: When I leave work, text my partner my estimated arrival time home. Tap to generate, wait a few seconds, and Apple Intelligence assembles the pieces for you, pulling your location, calculating travel time, and drafting the message to the right person.
Step 3: Review, refine, and save
Read through what it built before you trust it. If something is off, you do not start over, you just add a follow up sentence like Only do this on weekdays or Send it as an iMessage. When it looks right, tap the recipient and time fields to confirm the details, then save. If your request was location based, drop it into the Automation tab so it runs on its own.
💡 Pro tip: The real depth hides in the Use Model action. When you build or edit a shortcut by hand, add Use Model and you can route any step through an AI model, choose between on device, Private Cloud Compute, or ChatGPT, and turn on Follow Up so you can read and tweak the model's answer while the shortcut is still running. That turns a static automation into one that can actually reason about your input.
The result
In under a minute you have a working automation you never had to build by hand, plus a repeatable way to make more of them. The next time you catch yourself doing the same three taps every morning, describe it instead of dreading the editor.
One honest caveat: the AI is good, not perfect. In testing it sometimes grabbed a related but wrong action, or left a field half configured. Always read what it built before you rely on it, especially for anything that sends a message on your behalf.
That's it for today. See you Friday with five useful things.
Keep it useful,
Raja · The Useful Tech
P.S. Enjoyed this? Forward it to a friend who loves their Apple gear a little too much.