The launch of iOS 12 brought the release of Shortcuts, a first-party app that allows you to create custom workflows for use by Siri, in the share sheet, and in many other places across iOS.

One feature of Shortcuts is the action “Run JavaScript on Web Page”, which allows you to write any arbitrary JavaScript (based on the feature-set supported by Safari on iOS) and run it on the page. Many of you are likely thinking exactly what I did when I first saw this:

Hey! That’s a bit like a Chrome Extension!

In almost every way, what’s provided by Shortcuts is considerably more rudimentary than a Chrome or Firefox extension, but in this post I’ll run through a few Shortcuts of my own that I’ve written (including links to the code), and hopefully demonstrate how this may just been the beginning of something quite powerful.

Note: This post will include step-by-step guides on creating your own JavaScript-powered Shortcuts. Make sure you’ve downloaded the Shortcuts app for iOS first — link here!