Lack of widget support and the inability to create custom shortcuts has always been a major drawback of iOS. As much as you love your iPhone, don’t you just hate it how your Android friends can perform certain tasks with a simple tap of a button — like opening their college timetable or calling someone — without having to open the app in question at all? Let’s be honest, we’ve all been there.

Customisability is the principle reason why Apple users love jailbreaking their iOS devices. Jailbreaking essentially Android-ifies your iDevice — it un-walls the walled garden of iOS and gives the user control over the UI and navigation elements of the OS, but not without inviting its usual set of problems first: it makes iOS less stable, less robust, more vulnerable and even slow. That’s why not it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.

But what if I told you that you could, in fact, create custom homescreen shortcuts in iOS, without resorting to jailbreaking at all? Sounds like a dream come true, innit? Actually, the ability to create custom shortcuts has been there for a while; it’s not like it’s a newly-introduced feature in iOS 7.

First, let me tell you how it works: you embed a URL Scheme in a Web Clip Configuration Profile and then install the profile on your iOS Device. In order to create a Configuration Profile you need a software called Apple Configurator, which is only available for OS X. (Sorry, Windows users!) In the past, there was also another, very similar piece of software called iPhone Configuration Utility, which was available for both OS X and Windows, but it’s been two years since Apple last updated it, so it doesn’t support iDevices running iOS 6+.

Just to be clear, this is not as seamless a solution as you’d hope, time-wise, but it’s as effortless an option as you’re gonna get. So without further ado, let us get started.

Creating A Phone Shortcut:

First, download Apple Configurator on your Mac using this link: https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/apple-configurator/id434433123?mt=12 Connect your iPhone to your machine and launch the app. Click on Agree for the terms and conditions prompt. After this, ensure the Prepare icon in the tab-bar has a 1 badge. In the Prepare tab, click on the lower-most button, Install Profiles… Click on Next. Ensure your lockscreen passcode has been disabled. Click on New. In the left side-bar, select General. In General, give your Configuration Profile a name. This is the name of the profile as it appears in Apple Configurator. Let’s say I’m creating a shortcut for calling home, so I’ll name it as “Call Home Shortcut”. Leave all other boxes blank. Now, in the left side-bar, scroll down and select Web Clips. Click on Configure. Give a name to your Configuration Profile under Label. This is the name as it appears on the homescreen, under the icon. In URL, type “tel:” (without quotes) followed by the phone number whose shortcut you want to create with the country code. For example, “tel:+919876543210”. Under Icon, click on Choose to select a picture that you would like as your shortcut’s icon on the homescreen. You may check or uncheck Removable, Precomposed Icon and Full Screen. Checking Removable allows you to delete the shortcut from your homescreen without deleting the profile in Settings. Checking Precomposed Icon will remove the shading effect from the icon. Full Screen doesn’t matter here; but if you had entered a website’s URL in URL above and checked Full Screen, you’d have cooked yourself a web-app! After you’re done with everything, click on Save. The Configuration Profile that you just created will now appear under Choose profiles to install on the device. Tick the profile you just created. Once again, ensure that either your passcode is disabled or your device is unlocked. Click on Next. You will now be redirected to the Settings app. Click on Install. If you’re prompted about it being an unverified profile, click on Install Now anyway. Click on Done. Press the Home Button. You should now find your shortcut on the SpringBoard. Click on it. You will automatically be redirected to Safari, which will then execute the URL Scheme and place the call.

Creating A Mail Shortcut

Follow steps 2-9 from above. In URL, type “mailto:” (without quotes) followed by the email ID whose shortcut you want to create. For example, “mailto:johnsmith@gmail.com”. Follow steps 11-18 from above.

Creating An SMS/iMessage Shortcut

Follow steps 2-9 from above. In URL, type “sms:” (without quotes) followed by the phone number or Apple ID whose shortcut you want to create. For example, “sms:johnsmith@icloud.com”. Follow steps 11-18 from above.

Creating A FaceTime Shortcut

Follow steps 2-9 from above. In URL, type “facetime:” (without quotes) followed by the phone number or Apple ID whose shortcut you want to create. For example, “facetime:johnsmith@icloud.com”. Follow steps 11-18 from above.

Creating Other Shortcuts

Now that you know how iOS shortcuts work, you can create more and more custom shortcuts by searching for URL Schemes of your favourite apps. You can, for example, create a shortcut to directly update your Facebook status or view your Facebook albums. Or you can create a shortcut to directly compose a tweet or check your muted words list in Tweetbot. You can even create a shortcut for the Equaliser in Settings. The basic idea is the same: URL Schemes.