Apple officially released iOS 12 today and with it came the release of its Shortcuts app. These shortcuts let users perform certain tasks with their apps through Siri voice commands. The idea behind shortcuts is to automate multi-step tasks. While Apple offers a variety of premade shortcuts, third-party app makers are also offering their own. More are sure to come soon since iOS 12 only just came out today, but for now, I’ve rounded up some of the best examples at launch.

This shortcut is slightly confusing, as you have to set it up through CityMapper’s app, not Shortcuts. Once in the updated app, tap the Siri icon to record your commands, like “Siri, check my commute,” or “Hey Siri, get me home.” You’ll have to set your home and work locations for these to work.

This camera app now lets you say, “Hey Siri, fire the shutter,” to remotely take a photo. As the company showed in a tweet today, it looks fast and ideal for scenarios in which you’re using a tripod. You’ll presumably be able to do this with other camera apps soon, as it seems like one of the more useful cases for voice controls.

"Hey Siri, fire the shutter".



Yep, it's really that fast. pic.twitter.com/1wnEqCqVSM — Halide (@halidecamera) September 17, 2018

I grouped these two apps together because they do essentially the same thing — provide the weather forecast with a voice command. Carrot has 18 available shortcuts that’ll give you the weather for the week ahead.

Pandora will let users play a specific station, playlist, or album that’s triggered with a custom phrase. You can set it up in the Pandora app’s settings section. (Apple also offers shortcuts for Apple Music in the Shortcuts app, of course.)

This is super neat. You can point your phone at a star, satellite, planet, or space junk and ask Siri what star it is. Sky Guide will automatically identify it, without you needing to use the app. Very cool!

With the Trello shortcut, users can quickly view their boards and cards. You can set a custom phrase to open these. I know everyone loves a task management app, so this one’s for you.