Today’s iOS 18.4 beta 2 offers the first major hints in Apple’s software of the upcoming big Siri upgrades. Apple has added a bunch of new Shortcuts app actions for Apple apps, with super fine-grained controls available for building shortcuts that change apps’ settings in various ways.
iOS 18.4 Shortcuts actions provide glimpse into Siri powers coming soon
Apple’s Shortcuts app hasn’t received as many noteworthy updates recently as it once did. But that appears set to change soon.
Shortcuts’ App Intents system is the foundation of Apple’s upcoming Siri upgrades that enable the assistant to perform hundreds of new in-app and cross-app actions.
Originally these changes were expected to ship in iOS 18.4, but now iOS 18.5 looks more likely instead.
However, iOS 18.4 users are still benefiting thanks to the variety of new Shortcuts app actions available in today’s new beta.
Inside the updated Shortcuts app, you’ll find new actions to change settings for various Apple apps. And within each action there’s an extremely granular deeper layer of actions you can perform.
For example, Safari’s shortcut for changing Safari settings lets you update the following:
- AutoFill Use Contact Info
- AutoFill Use Credit Cards
- Block Pop-Ups
- Close Tabs
- Landscape Tab Bar
- Open Links
- Private Search Engine
- Safari Suggestions
- Search Engine
- Search Engine Suggestions
- Tab Bar Configuration
- Tab Layout
All of this clearly isn’t here just to benefit the Shortcuts app.
Rather, these more fine-grained actions lay the groundwork for new powers Siri will gain in a future update.
Are you interested in using the new Shortcuts actions in iOS 18.4? Discover anything else new? Let us know in the comments.
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