29 actions for Shortcuts and Siri AI.
AI Reply Assistant provides you with Shortcuts that let you automate repetitive tasks and chain multi-step workflows across different apps with the convenience of triggering via the Shortcuts app, Siri voice commands, Home Screen widgets, the Apple Watch, or automated time and location triggers.
Every action, and how it works
The chats themselves — find them, build them, change them.
Look people up, and pull them out of a group.
Read, search, and act on individual messages.
Eight kinds of message, to any conversation.
Hand a message to the scheduler instead of sending it now.
Your saved-message library, from a shortcut — text and attachments alike.
The AI writing styles you have taught it.
Change how the app behaves when a Focus turns on.
Add Members to Group Chat
What it does
Add contacts to a group chat that already exists.
In the editor
Give it a real conversation
Please ensure to pick a conversation or feed one in from Find Conversation or Get Conversations in List — otherwise the shortcut will fail if you leave it on “Choose” or “Ask Each Time”.
Returns
A result you can read on — added count, failed count, the conversation, and the platform.
Parameters
- Conversations
- The group chat, or several, to add people to.
- Members
- The contacts to add. Pipe them in from Find Contact or Get Conversation Members.
Chain it with
Create New Group Chat
What it does
Create a group chat on one platform from a set of contacts, and get the new conversation back.
In the editor
Returns
The new Conversation — chain straight into Send Message to post the first message into it.
Parameters
- Platform
- WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, or Messenger.
- Group Name
- The name the group is created with.
- Members
- The contacts to start the group with.
Chain it with
Watch out for
One platform per group. Everyone in Members has to be reachable on the Platform you picked.
Find Conversation
What it does
Filter your chats on twelve properties and hand the matches to whatever comes next. This is the action most shortcuts open with — it is how a shortcut works out who it is talking to without you naming anyone.
In the editor
How Find actions work
Find actions are generated by Shortcuts from Apple’s EntityPropertyQuery — the same engine behind the Reminders and Calendar “Find” actions. Stack as many property filters as you like, each with the comparators that suit its type, then sort the matches and cap how many come back. The filter re-evaluates every time the shortcut runs, and the results flow straight into the next action with no “Choose” prompt.
Returns
Conversations. Every Send action, Open Conversation, Modify Conversation, and Create Schedule Message take them directly — no “Choose” prompt in between.
Parameters
- Filters
- Title, Platform, Conversation Type, Group Chat, Unread, Pinned, Archived, Favourite, Muted, Unread Count, Last Message Date, Participant Count
Chain it with
Watch out for
Use it when the set is defined by criteria that change run to run — “everything unread since yesterday”, “every pinned group”. When the set is a fixed group you hand-pick, Get Conversations in List is the right source.
Get Conversations in List
What it does
Read a custom list you curate in the Chats tab and hand every chat on it to the next action. The list is fixed until you edit it, which is the whole point of it.
In the editor
Returns
Conversations.
Parameters
- List
- One of the custom lists you build in the Chats tab.
Chain it with
Watch out for
Use it when the set is hand-picked and stable. When the set is defined by criteria that change run to run — “everything unread since yesterday” — Find Conversation is the right source.
Modify Conversation
What it does
Change a chat’s state without opening it, and get the changed conversations back so the shortcut can keep working with them.
In the editor
Give it a real conversation
Please ensure to pick a conversation or feed one in from Find Conversation or Get Conversations in List — otherwise the shortcut will fail if you leave it on “Choose” or “Ask Each Time”.
Returns
The conversations it changed.
Parameters
- Conversations
- The chats to change.
- Action
- Mark as Read, Mark as Unread, Pin, Unpin, Mute, Unmute, Archive, Unarchive, Favourite, Unfavourite, Clear Chat, Delete. Mark as Read unless you change it.
Chain it with
Watch out for
Clear and Delete are not undoable from a shortcut, and deleting a group chat leaves the group. Test those two against one conversation before you point them at a filter.
Open Conversation
What it does
Bring the app to the front on one conversation.
In the editor
Give it a real conversation
Please ensure to pick a conversation or feed one in from Find Conversation or Get Conversations in List — otherwise the shortcut will fail if you leave it on “Choose” or “Ask Each Time”.
Parameters
- Conversation
- The chat to open. Pipe one in from Find Conversation to open whatever matched.
Chain it with
Watch out for
Put it last — it foregrounds the app.
Find Contact
What it does
Filter the people the app knows about — everyone you hold a conversation with, across all four platforms — and hand the matches to the next action. Twelve properties to filter on, with sorting and a limit.
In the editor
How Find actions work
Find actions are generated by Shortcuts from Apple’s EntityPropertyQuery — the same engine behind the Reminders and Calendar “Find” actions. Stack as many property filters as you like, each with the comparators that suit its type, then sort the matches and cap how many come back. The filter re-evaluates every time the shortcut runs, and the results flow straight into the next action with no “Choose” prompt.
Returns
Contacts. Drop them straight into the Contacts field of any Send action or Create Schedule Message to message the people themselves, or into Open Contact, Create New Group Chat and Add Members to Group Chat.
Parameters
- Filters
- Display Name, First Name, Platform, Username, Phone Number, Bot, Business, Favourite, Has Native Contact, Business Name, Last Seen, Last Activity
Chain it with
Watch out for
A Contact is still not a Conversation — the Conversations field will not accept one. Put contacts in the action’s own Contacts field instead, and each person is addressed in the one-to-one chat you share with them. Someone you have never messaged has no chat to resolve to and is skipped.
Get Conversation Members
What it does
Return every member of a conversation as contacts, so a shortcut can read a roster out of one group and use it somewhere else.
In the editor
Give it a real conversation
Please ensure to pick a conversation or feed one in from Find Conversation or Get Conversations in List — otherwise the shortcut will fail if you leave it on “Choose” or “Ask Each Time”.
Returns
Contacts — into Create New Group Chat and Add Members to Group Chat, or into the Contacts field of a Send action to message every member in their own chat rather than in the group.
Parameters
- Conversation
- One conversation. Pick it in the action, or pipe one in from Find Conversation or Get Conversations in List.
Chain it with
Watch out for
Aim it at a group chat — that is where there is a member list to read.
Open Contact
What it does
Bring the app to the front on a contact’s detail page.
In the editor
Parameters
- Contact
- One or more contacts, typically piped in from Find Contact or Get Conversation Members.
Chain it with
Watch out for
Put it last. It foregrounds the app, so anything after it runs while you are looking at a contact card.
Find Message
What it does
Search and filter across every message the app holds, on eighteen properties — the widest filter set of the six, and the one that makes message-driven shortcuts possible at all.
In the editor
How Find actions work
Find actions are generated by Shortcuts from Apple’s EntityPropertyQuery — the same engine behind the Reminders and Calendar “Find” actions. Stack as many property filters as you like, each with the comparators that suit its type, then sort the matches and cap how many come back. The filter re-evaluates every time the shortcut runs, and the results flow straight into the next action with no “Choose” prompt.
Returns
Messages.
Parameters
- Filters
- Content, Timestamp, Read, From Me, Platform, Message Type, Sender Name, Conversation Title, Forum Topic, Location Name, Attachment Kind, Link URLs, Group Chat, Starred, Pinned, Forwarded, Has Media, Has Link Preview
Chain it with
Get Latest Messages
What it does
Pull the most recent messages, optionally narrowed to certain conversations, a quick filter, and a time range. Reach for it when you want “the last twenty”; reach for Find Message when you want “everything that matches”.
In the editor
Returns
Messages.
Parameters
- Count
- How many messages to bring back. 10 unless you change it.
- Conversations
- Optional. Restrict to these chats — pipe them in from Find Conversation.
- Filter
- All Messages, Unread Messages, Messages From Me, Received Messages, Media Messages, Text Messages Only, or Recent Messages (24h). All Messages unless you change it.
- Time Range
- Any Time, Last Hour, Last 24 Hours, Today, Last 7 Days, or Last 30 Days. Any Time unless you change it.
Chain it with
Open Message
What it does
Bring the app to the front on one message, in its conversation.
In the editor
Parameters
- Message
- The message to jump to. Pipe one in from Find Message or Get Latest Messages.
Chain it with
Watch out for
Put it last — it foregrounds the app.
React to Message
What it does
Put an emoji reaction on a message, without opening the app.
In the editor
Parameters
- Message
- The message to react to.
- Emoji
- A single emoji.
Chain it with
Watch out for
Which reactions are accepted is the platform’s call, not the app’s.
Send Button Message
What it does
Send a message with up to three tappable buttons under it — a quick reply that sends its label back, a link, or a phone number — over an optional photo, video or file header. Each of the three button slots carries its own action, so one message can mix a quick reply with a link and a call.
In the editor
Address it by chat, or by person
Fill either field. Conversations takes chats, from Find Conversation or Get Conversations in List. Contacts takes people, from Find Contact or Get Conversation Members — each one is addressed in the one-to-one chat you share with them. Leaving Conversations empty is fine so long as Contacts has someone in it, and filling both sends to the two sets combined. Leave both empty — or on “Choose” or “Ask Each Time” — and the shortcut stops to ask you for a chat. One limit worth knowing: a contact you have never messaged has no chat to resolve to, so they are skipped.
What the other platforms receive
The action never drops a chat for lacking buttons. The buttons themselves render on WhatsApp, and on Telegram from a bot account. Everywhere else — Instagram, Messenger, a personal Telegram account — the message still arrives: the header is sent as a photo, video or file with the message and footer as its caption, so it lands as one bubble with the media above the text, and only the buttons are lost. With no header it is a plain text message. Before anything goes out, the confirmation sheet counts which chats get the buttons, which get the header without them, and which were skipped.
Returns
A result carrying the message preview, the button labels and destinations, and per-conversation success and failure counts.
Parameters
- Message
- The message body the buttons sit under.
- Conversations
- Where to send it. Can be left empty when Contacts is filled.
- Contacts
- People to send to, each in the one-to-one chat you share with them.
- Header
- An optional photo, video or file above the message. On WhatsApp it is drawn inside the button card; on every other platform it becomes the message’s own attachment.
- Button 1–3 Action
- Quick Reply, Open Link or Call Number — what tapping that button does. Each of the three slots has its own, so they need not match.
- Button 1–3 Label
- The text on the button. A slot left blank makes no button, so a two-button message is two slots filled.
- Button 1–3 Destination (Link or Number)
- The link or number that button goes to. Required for Open Link and Call Number — the shortcut asks for a missing one — and ignored on a Quick Reply, which is why the row names both.
- Footer
- Optional small print under the buttons.
Chain it with
Watch out for
Telegram renders buttons only from a bot account — a personal account takes the no-buttons send described above. One header cannot travel: Instagram refuses file attachments, so a document header bound for an Instagram chat is dropped and that message goes as plain text. Photo and video headers reach every platform.
Send Calendar Event
What it does
Send a calendar event that already exists — either events piped in from the Calendar app, or an .ics file — as a WhatsApp calendar event.
In the editor
Address it by chat, or by person
Fill either field. Conversations takes chats, from Find Conversation or Get Conversations in List. Contacts takes people, from Find Contact or Get Conversation Members — each one is addressed in the one-to-one chat you share with them. Leaving Conversations empty is fine so long as Contacts has someone in it, and filling both sends to the two sets combined. Leave both empty — or on “Choose” or “Ask Each Time” — and the shortcut stops to ask you for a chat. One limit worth knowing: a contact you have never messaged has no chat to resolve to, so they are skipped.
Returns
A result carrying the event name, its start and end times, and the conversation.
Parameters
- Calendar Events
- Events piped in from the Calendar app.
- Event File
- Or an .ics file to import instead. Not offered in the editor — it is reachable only by asking Siri, or by wiring the parameter from another shortcut.
- Conversations
- Where to send them. Can be left empty when Contacts is filled.
- Contacts
- People to send to, each in the one-to-one chat you share with them.
Chain it with
Watch out for
WhatsApp only. Use Send Event when you are composing the event in the shortcut rather than importing one.
Send Contact
What it does
Share a contact card, sent as a vCard so the other side can save it.
In the editor
Address it by chat, or by person
Fill either field. Conversations takes chats, from Find Conversation or Get Conversations in List. Contacts takes people, from Find Contact or Get Conversation Members — each one is addressed in the one-to-one chat you share with them. Leaving Conversations empty is fine so long as Contacts has someone in it, and filling both sends to the two sets combined. Leave both empty — or on “Choose” or “Ask Each Time” — and the shortcut stops to ask you for a chat. One limit worth knowing: a contact you have never messaged has no chat to resolve to, so they are skipped.
Returns
A result carrying the contact’s name, the conversation, and the platform.
Parameters
- Contacts
- The card being shared — the person whose details you are sending.
- Contact File
- Or a vCard instead. Not offered in the editor — it is reachable only by asking Siri, or by wiring the parameter from another shortcut.
- Conversations
- Where to send it. Can be left empty when Recipients is filled.
- Recipients
- Who receives the card, each in the one-to-one chat you share with them. Named Recipients here, not Contacts, because on this action Contacts is the card being sent.
Chain it with
Watch out for
The only Send action where the two contact fields mean different things: Contacts is the card you are sharing, Recipients is who gets it. Every other Send action calls its recipient field Contacts.
Send Event
What it does
Compose a calendar event inside the shortcut — name, description, start, end, place, optional reminder — and send it. Use this when the event does not exist yet.
In the editor
Address it by chat, or by person
Fill either field. Conversations takes chats, from Find Conversation or Get Conversations in List. Contacts takes people, from Find Contact or Get Conversation Members — each one is addressed in the one-to-one chat you share with them. Leaving Conversations empty is fine so long as Contacts has someone in it, and filling both sends to the two sets combined. Leave both empty — or on “Choose” or “Ask Each Time” — and the shortcut stops to ask you for a chat. One limit worth knowing: a contact you have never messaged has no chat to resolve to, so they are skipped.
Returns
A result carrying the event name, its times, the conversation, and the platform.
Parameters
- Event Name
- What the event is called.
- Description
- Optional detail.
- Start Date/Time
- When it starts.
- End Date/Time
- When it ends.
- Location
- Optional place.
- Conversations
- Where to send it. Can be left empty when Contacts is filled.
- Contacts
- People to send to, each in the one-to-one chat you share with them.
- Include Reminder
- Whether to attach a reminder. Off unless you turn it on.
- Reminder Offset
- How far ahead the reminder fires: 5, 15 or 30 minutes, 1 hour, or 1 day before. 15 minutes unless you change it.
Chain it with
Watch out for
WhatsApp only.
Send Location
What it does
Send a place — a pin, with the venue name and address filled in when the place has them.
In the editor
Address it by chat, or by person
Fill either field. Conversations takes chats, from Find Conversation or Get Conversations in List. Contacts takes people, from Find Contact or Get Conversation Members — each one is addressed in the one-to-one chat you share with them. Leaving Conversations empty is fine so long as Contacts has someone in it, and filling both sends to the two sets combined. Leave both empty — or on “Choose” or “Ask Each Time” — and the shortcut stops to ask you for a chat. One limit worth knowing: a contact you have never messaged has no chat to resolve to, so they are skipped.
Returns
A result carrying the venue name, the conversation, and the platform.
Parameters
- Location
- A place. Pipe one in from Get Current Location or a Maps result.
- Conversations
- Where to send it. Can be left empty when Contacts is filled.
- Contacts
- People to send to, each in the one-to-one chat you share with them.
Chain it with
Watch out for
It takes a placemark, not an address string — feed it from Get Current Location or a Maps search rather than typing an address into the field.
Send Media Message
What it does
Send photos, videos, audio, or documents — several at once if you like — with an optional caption.
In the editor
Address it by chat, or by person
Fill either field. Conversations takes chats, from Find Conversation or Get Conversations in List. Contacts takes people, from Find Contact or Get Conversation Members — each one is addressed in the one-to-one chat you share with them. Leaving Conversations empty is fine so long as Contacts has someone in it, and filling both sends to the two sets combined. Leave both empty — or on “Choose” or “Ask Each Time” — and the shortcut stops to ask you for a chat. One limit worth knowing: a contact you have never messaged has no chat to resolve to, so they are skipped.
Returns
A result carrying per-conversation success and failure counts, the conversation, and the platform.
Parameters
- Media Files
- One or more images, videos, audio files, or documents.
- Conversations
- One recipient or many. Can be left empty when Contacts is filled.
- Contacts
- People to send to, each in the one-to-one chat you share with them.
- Caption
- Optional text sent with the media.
Chain it with
Send Message
What it does
The workhorse — a text message to one conversation or many, with an optional attachment. Most shortcuts end here. Address it by chat or by person: hand it conversations, contacts, or both.
In the editor
Address it by chat, or by person
Fill either field. Conversations takes chats, from Find Conversation or Get Conversations in List. Contacts takes people, from Find Contact or Get Conversation Members — each one is addressed in the one-to-one chat you share with them. Leaving Conversations empty is fine so long as Contacts has someone in it, and filling both sends to the two sets combined. Leave both empty — or on “Choose” or “Ask Each Time” — and the shortcut stops to ask you for a chat. One limit worth knowing: a contact you have never messaged has no chat to resolve to, so they are skipped.
Returns
A result carrying success, failure, and total counts, plus the conversation and the platform.
Parameters
- Message
- The text to send. With a Media File attached it becomes the caption.
- Conversations
- One recipient or many. Can be left empty when Contacts is filled.
- Contacts
- People to message, each in the one-to-one chat you share with them — straight from Find Contact or Get Conversation Members.
- Media File
- Optional — an image, video, audio file, PDF, or any other file.
Chain it with
Watch out for
Past the hourly send limit the action stops rather than waits, reporting the time it resumes against each remaining conversation. For a long list, end the shortcut with Create Schedule Message instead — a broadcast waits the limit out in the background.
Send Poll
What it does
Send a poll — a question and its options — to one conversation or many.
In the editor
Address it by chat, or by person
Fill either field. Conversations takes chats, from Find Conversation or Get Conversations in List. Contacts takes people, from Find Contact or Get Conversation Members — each one is addressed in the one-to-one chat you share with them. Leaving Conversations empty is fine so long as Contacts has someone in it, and filling both sends to the two sets combined. Leave both empty — or on “Choose” or “Ask Each Time” — and the shortcut stops to ask you for a chat. One limit worth knowing: a contact you have never messaged has no chat to resolve to, so they are skipped.
Returns
A result carrying the question, the option count, the conversation, and the platform.
Parameters
- Question
- What the poll asks.
- Options
- Between two and ten answers — the range every platform accepts.
- Conversations
- Where to send it. Can be left empty when Contacts is filled.
- Contacts
- People to send to, each in the one-to-one chat you share with them.
Chain it with
Watch out for
Question and options only, deliberately. Everything else a poll could carry is platform-conditional — quiz mode is Telegram-only, and anonymity, duration and write-in answers are not configurable on Instagram or Messenger at all — so exposing them would mean one shortcut quietly meaning something different for each recipient. Polls go out multi-answer and non-anonymous, the same defaults the in-app poll creator starts from.
Create Schedule Message
What it does
Hand a message to the scheduler instead of sending it now — text, or text plus an attachment, to one recipient or many. For a long list this is the better ending to a shortcut: a broadcast waits out the hourly send limit in the background, while a Send action stops at it.
In the editor
Address it by chat, or by person
Fill either field. Conversations takes chats, from Find Conversation or Get Conversations in List. Contacts takes people, from Find Contact or Get Conversation Members — each one is addressed in the one-to-one chat you share with them. Leaving Conversations empty is fine so long as Contacts has someone in it, and filling both sends to the two sets combined. Leave both empty — or on “Choose” or “Ask Each Time” — and the shortcut stops to ask you for a chat. One limit worth knowing: a contact you have never messaged has no chat to resolve to, so they are skipped.
Returns
The Scheduled Message.
Parameters
- Message
- The text to send. With a Media File attached it becomes the caption.
- Conversations
- One recipient or many. Can be left empty when Contacts is filled.
- Contacts
- People to schedule for, each in the one-to-one chat you share with them.
- When
- In 5, 15 or 30 minutes; In 1 or 2 hours; Tomorrow at 9 AM; Tomorrow at 5 PM; End of work day (5 PM today); Next Monday at 9 AM; or Custom date and time. No default — it is one of the three the summary line asks for.
- Custom Date/Time
- The exact date and time, used when When is set to Custom date and time. Not offered in the editor — it is reachable only by asking Siri, or by wiring the parameter from another shortcut.
- Media File
- Optional — an image, video, audio file, PDF, or any other file.
Chain it with
Watch out for
A scheduled message a shortcut creates sends once. Recurring schedules are set on the message itself, in the app — and personalisation variables like {recipientFirstName} belong to scheduled messages and Quick Reply, not to Shortcuts.
Find Scheduled Message
What it does
Filter what is already queued — by content, recipient, platform, when it is due, or whether it repeats.
In the editor
How Find actions work
Find actions are generated by Shortcuts from Apple’s EntityPropertyQuery — the same engine behind the Reminders and Calendar “Find” actions. Stack as many property filters as you like, each with the comparators that suit its type, then sort the matches and cap how many come back. The filter re-evaluates every time the shortcut runs, and the results flow straight into the next action with no “Choose” prompt.
Returns
Scheduled Messages — read them into a digest of what is going out today.
Parameters
- Filters
- Content, Recipient Name, Platform, Scheduled Date, Recurring
Chain it with
Create Quick Reply
What it does
Add a reply to your saved library from a shortcut. It is also the Siri AI phrase — “Create a quick reply” — so a draft you dictate can land in the library without opening the app.
In the editor
Returns
The new Quick Reply.
Parameters
- Title
- What the reply is called in your library.
- Message
- The text it saves.
- Category
- The group it files under, picked from the categories already in your library. Not offered in the editor — it is reachable only by asking Siri, or by wiring the parameter from another shortcut.
Chain it with
Find Quick Reply
What it does
Search your saved replies and hand the matches to the next action.
In the editor
How Find actions work
Find actions are generated by Shortcuts from Apple’s EntityPropertyQuery — the same engine behind the Reminders and Calendar “Find” actions. Stack as many property filters as you like, each with the comparators that suit its type, then sort the matches and cap how many come back. The filter re-evaluates every time the shortcut runs, and the results flow straight into the next action with no “Choose” prompt.
Returns
Quick Replies — pull their files out with Get Media from Quick Reply, or pass the content of one into a Send or Schedule action.
Parameters
- Filters
- Title, Content, Enabled
Chain it with
Get Media from Quick Reply
What it does
Pull the files attached to a saved reply out as files, so they can flow into Send Media Message — or anywhere else in Shortcuts that takes a file. Returns every attachment on every reply you feed it, in order.
In the editor
Returns
Files — photos, videos, voice notes and documents, ready for Send Media Message or any file action.
Parameters
- Quick Replies
- One or more saved replies, typically piped in from Find Quick Reply.
Chain it with
Watch out for
Send it to Send Media Message, not Send Message. Send Message has no file field, so Shortcuts coerces each file to the only thing its text field can take — the filename — and your recipient gets “photo-54E5B572….jpg” as a message. Two things do not travel with the files: the reply’s own text, and each attachment’s caption, neither of which a file can carry. A voice note arrives as a plain audio file for the same reason — a file has no way to say “this is a voice note” — so record-and-send is still a job for the app or the widget. Photos, videos and documents make the trip unchanged. Replies that send a button message hold no attachments and are skipped; if nothing you fed in has a file, the action stops with an error rather than passing an empty hand to the next step.
Create Skill
What it does
Build a Skill from a shortcut — its name, the instructions behind it, and the three tone controls.
In the editor
Returns
The new Skill.
Parameters
- Skill Name
- What the Skill is called.
- System Prompt
- The instructions that define how it writes.
- Creativity
- How varied the wording should be: Low, Medium or High.
- Formality
- The tone it writes in: Casual, Neutral or Formal.
- Response Length
- How long its drafts run: Concise, Balanced or Detailed.
Chain it with
Find Skill
What it does
Search the Skills you have written, on nine properties.
In the editor
How Find actions work
Find actions are generated by Shortcuts from Apple’s EntityPropertyQuery — the same engine behind the Reminders and Calendar “Find” actions. Stack as many property filters as you like, each with the comparators that suit its type, then sort the matches and cap how many come back. The filter re-evaluates every time the shortcut runs, and the results flow straight into the next action with no “Choose” prompt.
Returns
Skills.
Parameters
- Filters
- Name, Description, System Prompt, Favourite, Style Preset, AI Tools Enabled, Knowledge Base, Created At, Updated At
Chain it with
Set AI Reply Assistant Focus Filter
What it does
A Focus filter rather than a shortcut action: you attach it to a Focus and it decides which conversations may notify you while that Focus is on. Leave both fields empty and nothing is filtered.
In the editor
Parameters
- Platforms
- Optional. Only these platforms may notify you while the Focus is on.
- Lists
- Optional. Only chats on these custom lists may notify you.
Watch out for
You set this up in Settings › Focus, not in the Shortcuts editor. iOS files every app’s Focus filter under its own Focus heading and renames it “Set <App> Focus Filter”, which is why it appears here under Focus rather than Conversations.
Create a custom list
Create a custom list in the Chats tab to filter for your selected list of conversations. With your custom lists, you can filter for those conversations in shortcuts using Get Conversations in List, which you can then send broadcast messages to instead of using Find Conversation.
WhatsApp
Telegram
Instagram
Messenger
Chaining shortcut actions
Chain multi-step workflows, even those across different apps such as Calendar, Photos, Files and Apple Intelligence. Here are some simple examples to get you started.
Message every chat on a custom list — and not just with text.
Every Send action takes a whole list of conversations, of any type — group chats, topics, bots, channels, 1:1s — so a broadcast needs no Repeat and no hard-coded chat. The native Send Message actions take one individual, picked from your address book, and never a group; between all four of them the message can be text, plus one WhatsApp photo.
Shortcuts template gallery
From the Tools tab, you can access a list of ready-made shortcut templates that you can download to get you up and running fast. Once downloaded, you can customise them from the Shortcuts app to meet your own task requirements.
Reply Unread Conversations
Finds your unread conversations from the past 24 hours, summarises each thread in point form, and drafts three smart replies with different intents — powered by Apple Intelligence.
Built from
Also uses
Apple IntelligenceSend Photo Memory
Picks a random photo from a chosen album, writes a warm, personal caption with AI, then sends it to a conversation.
Built from
Also uses
PhotosApple IntelligenceRelay Information
Enter a sender's name to pull their recent messages, then have AI rewrite the content so it can be naturally relayed to another conversation.
Built from
Also uses
Apple IntelligenceSend Day Itinerary
Pick a day and the shortcut gathers all your calendar events, uses Apple Intelligence to craft a clear itinerary, and sends it to any conversation.
Built from
Also uses
CalendarApple IntelligenceClone Group Members
Pick a source group chat, choose which members to copy, then add them to a target group — recreate a roster with no manual re-adding.
Built from
Semantic Message Search
Ask a natural-language question and Apple Intelligence answers it from your message history — it pulls key search terms, finds the most relevant messages, then writes a grounded answer based on what your chats actually say.
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Apple IntelligenceGenerate Skills
Create a custom Skill that matches your communication style — define tone, formality, and personality for consistent messaging.
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Apple IntelligenceGenerate Quick Reply
Save frequently used messages as templates for instant access, organised by category for easy retrieval.
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Apple IntelligenceShould I use Schedule Message or Shortcuts?
Use Schedule Message for static content and use Shortcuts for dynamic content. Both can send on a schedule, so timing is not what decides it — the content is.
The birthday message, the Monday price list, the rent reminder. You write it now because you won’t be free at 9am. One person or thirty, once or every week — it delivers in the background with the app closed, and it waits out the hourly send limit on its own.
Today’s calendar becomes today’s itinerary. This week’s album becomes this week’s photo. Your unread chats become the summary you asked for. You set it up once, and what arrives is current rather than copied — a different message every time, because the source changed, not because you did.
You can still read it before it goes. Every Send action has a Show When Run toggle that previews the finished message and waits for your tap — switch it off for a silent send once you trust it.
Or do both. Create Schedule Message is one of the Shortcuts actions, so a shortcut can write the message from today’s calendar, work out who should get it, and hand the whole thing to the scheduler. That matters most for long lists: a shortcut’s Send action stops when it hits the hourly limit, while a scheduled broadcast waits the limit out and keeps going in the background with the app closed. A scheduled message created by a shortcut sends once — recurring schedules are set on the message itself, in the app.
Write it now, send it later — to one person or thirty, once or every week, delivered in the background with the app closed.
Shortcuts & Siri AI — common questions
Every one of our actions registers with Siri AI and Spotlight the moment you install the app — there is nothing to set up, and any shortcut you build can be run by name.
Everything else is Shortcuts’ own launch surfaces, and they work the same way for every app on your phone: a Home Screen icon, a Home Screen or Lock Screen widget, a Control Center control, the Action button, tapping the back of your iPhone, or a personal automation that fires on a schedule, an arrival, or an alarm. Apple documents all of them in the Shortcuts User Guide.
Yes. Every Send action has a Show When Run toggle. Leave it on and the finished message is previewed for you to approve; switch it off and the action completes silently. With it off, a shortcut behind a personal automation — 8am every weekday, when you arrive somewhere, when CarPlay connects — reaches the conversation with your phone still in your pocket.
What differs is who it can reach. The native Send Message actions take one individual, picked from your address book — no group chats, no topics, no bots or channels. Ours takes any conversation, of any type, on any of the four networks, and takes a whole list of them at once.
And nothing the native apps expose to Shortcuts returns a value, so nothing chains: their automation can only send the message you typed while building it, to the person you named while building it. Ours works out who and what at the moment it runs — every chat that is unread right now, everyone on a list, today’s calendar, this week’s photos — which is what makes an unattended run worth setting up in the first place.
One limit worth knowing: sending stays paced whether you are watching or not — the question below has what that costs and what to do about a long list.
Because sending is paced, on purpose. Chain a Send action onto a long Find Conversation result and it will message every one of them — but not all at once. Sends are spaced about 3 seconds apart and capped at 60 an hour per platform, from the same budget scheduled messages spend. The pacing rules are the same everywhere; what differs is how a shortcut behaves when it runs out.
- A shortcut targeting 40 chats runs for a couple of minutes rather than a few seconds. That is the shortcut working, not stalling.
- Conversations the action skips — no longer a valid target, or a message type that platform does not accept — cost nothing and do not slow the rest.
- Past the hourly limit the action stops rather than waits, reporting “Hourly send limit reached for WhatsApp. Sending continues at 3:12 PM” against each remaining conversation. Everyone reached before that stays sent.
For anything large, let the scheduler deliver it. A shortcut finishes while you watch. A broadcast finishes while your phone is in your pocket — it delivers in the background, survives the app being closed, and waits out the hourly limit rather than stopping at it. So for a long list, end the shortcut with Create Schedule Message instead of Send: the shortcut still writes the message and works out who gets it, and the scheduler takes care of getting it there.
Pacing lowers the risk — it does not remove it. Sending unsolicited messages in bulk can get any account restricted on any platform, however slowly they go out. Message people who expect to hear from you.
The four of them put 25 actions in the Shortcuts picker between them. Five of those send a message, and none of them answer a question — nothing they expose returns a value the next action could use, so nothing chains. An automation built on one of them can fire, but only ever to send a fixed message to a single contact you picked while building it. The rest are call-control buttons that do nothing unless a call is already ringing, and links that open the app on a screen and stop.
Counts checked in the Shortcuts action picker on device, August 2026. They move — Meta and Telegram add and remove actions without notice.
| App | In the picker | That send | That return data |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 — mostly call controls; Send Message picks one individual from your address book, never a group | 3 | None | |
| 9 — the largest native surface, and it cannot send a DM at all; Open Direct just opens the thread | None | None | |
| Messenger | 6 | 1 | None |
| Telegram | 1 — Send Message, to an individual contact; groups, bots and topics are a standing feature request | 1 | None |
| AI Reply Assistant | 29 across eight categories — conversations, messages, contacts, quick replies, scheduled messages, Skills, Focus, and Send | 8 | 10 — 6 Find queries with filter, sort, and limit, plus 4 Get actions |
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