Shortcuts

Hello all,

My friend Keith and I spent some time with Workflow and found that it is possible to create workflows. Now, I will say it is not super easy and neither of us have figured out all possibilities or found all issues. Here is a few things to be aware of. First, once you get past the introductory screens things seem to be much easier. When moving an action into the workflow you only need to use short movements. For example, you would double tap and hold an action and instead of sliding it across the screen, just slide it maybe about a half inch to the right. The idea is you are moving actions from the left side of the screen to the right. I want to try building a couple of actions and if I can get a reasonably good handle on things I will record a podcast. If you are interested at all in Workflow please e-mail the developer or send a tweet. Please provide comments that are helpful and not that the app sucks or it's broken etc. I am finding more developers who are sincerely interested in accessibility and want to try making their apps accessible and we only need to contact them with positive feedback and encouragement. Workflow is a very cool app, but I understand the $2.99 USD price tag is 40 percent off as an introductory price.

Hey guys, just wanted to say thanks for posting such an amazing app! I'm loving it alot!!!
When I used android, I used an automation app called tasker, and wondered if something similar existed until this app was posted!
It's super!
I just have abit of a problem editing workflows, if someone knows how, please do tell. I can create and delete them but just not sure with editing.

Thanks in advance.

Hi james!
thanks much for the reply, will give it a whirl and post again if I have any further questions.
Thanks again.

I already contated the dev by twitter. It looks liek they do tweet a lot. I also gave the a link to this thread on apple vis, so we'll see what happens there.

This is a great app, and will be very useful in a myriad of ways to people. It is currently usable with VoiceOver, but not as easy or accessible as it could be. I'm listing bugs not to denigrate the app or developers in any way, but rather for two reasons.

First, if other VO users want to use this app, they should know what they are going to encounter. Second, I hope the developer will see this comment and realize what needs work. If you are reading this after December of 2014, you may have an updated version in which some or all of these bugs are fixed. If I remember, I'll update this list as the app is updated.

Note that I have only spent a couple hours with this app so far. I haven't tried many of the actions, and there may be workarounds of which I am not aware. I know that one can edit a Workflow by disabling VoiceOver, tapping the Workflow, then re-enabling VoiceOver, but I don't consider that enough of a workaround to eliminate the bug.

• When Workflow opens the screen to take a picture, the button to actually take the picture is invisible to VoiceOver and thus cannot be activated.
• Tangentially related to VoiceOver: there should be a way to enable the flash when scanning bar or QR codes. Many blind people have trouble knowing when the light is good enough, or when there are no shadows covering the code, and so on. The easiest solution is to use the device's own light. Ideally, this could be set with a button that appears when scanning for the code. There is an action to have the light enabled or disabled, but no toggle for this appears in the screen where the user captures the code.
• Once a workflow is added to the list on the app's main screen, there is no way to examine/edit it. VoiceOver sees an unlabeled button, then the workflow name, both of which are dimmed. The "Edit" button un-dims things, but only lets the user rename or delete workflows, not open them for review or modification.
• In Edit mode on the main screen, the button used to delete a workflow has no label.
• While making a new workflow, all actions are "dimmed" and the user must double tap and hold in the center of the screen, then drag to the right. Given that this is only to add new actions, a simple double tap would seem to make more sense. Of course, actions should not appear dimmed either, as this normally indicates a UI control with which no interaction is possible.
• When re-ordering actions (using a one-finger double tap and hold, then dragging), VoiceOver gives no indication where the action is moving. There is a standard control that VoiceOver sees as draggable, which would be perfect here. Examples include moving icons on the Home Screen or sorting items in Settings > General > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Rotor.
• In various screens, VoiceOver fails to respond to one-finger left or right swipes. Moving a finger around the screen will reveal the different controls, but swiping will not.
• There are a few other unlabeled buttons scattered around the app, and some with usable but awkward names (such as "toolbarRun").
• Often, the bottom half of the screen is blank if you drag a finger over it. Swiping right with one finger, however, moves focus over a keyboard that you can actually type on, even though said keyboard is invisible. There seems to be no way to get rid of this.
• Variables in text fields are invisible to VoiceOver. If you set the title of an alert to be "Hello, (name)", VoiceOver will read this as "Hello, ". If you move character by character you will hear a silent character that indicates a variable, but there is no way to find said character unless you examine the text in time-consuming detail. Even when you find it, you will have no idea which variable it is unless you run the workflow and test it out.

I heard they fixed a lot of voice over issues in this version. I'm notsure though. I'm seeing the same release on itunes as I am on the cult of mac blog.

• Improved workflow sharing
• Improved workflow gallery
• Added actions: Count, Get Name, Set Name, Get Type, Get Rich Text from HTML, Get HTML from Rich Text, Get Rich Text from Markdown, Make ZIP, Append to Dropbox File, Delete Photos, and Get Current Date
• Bug fixes and other minor additions

Again " not sure if they have voice over improvements Can someone let us know? I'm not about to buy this app yet as I'm still not sure what it does.

Hello to all. Here is the good news re version 1.1 for those of us that have it in our app stores. I don't yet. Mine still shows version 1.0 and it's still $2.99. I took advantage of that.

The update contains over 50 actions and voice over fixes. Since i can't paste in the release notes in mark down for yah all I give you the link to read about it.

I'm excited to try this app as I find myself doing daily tasks that should be second nature and a lot less tapping.

Be blessed and hope this helps someone.

As noted below. It is now VoiceOver accessible.

What's New in Version 1.1
We've been blown away by your enthusiasm and support for Workflow! Workflow 1.1 comes action-packed with over 50 new actions (now 200+ total), plus a bunch
of bug fixes and frequently-requested improvements. Check out the updated Workflow Gallery to see what's possible!

Here are a few of the things we added:
• Quickly run workflows from My Workflows by double tapping on them
• Actions to filter and get details of all the the images, songs, calendar events, contacts, reminders, locations, and files on your device
• Duplicate workflows to make your own versions
• Create a custom home screen icon for your workflow using photos from your library
• Use the selected text from Safari as input to an action extension workflow
• Now accessible for VoiceOver users
• Improved app speed and responsiveness
• Fixed a ton of bugs (or as we call them, workflaws)
• Made some other things more awesome

See the full changelist at workflow.is/whatsnew!

New actions:
• Add Reminder
• Add Calendar Event
• Combine Images
• Record Audio
• Post to Tumblr
• Send Message via WhatsApp
• Add to Pocket
• Add to Instapaper
• Create Day One Entry
• Make Video from GIF
• Open Multiple URLs
• Upload to CloudApp
• Create Task in Clear
• URL Encode
• Random Number
• Add to Pinboard
• Show Definition
• Crop Image
• Expand URLs
• Get Distance
• Adjust Date
• Open in GoodReader
• Find Music
• Find Calendar Events
• Find Contacts
• Find Photos
• Filter Images
• Filter Files
...and 20+ more

Stay tuned for some huge updates that will amplify the power of Workflow. Syncing workflows between devices is coming soon!

Love Workflow? Write us an App Store review!

Have an idea? Something not working? Shoot us an email at [email protected].

1. I'm actually noticing that the voice over goes to the hand set if using the record audio function. Pretty annoying as it stays there until you restart the app which is not cool at all.
2. Also, the list of actions when showing suggested, apps, etc will not show all of them when you flick and there are layered things that show. For example I was all the way at the top and had to scrol just to get to upload to cloud app, the very last action at the bottom of the list before I could double tap. It saw it with a flick back from the actions tab but double tapping did not do a thing until I actually scroled to the bottom of the list.

Over all I'm having a pretty good user experience and give it a 7 out of 10.

Ok, this app is extremely confusing, all this stuff about dragging some kind of image? Can someone help make sense of this?

Well, after swearing a blue streek I finally got past the tutorial screen, and I was only able to do it by finding the done button. Sorry guys, but this app just isn't very intuitive, at least not at first glance. I'm sure with a bit of explanation from someone more knowledgable it will be easier, but at this moment I'm beginning to regret my purchase of the app.

I created a 2 part audio boom on the thing. See http://audioboom.fm/tffp for it. My personal time line has it to but it's crouded. Lol!

Blessings all.

I made a really cool workflow. What it does is get info from the clipboard and a Pam's it to my journal file in dropbox. That way, I can just make a journal entry with embryo, then hit the journal button on the home screen… And all of a sudden I have a pended the text I wrote in embryo to the journal. I wanted to do a more complete process,where I have it get a fast from dropbox, copied to the clipboard, I edit and embryo, then another workflow saves that file wherever I specify… But when I am in the same file dialog of that workflow, all I get is a blank screen. Anyone else find this?and I mean Emma braille not to embryo of course. Siri…

Ken, is the save file dialog you're referring to part of Workflow's Save File action? I'm a little unclear on what exactly the workflow you describe is doing.

i'm saving the contents of the clipboard to dropbox, asking the user where to put the file. If I specify the file, there is no problem. It's just what I ask the user where to put it.

Ahh, I see! We'll work on that!

Hi, this app does have apple watch support so should probably be updated to say so.

I have not been able to accomplish this using the iOS shortcut feature. I would like to be able to send a text message to my Uber driver from within the Uber app that says something like this: "I am a blind guy using a white cane. You will need to look for me upon your arrival since I obviously cannot recognize your vehicle."
I do not want to have to type this message each time I need to contact my Uber driver. Would Workflow be a solution for this task? If so, I will relisten to Alex's podcast and take the time to learn how the app works. Alex, thanks so much for doing the podcast.
Scott

Scott

ther eis I don't think a way to do this, unless you put in a paste option like you had to have typed this in directly someware else..

good luck.

Hi, i have read the
Last comment on accessibility
Im thinking purchasing this app
Does it fully accessible? The current version?

It's fully accessible, I use it every day in using my ios device.

Take care.

Hi,

How do I view a complete list of available actions? I can only scroll the screen to 38 rows. The search box is nice, but without knowing what actions are possible, I don't find it useful. Can I obtain a complete list of actions available?

Go to actions and go to view all. They will all be there. Ok, I didn't get the exact buttons right but this should help.

Thanks for this. I've just found out that this app is a lot more useful now that I can view all available actions.

Hello,

Is it possible to set up Workflow to report battery status as it increases or decreases? I want it to read the battery level as it discharges or charges by 10 percent or some other amount. I can already use the battery status and speak text options to get Workflow to speak the current battery level. However, this has to be run manually. Can I set this up to automatically report intervals of battery life or other data? Is this possible or do I really have to jailbreak just to get a simple feature like this? I feel like this app would be so much more useful if Apple didn't impose so many restrictions on apps and how they run.

No it is not. Workflow is not for that function. There are ios apps that will do this for you though. I forgot what they are as I never use them as I know my phone well by now lol!

I'll post the same comment here and on the Launch Center Pro page, since I purchased both. Both are slick programs and are accessible, once you figure out the trick (in Workflow, double tap to add an action to the workflow: no dragging required. In Launch Center, go straight to Edit, then double-tap on a blank area to get an action prompt). But neither does what I was hoping for, which was to launch specific actions within the apps on my phone. Workflow has a very small number of supported apps. Launch Center's list of supported apps is much larger... just, not the ones on my phone. And the actions for most apps are limited to launching them. One of the most frequently-cited uses for Workflow is to text/facetime/phone a specific contact, but Siri can already do this. Siri can do a lot of the things that these apps purport to do, actually. I thought I would at least find something in IFTTT that I'd like to do, but not so. If you need things like image manipulation or file manipulation, they're rich apps. Or to launch Google Maps directly in walking/driving/transit modes. I'll probably use Workflow to load various usernames and passwords into the clipboard.
I'm not saying these are bad apps, but only to be aware of what you're buying. They aren't genuine macro-recording apps or anything like that.

Workflow has just been purchased by Apple, and the app is now available for free.

http://www.imore.com/workflow-app-and-its-team-going-apple

For more than anyone might want to know, try this link:
https://support.apple.com/guide/shortcuts/toc

Bruce, thanks for this link. I just went through the table of contents, and indeed these are pretty extensive. I listened to parts 1 and 2 of the podcast on here about Shortcuts, and sometime when I've got a lot more time I will definitely look at that page on Apple's website. I have not yet downloaded the app, but think it will perhaps come in handy for me and my neighbor across the hall. He is not visually impaired, but has another disability and I might start tutoring him a bit on his iPad. I don't own one of those but can probably figure things out if necessary. As a side note, this week's issue of "Top Tech Tidbits for Thursday" contains a Mac Stories article about Shortcuts and the associated app.

Hi,
The description of the original post should not say "Siri Shortcuts." That causes some initial confusion.

Hi
Does Anyone know if there is a way to automate the actions of turning Bluetooth off and then back on again?
I use a Braille Display and sometimes the two misbehave, so the simplest way to get them talking to one another again is to turn Bluetooth off and then on again.
If anyone knows how I could automate this I'd love to know. I'd love just to be able to tell Siri "reset" or something and have the phone do it by itself. Thanks in advance.

I haven't tried it myself, but there is an action called Set Bluetooth, which can be configured to either On or Off. So, a shortcut with this action twice, once to turn off and once to turn on, should do what you want. The only caveat is that you might need to add a short time delay in between the actions, like three seconds or so, to ensure that Bluetooth actually turns off. That said, I would first test it without a delay to see if it works, and if it doesn't, add a delay and try again.