Issues with automations in Siri Shortcut

By Mister Kayne, 3 January, 2024

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

All this used to work way back when I was running IOS 14; as of today many features in the Shortcuts application have changed and are broken, simply a pain to work with if you are a VoiceOver user. Creating a automation was such a breeze and enjoying it work like you want it to was such a thrill!

There are lot of issues with Siri Shortcuts, when creating an automation, I want Siri to speak me the current day and date. I in the text action have added the date variable and set the date format to be custom i.e. EEE, MMM d, ''yy. I expect the Speak Text action to speak WednesdayJanuary 3, 2024. However, this does not happen instead all that is spoken is January 3, 2024. Other challenges are with current location, I want it to speak only the city name instead it gives me the locality, city and postal code!
References: https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/shortcuts/apd8d9b19184/ios

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Comments

By Yvonnezed on Wednesday, January 3, 2024 - 03:34

Hmm. I'll admit Shortcuts has changed a lot, but I can't reproduce either of these problems.

So, a couple of thoughts. First, if you're creating an automation, e.g. something that runs at a certain time or whatever, try creating a Shorcut that does what you want first, then run it from the automation. Secondly, try turning off group navigation when editing shortcuts, for me at least it makes it a bit less confusing.

So, to the specifics. I can't reproduce the date thing at all. I add a text action, tap current date above the keyboard. I then get a screen where I can configure it. I set it to custom, cut and pasted your date format. dismiss that and add speak text directly under it and it seems to be correct. Not sure, maybe share the shortcut?

As for the location, first add the location action, then either use another text action under it and insert the variable, where it'll let you choose which bit of the location to speak, or maybe use get details of location.

Hope some of this helps.

By Mister Kayne on Wednesday, January 3, 2024 - 03:34

I thought I was the Shortcut Ninja, you have given me some ideas. I did try that i.e. creating the shortcut first and running it through the automation. Something did not seem right and I cannot remember right now I am just trying to get the date and location thing right. Let me play around and see where it takes me. Thank you for your comment, keep rocking!

By Yvonnezed on Wednesday, January 3, 2024 - 03:34

I think it's just that I've been doing quite a lot of Shortcuts work over the last couple of months, ☺️.

In all honesty, no, the current Shortcuts app isn't as good as it used to be, but to be honest, none of the mainstream users I follow are happy with it either, so. Hopefully it'll get their eventually. As I said before, share a link to what you've got if you'd like me to take a look. I also posted a bunch more random tips on another Shortcuts post last year that might help, let me know if you need me to find the link for that, I'm about to run out the door and I can't right now.

By Mister Kayne on Wednesday, January 3, 2024 - 03:34

Location issue sorted, had to add the location action to the shortcut and in the text field where I wanted the location, from the list of variables at the bottom before the done button you choose Location from the list instead of weather. Here is where you can choose what information you want for the location in my case Town/City but the day and date isn't working even if I add the date action in the shortcut!

By Mister Kayne on Wednesday, January 10, 2024 - 03:34

So if you just asked Siri without any Shortcut it will tell you, it's Monday January 8, 2024. This shortcut I am working with is a morning greeting. Here is what is to be the output only problem I am having is with the date not being read out with the day of the week.

Good morning Mister Kayne.
Today is Monday January 8, 2024

It is currently 32C and cloudy at City name
Tempratures will drop from a high of 32C to a low of 22C.

There is a 0% chance of rainfall today.

Have a great day!

Date variable although set to custom, does not read as expected instead just says January 8, 2024 not giving me the day of the week. This is some weird bug and Shortcuts as of today has become way complicated from when they started