Apple on Friday, seeded a new beta of its Shortcuts app for iOS 12 to developers for testing. While it appears the new beta doesn’t include a large amount of new features, users report new limited HomeKit integration.
Developers testing Shortcuts on devices running iOS 12 can find the new HomeKit actions under Siri Suggestions, a standalone workflow category, or by entering “Home” into the action search bar. It appears that Siri Suggestions, and not the Home app, is powering current HomeKit integration, as search results return Home app actions under “Siri Suggestions.”
For now, Siri Suggestions seems to be pulling in custom HomeKit scenes, or customizable macros that string together commands for multiple smart home appliances.
The above report indicates restrictions to Siri Suggestions does make the process of surfacing actions a bit cumbersome. Users cannot view a list of available HomeKit actions directly in Shortcuts, but instead must first trigger a desired scene on the Home app, return to Shortcuts, and then access the commands via Siri Suggestions.
The 2.0 beta release of Shortcuts also contains the usual bug fixes and system improvements.
Shortcuts, which debuted at WWDC 2018 as a highlighted feature of iOS 12, that allows users to build custom app macros that can be run via a custom Siri command. For example, a user can use the drag-and-drop editor to create a custom shortcut that will engage navigation directions to their Home location, send an “I’m on my way home” message to a selected contact, set the user’s home thermostat to a selected temperature, and begin playback of selected music, or other content.
