How to use Show Alert Action in a shortcut on iPhone (iOS12)

Show Alert Action in an iPhone is essentially a feature for displaying information in iOS Today View. These actions give instant alerts from your favorite apps, like News and Stocks as a summary. Alert Actions can be created quickly on your iPhone via the Shortcuts app for iPhone 6S and above. Similarly, if you do not like it there’s an optional Cancel button provided to stop the shortcut from running. Let’s learn how to use Show Alert Action in a shortcut on iPhone 6S and above running iOS12 and above.

Steps to use Show Alert Action in a shortcut on iPhone

An action is a building block of a shortcut. You can mix and match any such Actions to interact with the apps and content on your iPhone. Each shortcut is built up of many actions combined. So, if you are meeting an old friend on a day and would like your iPhone to remind you about the same you can create a shortcut to remind you about the event. For this, do the following.

1] Tap on the (+) visible under ‘Library’.

Create Shortcut in iPhone

2] Click on Calendar to add a new event. Add details like Title, Location, etc.

Use Calendar in Shortcuts App

3] Scroll down to find the ‘Alert’ option, and click on the ‘Choose’ link provided adjacent to it.

Shortcut Alert Action

4] Choose a time to show an alert to notify you of the event.

Notification for Shortcuts

You can also use the Show Alert action to debug shortcuts when you’re not getting your intended shortcut result. By passing any content into Show Alert, you can preview the output of the previous action at a certain point in a shortcut, then cancel the shortcut, if required.

The new update for iOS has made the life of iPhone users much simple. Instead of opening apps and then doing things, Apple is making it easier do the things the users want to do without having to find an app icon first.

Also, if you would like to know how to run shortcuts from iPhone Home Screen, see our post on Shortcuts.

About the author

Hemant Saxena

The author Hemant Saxena is a post-graduate in bio-technology and has an immense interest in following technology developments. Quite by nature, he is an avid Lacrosse player.