Content creator Stephen Robles explains how Apple’s Shortcuts app can automate daily tasks, protect your iPhone, and even power creative workflows.
Stephen Robles, content creator at Beard.fm, explains how Apple’s Shortcuts app can automate daily tasks, protect your iPhone, and even power creative workflows.
Shortcut turns your iPhone into a theft tracker
If your iPhone is ever stolen, Robles’ viral shortcut can trigger multiple actions to help find it.
“When someone texts you a certain phrase, it can take a photo, turn up the volume, play a sound saying ‘this phone is stolen,’ and text the picture back to you.”
He says you can download it at beard.fm/stolen and customize it for your own phone.
Apple’s Shortcuts app can do much more than you think
Robles says most iPhone users barely scratch the surface of what the built-in Shortcuts app can do.
“You can automate everything from ‘turn on low power mode at 20% battery’ to building an entire podcast script with ChatGPT in one click.”
He’s helped people use it to auto-respond to texts, create travel reminders, and even log daily journal entries automatically.
AI + Shortcuts = powerful time-savers
The newest iOS update adds Apple Intelligence to Shortcuts, letting users combine AI with automation.
“I made a shortcut that grabs a recipe from an Instagram reel, cleans it up with Apple Intelligence, and saves it to Notes — formatted and linked to the original video.”
That one’s available at beard.fm/recipe.
Creative automations for everyday life
Robles has built shortcuts for pilots, students, and families — showing how flexible automation can be.
“A pilot can run one at the hotel to find nearby restaurants and later get walking directions back with their room number reminder.”
He’s even made shortcuts for his kids that pop up their school schedule whenever they open a favorite game.
Pro tip: shortcuts can’t harm your phone, but use trusted sources
Robles warns that while shortcuts are safe, you should preview them before installing.
“Always tap the three dots to see the actions before running it. Get them from trusted sites or the r/shortcuts Reddit community.”
Resources mentioned:
beard.fm/stolen – Stolen iPhone shortcut
beard.fm/recipe – Recipe-saving shortcut
create.beard.fm – Robles’ private shortcuts community
Summary: Robles says shortcuts can make your iPhone “feel twice as smart,” and combining them with Apple’s new AI features opens up endless automation — from recovering stolen phones to turning messy recipes into organized notes.