Five Useful Siri Shortcuts for iOS 12

The iOS 12 update brought a major new feature, Siri Shortcuts, which is designed to let you create voice and tap-activated automations that can complete multiple complex tasks in just a few seconds.

In our latest YouTube video, we've rounded up five Siri Shortcut options that we think most people will find interesting. These are a great place to start if you're new to Shortcuts.

- Calculate Tip - Perhaps one of the simplest Shortcuts available, Calculate Tip is available in the Shortcuts Gallery. When you activate this Shortcut, it will ask you the total bill and the amount that you want to tip (12%, 15%, 18%, or 20%) before providing you with the tip amount and the total bill with tip included.

- Convert Burst to GIF - With Convert Burst to GIF, sourced from Reddit, you can take a series of burst photos with the iPhone camera by holding down on the capture button and then convert them into a GIF. There are also shortcuts for doing the same thing with a Live Photo in the Shortcuts Gallery.

- Watch Music Video - The Watch Music Video Shortcut, also from Reddit, lets you detect the currently playing Apple Music song and then search for the accompanying music video on Apple Music. If a music video is found, it will open it up in the Apple Music app so you can watch it.

- What's Happening on Twitter - If you have the Twitter app installed, you can create a "See What's Happening" Shortcut that will allow you to view Twitter's Moments section with a Siri voice command. You can access this option by going to Settings > Siri & Search > Twitter > See All.

- Dark Sky Weather - With Dark Sky installed, you can see a weather forecast with information pulled from Dark Sky through a Siri voice command. As with Twitter, you can get to this option through the Siri & Search section of the Settings app. Assigning a command like "What's the weather today" to this third-party Shortcut will let you get weather data from Dark Sky rather than the built-in weather app when you ask Siri about the weather.

Many of the Shortcuts listed above can be tweaked and customized after you have downloaded them if desired, and you can assign Siri voice commands to activate them. For app-based Shortcuts, you can do this in the Settings app, and for longer Shortcuts that have multiple steps, you can add a Siri command in the Shortcuts app.

Do you have favorite Shortcuts that you've been using in iOS 12? Let us know in the comments and we may feature them in a future video.