Shortcuts App Coming to Mac, Automator Will Remain Supported

Monday June 7, 2021 11:42 am PDT by Mitchel Broussard

During its announcement of macOS Monterey today at WWDC, Apple also revealed that the Shortcuts app is coming to macOS this year. The company said that a large library of pre-built shortcuts will be made just for the Mac.

Just like on iPhone and iPad devices, Shortcuts on Mac will let users quickly accomplish complex tasks with the apps they use the most. Apple said that power users will be able to use the Shortcuts Editor on Mac to customize shortcuts to match their workflows.

Shortcuts will be integrated throughout macOS Monterey, in the menu bar, Finder, Spotlight, and even with Siri. Apple also noted that users will be able to import existing Automator workflows into Shortcuts, and Automator will remain supported.

Popular Stories

Apple MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display family lineup feature

Apple Announces OLED MacBook Pro With Touch Display

Wednesday October 28, 2026 10:11 am PDT by Juli Clover

Apple today announced a new high-end MacBook Pro, which is available in 14-inch and 16-inch sizes. The new device has a PROLED XDR display that supports touch gestures, and a glowing rear Apple logo. Pricing on the MacBook Pro starts at $2,899 for the 14-inch model and $3,399 for the 16-inch model. Apple says the MacBook Pro has the "world's best display in a pro laptop." The PROLED...

• 706 comments

Apple Announces New 14-Inch MacBook Pro With M6 Chip

Tuesday October 27, 2026 6:01 am PDT by Hartley Charlton

Apple today announced a refreshed 14-inch MacBook Pro featuring the M6 chip, upgraded connectivity specifications, and more. The M6 chip in the MacBook Pro features a 12-core CPU with 2 super cores, 4 performance cores, and 6 efficiency cores, paired with a 12-core GPU. This is up from the M5 chip with a 10-core CPU with 4 super cores and 6 efficiency cores, paired with a 10-core GPU. M6...

• 183 comments

Apple Opened Pre-Orders for Five New Products This Week

Wednesday October 28, 2026 2:49 am PDT by Tim Hardwick

Apple opened pre-orders for five new products on Wednesday, October 28, including its first touchscreen MacBook Pro models. Pre-orders opened for the following new products: iPad mini with OLED display and A20 Pro chip iMac with M6 chip 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 chip 14-inch MacBook Pro with OLED touchscreen 16-inch MacBook Pro with OLED touchscreen Pre-orders for the iPad mini,...

• 14 comments

Top Rated Comments

Zedcars

70 months ago

Let the dumbing down commence. 🙄

Automator is great and super easy to learn. I don’t use it often but when I do I find it quite fun and saves me loads of time. It would be a great shame if it was jettisoned.

Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)

brofkand

70 months ago

Automator was a huge differentiator between the Mac and Windows. I know a lot of people never used it, but it was sort of like what FileMaker Pro did for databases in terms of how it made automation and scripting easy for people who cared to learn.

Shortcuts has nowhere near the functionality, but hopefully it will get there before they kill Automator for good. It sounds like Apple learned from the iPhoto > Photos debacle.

Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)

KoolAid-Drink

70 months ago

Kind of sad to see a Tiger application be deprecated. Hard to believe Automater was first released to the public in 2005.

With that said, TBH, I've almost never ever used Automater, so I don't understand it much. Hoping Shortcuts will be a simpler, easy-to-understand replacement, while preserving the power of Automater and the Mac in general.

Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Luke MacWalker

70 months ago

As long as the underlying AppleScript subsystem remains a thing, I’ll continue to adopt latest macOS releases.

It’s very handy in specific situations, like getting around the UX quirks of Finder.

There was a session about Shortcuts and automation on macOS today. I haven’t had time to watch it yet, but I quickly read the transcript: it looks like Shortcuts has been really well thought. Support for AppleScripts and shell scripts is included, both ways: Shortcuts can launch scripts and apps, and applications and scripts can launch Shortcuts too.
There is also a translator app that can be used to convert “most” of Automator’s workflows into Shortcuts.
Shortcuts can also be cross platform (macOS, iOS and iPadOS).

As I said, I read too quickly to really get all the details, but I think we should not be disappointed. 👍😊

Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)

jwdsail

70 months ago

Automator was a huge differentiator between the Mac and Windows. I know a lot of people never used it, but it was sort of like what FileMaker Pro did for databases in terms of how it made automation and scripting easy for people who cared to learn.

Shortcuts has nowhere near the functionality, but hopefully it will get there before they kill Automator for good. It sounds like Apple learned from the iPhoto > Photos debacle.

I'd compare this more to Aperture -> Photos (or even Lightroom) .. Neither of the "replacements" work half as well for me as Aperture? I'm still looking for something that makes my life (re: digital photos) half as easy as Aperture did?

I'm not looking forward to this change. Apple always seems to kill off the parts of the Mac experience I value the most?

Sigh

Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)