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.

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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)