DECEMBER 2019 MACWORLD 61Personal Automations run on your iOS device
and are full featured; Home Automations run
on your HomeKit hub and are more limited.they’re amazing. The Open App trigger will
run an automation whenever you open a
particular app. I know a few people who
are planning on building automations that
automatically begin logging in a time-
tracking app the moment they open
specific work-related apps.
Then there’s the NFC trigger. This one
will run a Shortcut whenever you tap your
phone on a wireless tag. This uses the
same near-field communication
technology your phone uses to sense that
it’s next to an Apple Pay reader, but this
automation works with passive devices
that have unique IDs attached to them.
NFC stickers and plastic tags are fairly
easy to find online, and you can even use
some children’s toys with NFC tags, such
as Nintendo Amiibo.
Here’s an example of how this might
work: You unlock your phone as you enter
a conference room, scan the NFC sticker
on the door, and your iPhone automatically
connects to the room’s Wi-Fi and a
Bluetooth conference phone and begins
AirPlaying to an Apple TV.
It’s important to note how Apple has
addressed security with this feature: By
default it only runs after you confirm that
you’ve scanned a tag, though you can
turn this option off. It also only runs when
your phone is unlocked, so NFC tags
can’t trigger actions you’re not expecting.
And finally, while NFC tags can be used
by anyone with this feature, all Apple is
doing is reading the unique identifier of
the tag and then running an automation
on your device—there’s no data being
passed to your phone by the tag, and
your automation can’t be run by anyone
else who scans that tag.
Now that iOS 13.1 is in the wild, the
gates are open for all sort of new
possibilities for iOS automation. As apps
are updated to take advantage of these
new Shortcuts features, things will
become even more interesting. iOS
automation is going to be bigger and
better than ever. ■