I’ve made a significant update to Mocktail, my shortcut for creating device-framed screenshots. It now (finally) includes base images for:
iPhone 11
iPhone 11 Pro
iPhone 11 Pro Max
iPhone SE
iPad Pro Magic Keyboard
There are also more base images available for a number of supported devices. The shortcut has also been updated to be much more reliable and efficient, with around 30 fewer actions than before.
Finally, the shortcut and its required base images are now hosted here. If you have any questions, problems, or feedback, please leave a comment on the shortcut’s page or let me know.
One of my favorite features of Workflow was its ability to share workflows as files. It was this functionality that made it possible for me to start Workflow Directory and create my own GitHub repository of workflows. Unfortunately, Shortcuts doesn’t support this functionality and I suspect it never will again.
Although it’s possible to jump through some hoops to import workflow or shortcut files, lack of file support makes it impossible to maintain my GitHub repository. Instead, I’ve started the long overdue process of creating iCloud links to my shortcuts and publishing them here instead.
All of my shortcuts are being made available on my site and can be found at a dedicated Shortcuts page. Although I’ve written about some of them in more detail, there are plenty of shortcuts I’ve never blogged about. I will publish any shortcuts I think are useful and continue to write about some of them in more detail.
I’m also using this opportunity to clean up my shortcuts, fix any broken ones, and remove any that are no longer functional. I’ve already gone through my blog posts to update them all with iCloud links and have identified a few that rely on APIs or functionality that’s no longer available (e.g., all my IFTTT-based workflows can’t be used anymore).
I’ve been having some troublesome sync issues with Shortcuts since upgrading to iOS 13. None of my devices would stay in sync and shortcuts I’d delete would reappear moments later. In some cases, shortcuts would even be duplicated.
A helpful tip on the Shortcuts subreddit has provided a simple solution for my syncing woes: delete the app and reinstall it. I did this on each of my devices and now shortcuts sync perfectly.
For the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, Todd Douglas Miller’s breathtaking film of the Apollo 11 mission that’s comprised entirely of archive footage is essential viewing for all mankind.
My iPhone photography workflow includes sharing some of the photos I’ve taken to Instagram. I usually include relevant hashtags to increase discoverability and have a collection of frequently used hashtag sets—different hashtags for the same topic—that I can choose from. I also include a five-dot prefix (each dot on a separate line) to separate the photo’s caption text and hashtags. This is a commonly used method for hiding hashtags “below the fold” so they’re only visible when tapping the more button.
I’ve used a few different methods for managing my hashtag collection and wanted to share my experiences with each.
iOS text replacement
iOS has built-in text substitution that can be used to replace a shortcut with a longer piece of text. For example, a shortcut of ,,iphone could be replaced with #shotoniphone #iphonexs #iphonephotography.
iOS text replacement is useful for handling a small collection of hashtag sets.
Text replacement is a good option if you occasionally use hashtag sets. You can easily add them to an Instagram caption without leaving the app. It’s basic organization and need for you to remember what shortcuts you’ve created isn’t well suited for more frequent users or those with a larger collection.
Copied
Copied is a clipboard manager app for iOS and was the first standalone app I used for managing hashtag sets. Each set can be saved a separate clipping and accessed directly from Instagram using Copied’s custom keyboard.
Copied’s custom keyboard makes it simple to insert snippets of text.
Clippings can be organized into lists and the custom keyboard also includes a built-in search, both of which make Copied useful if you have a lot of hashtag sets.
Darkroom
The popular iOS photo editor has built-in support for hashtag set management. Darkroom makes it easy to manage and create new hashtag sets and provides some useful ways of accessing them.
Hashtag support in Darkroom is a really nice touch.
Hashtag sets can be selected and copied to the clipboard—along with an optional five-dot prefix—as part of the photo export flow so that you can switch to Instagram and simply paste the hashtags in. You can also use Darkroom’s Today View widget to select and copy hashtag sets to the clipboard.
The app also supports Siri shortcuts for quick access to hashtag sets. You can select which hashtag sets to include and then record a phrase to use with Siri. Once invoked, the hashtag sets are copied to the clipboard.
Shortcuts
My preferred method for managing hashtag sets nowadays is, unsurprisingly, with a shortcut. I created Instagram Hashtag Sets to manage my hashtag collection and use them whenever I post a photo to Instagram. The shortcut is more flexible than other methods I’ve tried and also includes some additional functionality.
It can be run as a normal shortcut or from the Share Sheet, the Shortcuts Widget, the Home screen, or as a Siri Shortcut. I primarily use the Share Sheet by selecting the caption text I’ve specified and tapping Share; the shortcut includes the caption text when it copies hashtags to the clipboard to make it easier to simply paste it over the existing text.
The shortcut contains a dictionary of my hashtag sets, each of which is an array of hashtags. When run, it displays a list of these hashtag sets for you to select from. All of the chosen hashtags are copied to the clipboard, after which it switches back to Instagram and displays a notification. The shortcut also includes support for a five-dot prefix and includes this if the option is enabled.
Each hashtag set is represented as an array of text values.
Instagram limits the number of hashtags per photo to 30. The shortcut counts how many hashtags have been included across all hashtag sets and allows you to deselect individual hashtags if there are more than 30. The shortcut also repeats the check until there are 30 or fewer hashtags.
The shortcut allows you to unselect individual hashtags if you exceed the limit. It will also repeat this process if you don’t unselect enough.
Shortcuts no longer supports shortcut file imports. Any links to shortcuts in this post have been updated to use iCloud links.
