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Shortcut Action to display Contact?

This is for iOS 16.3.


How can I create a Shortcut to put on my home screen that lets me open a specific Contact - the same as if I opened the Contacts app, searched for their name, and then tapped on them in the Contacts app?


What Action do I use in the Shortcut to display the Contact and then end the shortcut?


I have created a shortcut that opens a specific contact, using the Quick Look action.


That does almost what I want. The problem is that when the Contact is being displayed by the Quick Look Action, the Shortcut is still running and doesn't terminate until after I press Done in the top right of the Contact.


And the problem with that is that, once my Contact is displayed, I might want to tap to send them a text message, or tap to start a phone call, or tap to start a Facetime session, or tap to start navigating to their address.


Whatever I tap and further activity I initiate, I want the Contact card that is shown to go away, leaving the next activity displayed. For example, once my Contact is displayed, I tap to call them on the phone. As soon as I tap to start that phone call, I want the contact card to go away and the phone app to be displayed - just the same as if I had manually opened Contacts, found the specific contact, and tapped to call them. Instead, it starts the phone call, but the Contact card remains on the screen until I tap Done at the top and the Shortcut then finishes running.


I have found that (I think) I can achieve what I want using the Contacts widget. But, that thing is so huge I can only fit a small number of Contacts on one page of my home screen. I want to use a Shortcut so that I can put Contacts on my home screen with "normal" sized icons - that take up the same amount of screen real estate as a normal app icon.


For example (just to be clear):


I want a normal sized icon on my home screen that says Dad. When I tap that, I want it to open his Contact card, which then gives me the options to call him on the phone, text him, FaceTime him, or navigate to his house. So, with just two taps, I can do anything I want with the info I have stored for him. Two taps and I'm in the phone app, with it calling him, or I'm in Messages, ready to type a message to him, or Maps is open and showing me his address on the map, ready for me to tap one more time to start navigating there.


I do not want separate icons, one to call him, one to text him, one to navigate, etc..


Thanks for any help.

iPhone 14 Pro Max, iOS 16

Posted on Feb 20, 2023 10:56 AM

Reply
8 replies

Feb 20, 2023 1:20 PM in response to StuartV

StuartV wrote: "How can I create another Shortcut that lets me a pick a Contact and then generates this Shortcut and creates a link to it on the home screen?"

I'm fairly sure a shortcut can't generate another shortcut.

"I tried creating a new shortcut. I have a step to let the user choose a Contact."

Okay, presumably via Select Contact action.

"And then it creates a new Shortcut by the name of the contact that was selected in the first action."

How did you do that?! ...Please post a screenshot:


Take a screenshot on your iPhone - Apple Support


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Feb 21, 2023 10:44 AM in response to StuartV

StuartV wrote: "I have found that (I think) I can achieve what I want using the Contacts widget. But, that thing is so huge I can only fit a small number of Contacts on one page of my home screen."

Widget stacks can be used to save space on your Home Screen. You can stack up to 10 widgets, scrolling up/down to see them. And besides the Contacts widget, there's the Shortcuts widget which would trigger, for example, your 'Dad' shortcut:


How to add and edit widgets on your iPhone - Apple Support


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Feb 21, 2023 12:04 AM in response to StuartV

Stuart ~ Okay, now I understand; I didn't know there's a Create shortcut action! ...I could be wrong (again!), but it appears to be limited to creating a named, empty shortcut – so you'll have to add its actions manually. If you set its Open When Run switch On, then the new shortcut will be opened ready to have actions manually added to it:


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Feb 20, 2023 12:56 PM in response to Alancito

Awesome! Exactly what I was looking for.


I'm brand new to iPhones and shortcuts, so it took me a minute to figure out how to get the Open action to use the Contact from the first action, but now I got it.


So, next question:


How can I create another Shortcut that lets me a pick a Contact and then generates this Shortcut and creates a link to it on the home screen?


I tried creating a new shortcut. I have a step to let the user choose a Contact. And then it creates a new Shortcut by the name of the contact that was selected in the first action.


But, I don't see a way to adds steps to the Shortcut that was created. It just leaves me on the screen to start manually adding Actions to the Shortcut that it created.

Feb 21, 2023 8:32 AM in response to Alancito

Yeah, that is the conclusion I have come to.


Not sure why anyone thought it would be useful to have an Action to create a Shortcut, but not have any Actions to add Actions to the Shortcut.


Oh, well.


In the big picture, it is just really disappointing (to me), how hard it is to put a Contact on my home screen (with a reasonable size), so I can open it with one tap and then one more tap to initiate any other action that is available for that contact.


I have to go into Shortcuts, manually create a Shortcut with 3 Actions that is specific to one Contact, then go into Details and add it to my home screen. It's a lot of steps!


On my previous phones (all Android), I could accomplish the same mission with only 3 or 4 taps.


So much for the iPhone being easier and more intuitive. I don't think I ever had to go on a forum and ask to figure out how to do what I wanted on my Android phone.


Thank you again, @Alancito, for your help!

Feb 21, 2023 11:26 AM in response to Alancito

Understood. But, even a widget stack kind of defeats the purpose. It adds time/taps/swipes to get where I want to go. And widgets are just too big (also stupid, in my opinion). I can have 24 icons on my home screen. Or I can fit 12 contacts, if I use widgets. (I think those are the correct numbers)


A Shortcut widget definitely does not help. There's already a widget to open a Contact. If it didn't take up so much screen real estate, I would have just used that.

Shortcut Action to display Contact?

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