The current limitations of automation in the Apple ecosystem

Hello,

I’d like to share some thoughts about the current limitations of automation within the Apple ecosystem, especially through the Shortcuts app.

Despite the iPhone and iPad’s exceptional hardware and impressive software integration, the existing restrictions make it impossible to achieve smooth, fully autonomous automation on iOS and iPadOS.

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⚙️ A few concrete examples:

• Shortcuts cannot run in the background without user interaction. As soon as the screen locks or the user switches apps, the execution stops.

• The “Save File” action in Shortcuts only allows saving to iCloud Drive, while Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive appear greyed out — meaning it’s impossible to save files outside the Apple ecosystem.

• The iCloud Drive API is not public, preventing any advanced or server-based automation (such as syncing files or launching scripts remotely).

I completely understand Apple’s intention to maintain security and ecosystem consistency, but it’s fair to say that these limitations restrict professional, creative, and technical use cases that iOS devices could easily handle from a hardware standpoint.

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🚧 Workarounds exist… but they’re too cumbersome:

It’s technically possible to use external servers (via Make, n8n, or a Raspberry Pi) or other creative workarounds to automate certain tasks.

However, these methods remain complex, fragile, and far from the seamless experience we expect from an Apple device.

A simple evolution — for instance, allowing certain approved automations to run in the background or enabling write access to third-party cloud services — would instantly take the iPhone to a higher level of productivity and efficiency.

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💡 A concrete example:

If I create a Shortcut that interacts with ChatGPT, the process may take 10–15 seconds.

During that time, if the screen locks, the Shortcut stops and the automation fails.

This kind of limitation prevents users from truly leveraging the device’s automation and integration capabilities.

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🤖 And about Apple Intelligence:

The concept is exciting, but if Apple Intelligence can’t run specific processes in the background, we’ll face the same limitations again.

The true value of on-device intelligence should be the ability to observe, analyze, and act automaticallybased on user-defined rules — not just respond to manual commands.

Apple, you build amazing machines — please let them express their full potential! 🙂

Thank you to the Apple team for considering these points, and to the community for any feedback or suggestions.

Best regards,

SoundP32