I knew the Apple Shortcuts app was awesome but the first time I opened the app I started at it like the blank page of my first english essay assignment. I couldn’t think of anything good to do with it. That is, until New Year’s Eve.

I wanted to text my friends “Happy New Years!” but didn’t want to send a group text. When I sent the text messages to my friends on Christmas it took a while. It was well before midnight and I was at the kitchen table playing games with family. I didn’t want to step away from the game to send the text messages. Then I thought, “Hey maybe Shortcuts could do this?”

“Hey maybe Shortcuts could do this?”

I did a little research but couldn’t find a pre-built soulution. Needless to say I didn’t send the text message that night but the next day I started playing with the Shortcuts app and figured out a way to create one message and send it to multiple people. Here is how I did it.

Automate sending a text message to multiple people

  1. Open the Shortcuts app
  2. Click on a new “Shortcut”
  3. Click Action and choose “Scripting” then scroll down to the “Notification” section and choose “Input”
  4. Click add action and choose “Apps” then “Messages” in the Options the first field will be populated from the “Input” action. Touch the next field and select who you want to send the message to when your contacts are opened.
  5. Repeat adding messages for everyone you want to send a text to.

I created two groups. One for Friends and another for Family. Today, January 1st I send a text to my friends. A simple “Happy New Years!” Of those who responded I had conversations with a few friends I had not talked with in a while.

I’m not on Facebook or Instagram. I don’t know how to Tweeter right. I have some of their addresses, but all of their phone numbers. I want to keep in touch and this handy automation started the conversation.