Outdated Documentation

You are reading the documentation for a previous version of LaunchCuts. Click here to view the documentation for version 1.4 of LaunchCuts. Update to this version by going to the App Store on your iOS device.

Table of Contents

Overview

LaunchCuts is a powerful, customizable, and elegant launcher for shortcuts on iOS.

LaunchCuts

LaunchCuts is for both casual users who want better organization of their shortcuts and for power users who have gone all-in on shortcuts but have been wanting more out of the Shortcuts application.

Once you start using LaunchCuts, you will not want to go back to the stock Shortcuts app for launching and organizing your shortcut collection!

iOS 13.4 Beta 1 Users

If you are running iOS 13.4 Beta 1, note that fast syncing does not work properly. Update to iOS 13.4 Beta 2, which resolves this problem. Read this section for more details on handling sync errors.

What’s New in LaunchCuts 1.2

What's New in LaunchCuts 1.2

New Features

Enhanced Keyboard Support

LaunchCuts 1.2 gives you more ways to control LaunchCuts from the keyboard:

Bug Fixes

Learn what was new in the previous release of LaunchCuts 1.1 here.

System Requirements and Availability

LaunchCuts requires iOS 13.2 or higher. LaunchCuts 1.2 and higher also requires that the latest version of the LaunchCuts Helper shortcut be installed on your iOS device.

LaunchCuts is available for purchase for $7.99 on the iOS App Store.

Download LaunchCuts from the App Store

Setup

When you install LaunchCuts on a new iOS device, you will be presented with the LaunchCuts Setup assistant.

Installing LaunchCuts for the First Time?

If you are installing LaunchCuts for the first time, tap Begin Setup and go to the next section.

If you have previously installed LaunchCuts on a device connected to the same iCloud account, you can skip setup by tapping Start Using LaunchCuts. Your folders and shortcut references will sync shortly from iCloud.

Setup Screen #1

Setup Page 1: LaunchCuts Helper

In order for LaunchCuts to work properly, it must first know what shortcuts you have installed. The LaunchCuts Helper shortcut syncs the following information about your shortcut collection to LaunchCuts:

Tap Get LaunchCuts Helper to download it if you have not already done so. Or, tap LaunchCuts Helper is Installed if you already have it installed on your device.

Proceed to the section on running the update.

Installing LaunchCuts Helper

NOTE: Do not change the name of the LaunchCuts Helper shortcut, or LaunchCuts will not work properly.

Allowing Untrusted Shortcuts

If you have only used shortcuts downloaded from the Gallery tab in the Shortcuts app, you may see an alert that says Shortcuts could not install LaunchCuts Helper because you do not have untrusted shortcuts support enabled. To fix this, follow these steps:

  1. In LaunchCuts, tap I Got An Error.
  2. Tap Open Settings. If you are on an iPhone, tap the back button to return to the main Settings page.
  3. Scroll and tap on Shortcuts.
  4. Tap Allow Untrusted Shortcuts. If prompted, tap OK.

Allowing Untrusted Shortcuts

This will allow you to run shortcuts that you download from a location other than Apple’s approved shortcuts gallery.

NOTE: Always be careful when downloading and using shortcuts you download from the web.

Never Run a Shortcut?

If the toggle to allow untrusted shortcuts is disabled, you must first run a shortcut. Do the following:

  1. Go to Shortcuts.
  2. Tap a shortcut to run it and go to Step 9.
  3. If you have no shortcuts, tap Gallery in the Tab Bar.
  4. Tap on a shortcut.
  5. Tap Add Shortcut.
  6. If necessary, configure the shortcut and tap Done.
  7. Tap My Shortcuts in the Tab Bar.
  8. Tap on the shortcut you added.
  9. Return to Settings.
  10. Tap Allow Untrusted Shortcuts.

Never Run a Shortcut #1

Never Run a Shortcut #2

Never Run a Shortcut #3

Setup Step 2: Configuring LaunchCuts Helper

When you first install LaunchCuts Helper, an import question will ask you choose a language. The default is en-US or English. You can leave the value blank and LaunchCuts Helper will automatically detect your system language or you can choose one from the list below.

LaunchCuts Helper has been natively translated into English, Russian, and Turkish, whereas the other languages have been automatically translated using Microsoft’s Translator service.

If you are a native speaker of one of these languages, help improve LaunchCuts Helper by providing a localization. Visit this page for more information.

Setup Page 3: Running Your First Update

After downloading and installing LaunchCuts Helper, return to the LaunchCuts application.

The next setup screen shows you the Update Shortcuts button, which is used to initiate a sync between the Shortcuts app and LaunchCuts.

Whenever you add, delete, reorder, or change the icon/color of your shortcuts, you will need to tap this button, located in the Tab or Navigation bar in LaunchCuts.

Updating Shortcuts in LaunchCuts 1.1

LaunchCuts Helper will open in the Shortcuts app, retrieve your shortcuts, and reopen LaunchCuts. A progress bar will then appear, showing you each shortcut that has been updated. When complete, you will be returned to the previous folder in LaunchCuts.

IMPORTANT: If you used LaunchCuts prior to version 1.1, please update to the latest version of LaunchCuts Helper by going to LaunchCuts Settings and tapping on LaunchCuts Helper under the Shortcuts section.

Setup Page 4: Today Widget and Share Sheet

LaunchCuts 1.1 introduces two new shortcuts that allow you to access your LaunchCuts Folders and shortcuts from the Shortcuts Today widget and the iOS Share Sheet.

LaunchCuts Today

LaunchCuts Share

You can install these shortcuts from the Settings screen in LaunchCuts.

Setup Page 5: Create Sample Folders

The next setup screen will allow you to create some sample folders to get you familiar with how LaunchCuts operates:

Create sample folders and complete setup

Setup Page 6: Setup Complete

You are now ready to get started using LaunchCuts. The final screen will allow you to view the LaunchCuts documentation or go straight to the LaunchCuts Home screen.

LaunchCuts Interface

This section provides and overview of the LaunchCuts interface.

LaunchCuts Home on iOS

iPadOS

If you are using LaunchCuts on iPadOS, you can see both Folders View and Shortcuts View at the same time when in landscape mode. On the 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pros, you can also see both views while in Landscape Split View. Learn more about multi-window support in LaunchCuts here.

LaunchCuts Home on iPadOS

LaunchCuts Home on iPadOS in Split View

Folders View

This view shows all of your LaunchCuts folders. Tap on a folder to view its shortcuts.

When in Shortcuts view, swipe from left to right to reveal the list of LaunchCuts folders. Or tap on the back button in the upper-left corner.

Folders Toolbar

At the top of the Folders View are the following buttons and controls:

Folders Toolbar

Open Shortcuts

Tap the Shortcuts icon to switch to the Shortcuts app. When going back and forth between LaunchCuts and Shortcuts, you can tap on the small back button in the upper-left corner of the screen.

New Folder

Tap the folder icon to create a new folder.

Keyboard Shortcut: Press Command-Shift-N on an external keyboard to create a new folder.

Edit

Tap to bulk delete folders. You can also swipe right to left to delete individual folders. If you are sorting your folders manually, you can drag to reorder your folders.

Sort Bar

You can sort your folders by favorite status, name, or manually. The sort setting will be remembered across your iOS devices.

Folders List

Your list of folders, sorted by Favorite status and name. Tap on a folder to open it and display the list of shortcuts.

Tap on the star icon to mark a folder as a Favorite. Favorite folders are listed at the top of the Folders list.

A hammer icon next to the star means that Edit Mode is enabled for the folder. Tapping on a shortcut will open it to the editing screen in Shortcuts.

Folders List

Folders

Folders that include all of your shortcuts or just manually selected folders are denoted by default by a blue folder icon.

Smart Folders

Smart Folders are folders that have search criteria set to filter from your list of shortcuts. By default, smart folders are blue folders with a lightning bolt icon.

Unfiled Folder

You can configure a folder to display unfiled shortcuts. These are shortcuts that are not in any manual folder nor collected in any smart folder. By default, the unfiled folder is identified by an archive box icon.

You can customize the icon and color of all of your folders in the Edit folder screen. Learn more about creating and editing folders here.

Shortcuts View

This view displays your shortcuts. It’s similar to the Home screen in the Shortcuts app, but is much more powerful and customizable.

Shortcuts View

Shortcuts Navigation Bar

Shortcuts View Navigation Bar

Folders Back Button

Tap this to return to the list of LaunchCuts folders.

NOTE: This button is hidden when the Folders List and Shortcuts View are side-by-side on iPadOS.

Open Shortcuts

Tap the Shortcuts icon to switch to the Shortcuts app. When going back and forth between LaunchCuts and Shortcuts, you can tap on the small back button in the upper-left corner of the screen.

New Shortcut

Tap the blue plus button to open the Shortcuts app and create a new shortcut.

Keyboard Shortcut: Press Command-N on an external keyboard to create a new shortcut.

NOTE: Run a Quick Update after creating shortcuts to make them appear in LaunchCuts. To sync an individual shortcut’s metadata, such as its icon and color, long-press on the shortcut in LaunchCuts and choose Update Metadata.

Update Shortcuts

Tap the blue reload button to display a list of commands for importing your shortcut references from Shortcuts into LaunchCuts using LaunchCuts Helper.

Keyboard Shortcut: Press Command-R on an external keyboard to display the Update Shortcuts screen.

NOTE: This button appears only if you have the preference Show Update in Tab Bar disabled. Otherwise, it will appear in the Tab Bar at the bottom of the screen.

Tap the magnifying glass button to show or hide the search bar.

Keyboard Shortcut: Press Command-Option-F on an external keyboard to show or hide the search bar.

LaunchCuts features a powerful search algorithm for finding your shortcuts. Learn more about the wildcard searching here.

Sort and Filter

Tap the filter icon to reveal the sort bar, where you can sort your shortcuts by name, color, icon, and size, and adjust the size of shortcuts displayed on screen.

Keyboard Shortcut: Press Command-Shift-F on an external keyboard to show or hide the Sort bar.

Favorite

Tap the star button to mark this folder as a favorite. Favorite folders appear at the top of the Folders list in LaunchCuts.

Edit Folder Settings

Tap to display the options screen for a folder, where you can change its name, configure what shortcuts to display, enable Edit Mode, and more. See the section on editing folders for more information.

Keyboard Shortcut: Press Command-Shift-E on an external keyboard to edit the current folder.

The search bar features wildcard matching for quick and efficient filtering the list of visible shortcuts.

Shortcuts Count

On the trailing end of the search bar will be displayed the number of visible shortcuts in the current folder. As you type in the search bar, the number of shortcuts will be updated.

Reverse Sort

Tap this button to reverse the sort order of the shortcuts in the current folder.

NOTE: There currently is no way to jump to the bottom of the shortcuts list at the moment.

Shortcuts Grid

This section displays the shortcuts in the current folder, filtered and sorted according to the following folder settings such as:

Shortcuts Grid

Tab Bar

Located at the bottom of the screen, the tab bar allows you to switch between Shortcuts/Folder view and Settings. It also features a convenient Update Shortcuts button so you can always keep your shortcuts in sync with LaunchCuts.

Toggling the Tab Bar

Double-tap on the Tab Bar to hide it from the view. This is useful when you want to simplify the interface and see more shortcuts. A translucent button will appear which you can tap to reveal the Tab Bar again.

Scroll to Bottom

When viewing a folder, tap on the Shortcuts tab bar button to jump to the bottom of the list of shortcuts. This mirrors the same behavior in the Shortcuts application. To scroll back to the top, tap the status menu area at the top of your screen.

Using LaunchCuts

Working with LaunchCuts is very similar to using the Shortcuts app. Instead of one screen where all of your shortcuts are located, however, you now have access to folders, each with its own sort and visualization settings.

Running Shortcuts

Tapping on a shortcut will open the Shortcuts app and run the shortcut. Tap on the circle with the ellipsis icon to open the shortcut in the Editor within the Shortcuts app.

Return to LaunchCuts After Running

If you have this setting enabled, LaunchCuts will try to reopen itself after successfully running your shortcut. If there is an error in executing your shortcut, you will be returned to the iOS Home Screen.

NOTE: You can exclude shortcuts from returning to LaunchCuts after running in Settings. This is useful if you have a shortcut whose last action is to open another app, for instance. You wouldn’t want to open the app only to have LaunchCuts reopen.

Editing Mode

If you have edit mode enabled for a folder, tapping on a shortcut causes the shortcut to open in the Shortcuts Editor. Conversely, tapping on the small play icon will run the shortcut.

Wildcard Searching

LaunchCuts adopts the search algorithm from MsgFiler, the premier tool for filing email messages in macOS Mail. The space character is used as a wildcard for matching shortcuts. For instance, suppose you have the following list of shortcuts:

Use the space character to match any character between the previous character and the next character. To display just the shortcut named Brush Teeth Timer, you don’t have to type out Brush Teeth T like you have to in Shortcuts, just br tim. That’s seven less characters, which adds up over time!

Search wildcard matching

When you become proficient with LaunchCuts search behavior, finding your shortcuts becomes easier than ever before.

When you type in the search field, an X will appear allowing you to clear the search contents yet keep focus in the search field.

Remember Searches

You can configure LaunchCuts to remember a folder’s last search string every time a folder is opened. Otherwise, the search field will be clearer very time you open or re-open a folder. This setting affects all folders and can be toggled in the settings screen.

Sorting and Changing the Grid Size

Tap on the Sort bar to reveal sort and grid adjustment controls for the current folder.

Here you can change the sort order of folders and adjust the size of shortcuts shown on screen.

Sort

You can sort a folder’s shortcuts using the following criteria:

Sorted by color compared to the Shortcuts app

NOTE: If you sort by color and notice some shortcuts are not sorting properly, it might be due to the fact that the color value was originally recorded for the shortcut back in iOS 12. To resolve, change the color of the shortcut in the Shortcuts app. Then return to LaunchCuts and update the metadata for that shortcut by long-pressing on it from the Shortcuts Grid.

Adjustable Grid

The grid slider allows you to dynamically change the number of shortcuts visible on the screen. You’re no longer restricted to a fixed size for your shortcuts.

Want to see more shortcuts per page? Slide the adjustment slider to the left. Want to see fewer shortcuts that are easier to tap? Move the adjustment slider all the way to the right.

You can also tap on the two icons surrounding the slider to adjust the number of columns.

Reduce Shortcut Height

By default, up to two-lines of a shortcut’s name will be displayed. If you want to fit more shortcuts on screen, you can reduce this to one line by enabling Reduce Shortcut Height in Settings.

Here are some screenshots of the same folder but with vastly different sort and grid settings:

Change the density of shortcuts for each folder

Sorted by name

Sorted by icon

Once you get used to the display features of LaunchCuts, you can’t go back to the stock Shortcuts app.

Creating and Editing Folders

Tap on the New Folder or Edit Folder button to display the following dialog.

Creating a new folder

Here, you can adjust the following fields for a folder:

Unfiled Shortcuts

Tapping the Unfiled Shortcuts toggle will cause the folder to display shortcuts that are not part of any manual folder or collected in any smart folder.

Matching Conditions

You can filter shortcuts in your Shortcuts Library in various ways. Filter rules can be evaluated in an OR or AND fashion:

By default, any shortcut that matches a rule will be displayed in the folder. Tap Matching All to require all rules be satisfied in order for a shortcut to appear in a folder.

Filtering the list of shortcuts in a folder using the Matching All ruleset will take slightly longer than if you used the Matching Any ruleset.

All Shortcuts

A toggle to control whether all shortcuts should be used to match the subsequent folder filtering rules.

NOTE: If you choose Matching Any but leave All Shortcuts enabled, the folder will display all your shortcuts. Disable this or choose Matching All in order to filter your shortcuts properly.

Selected Shortcuts

When All Shortcuts is disabled, this menu item will appear and allow you to manually select which shortcuts to display in a folder.

Manually selecting shortcuts

Tags

LaunchCuts searches for tag information located in two places within a shortcut:

Shortcuts matching tags

Exclude Tags

You can exclude tags by prefixing the tag name with a minute character. For instance:

-LaunchCuts
Location

Will exclude shortcuts that contain the “LaunchCuts” tag in either their name or their LaunchCutsTag comment.

. Tag

Enter *.* to match any shortcut that has a LaunchCutsTag defined. Conversely, enter -*.* to match all shortcuts that do not have any custom tags defined.

Matching All

If you have Matching All enabled, matching shortcuts will result from the intersection of all tag queries. That is to say that a shortcut must match all tags in order to be displayed in the smart folder.

Colors

You can filter shortcuts by colors:

Icons

You can filter shortcuts by their icons or glyphs. There are over 200 glyphs to choose from in the Shortcuts app, so being able to filter by icon gives you another way to organize your shortcut collection within LaunchCuts.

Widget

Tap this to filter on those shortcuts that appear in the Shortcuts Today Widget.

Shortcuts that display in the Shortcuts Today extension

Action Extension

Tap this to filter on those shortcuts that accept input. These are shortcuts these are displayed in the iOS Share Sheet. The following share sheet input types are supported:

Action Extensions

Folder Icon

Customize the look of your folder in the Folder List View by giving it a custom icon. The same icons you can choose for your shortcuts you can now assign to your folders.

Favorite

Folders that have been marked as favorites will be displayed at the top of the Folders list.

Edit Mode

Enabling this will flip the action that occurs when you tap on a shortcut in the Shortcuts Grid View.

Normally, tapping on a shortcut will run it in Shortcuts. With Edit mode enabled, shortcuts will instead launch Shortcuts straight to the editor. To run a shortcut while in Edit Mode, tap on the circle with the play button.

Edit Mode on the iPhone

Edit Mode on iPadOS

Edit Mode is useful on iPadOS. You can create a folder of the shortcuts that you are working with Edit Mode enabled. Place both Shortcuts and LaunchCuts in Split View. While in the Shortcuts Editor, you can quickly switch back and forth between shortcuts without having to scroll and search for the next shortcut to edit.

Edit Mode on the iPad

Deleting Folders

You can delete a folder in one of two ways:

  1. Swipe from right to left on the folder in the Folder List view to delete.
  2. Tap the Edit button in the upper-right hand corner of the Folder List view. Select multiple folders. Then, tap Delete.

Updating Shortcuts

As you add, remove, reorder, and change the icon/color of shortcuts in your Shortcuts Library, you will need to sync these changes for them to appear in LaunchCuts.

The Update Shortcuts button is clockwise arrow in a blue circle, located in either the Tab Bar or Shortcuts View Navigation Bar. Tap it to perform a sync. If you are using an external keyboard, you can also press Command-R to reveal the sheet.

Updatine Shortcuts in LaunchCuts 1.1

With LaunchCuts 1.1, syncing is now very fast, and a full update is performed every time the Update Shortcuts button is tapped. The following information about your shortcuts is transferred during each sync:

TIP: Long-pressing on a shortcut in the Shortcuts Grid display a context menu for the shortcut. One of the options will be to update the metadata for the selected shortcut.

Updating LaunchCuts Helper

If you have been using LaunchCuts prior to version 1.1, be sure to update to the latest version of the LaunchCuts Helper shortcut. To install, tap Settings in LaunchCuts, scroll to the Shortcuts section, and tap LaunchCuts Helper.

Handling Sync Errors

In iOS 13.4 Beta 1, there’s a bug in iOS where the shortcut information is not transferred properly to LaunchCuts. While we hope that this will be resolved in a future beta of iOS 13.4, the workaround is to use the older, slower method of syncing shortcuts. When the error is detected, an alert will appear in LaunchCuts allowing you to sync using the alternate method. If you choose not to do this, you will be returned to LaunchCuts and your shortcuts may not exactly match those in the Shortcuts app.

Keyboard Shortcuts

LaunchCuts has a number of keyboard shortcuts to help you be more productive. By pressing certain key combinations on a hardware keyboard, you can do things in LaunchCuts that normally require you to tap on the screen.

To use a keyboard shortcut, press and hold one or more modifier keys and then press the last key of the shortcut. For example, to use Command-R (Update Shortcuts), press and hold the Command key, then the R key, then release both keys. Menus and keyboards often use symbols for certain keys, including modifier keys:

On keyboards made for Windows PCs, use the Alt key instead of Option, and the Windows logo key instead of Command.

Keyboard Shortcuts in LaunchCuts

Universal Commands

These commands are always available within LaunchCuts:

NOTE: If you are currently viewing the New Folder, Edit Folder, or the Keyboard Commands screen when you press some keyboard shortcuts, the current view may close. Changes will not be saved if you are in the New or Edit Folder screens.

Folders View Commands

These commands are available to navigate and control the Folders list view.

Shortcuts View Commands

These commands become available when you are viewing a folder:

Shortcuts View Navigation Commands

Quick Folder Commands

You can open up to 10 folders by pressing the Command key and a number from 0-9. To configure, follow these steps:

  1. In LaunchCuts, tap Settings.
  2. Tap Keyboard Shortcuts.
  3. Under Folders, tap the command key you want to assign to a folder.
  4. Select the folder.
  5. Tap Done.
  6. Press Command-NUMBER to open the folder.

Configuring a quick folder

Quick Shortcuts Commands

You can run up to 10 shortcuts pressing the Command and Option keys along with a number from 0-9. To configure, follow these steps:

  1. In LaunchCuts, tap Settings.
  2. Tap Keyboard Shortcuts.
  3. Under Shortcuts, tap the Command-Option key you want to assign to a shortcut.
  4. Select the shortcut.
  5. Tap Done.
  6. Press Command-Option-NUMBER to run the shortcut.

Configuring a quick shortcut

Search Bar

When the cursor is in the search bar, these keyboard shortcuts become available:

Today Widget

LaunchCuts can now be used in the Shortcuts Today widget for quick and convenient access to your LaunchCuts Folders and shortcuts using the LaunchCuts Today shortcut.

LaunchCuts Today

Installing LaunchCuts Today Shortcut

  1. Open LaunchCuts.
  2. Tap Settings.
  3. Under Shortcuts, tap LaunchCuts Today.
  4. The Shortcuts app will open.
  5. Scroll to the bottom of the Add Shortcut screen.
  6. Tap Add Untrusted Shortcut.

  7. The LaunchCuts Today configuration pages will now appear, allowing you to change the language, dictation language, and the number of items to display on each page.

    Because of memory limitations in the Shortcuts Today widget, LaunchCuts Today uses a paged approach to display your folders and shortcuts. You can jump to a numbered page and also search for shortcuts using your voice.

Share Sheet

LaunchCuts can now be used with the iOS Share Sheet using the LaunchCuts Share shortcut.

LaunchCuts Share

Installing LaunchCuts Share

  1. Open LaunchCuts.
  2. Tap Settings.
  3. Under Shortcuts, tap LaunchCuts Share.
  4. The Shortcuts app will open.
  5. Scroll to the bottom of the Add Shortcut screen.
  6. Tap Add Untrusted Shortcut.

Adding LaunchCuts Share to the Share Sheet

  1. In any app that features sharing, tap the Share icon.
  2. In the screen that appears, scroll to the end of the list.
  3. Tap Edit Actions.
  4. Scroll to LaunchCuts Share.
  5. Tap the green plus button.
  6. Scroll to the Favorites section.
  7. Rearrange LaunchCuts Share to its desired location.

Using LaunchCuts Share

  1. Tap the Share icon.
  2. Tap LaunchCuts Share.
  3. Tap on a LaunchCuts Folder.
  4. Tap on a shortcut to run with the shared item.

You can create folders that operate on specific share sheet types by creating a Smart Folder. Learn more here.

Advanced

Custom LaunchCuts Tag

By adding a comment to your shortcuts, you can add tags that can help you filter shortcuts in a Smart Folder.

Simply add a new comment anywhere in your shortcut with the first line reading LaunchCutsTags followed by a list of tags. Separate each tag with by a new line. For instance:

LaunchCutsTags
Date
Time
Hour
Schedule

Adding LaunchCutsTags comments to shortcuts

Whenever you update the metadata for a shortcut or tap the Update Shortcuts button, the tags will be attached to the shortcut in LaunchCuts. You can then search for the tags within a Smart Folder.

Before and after adding a custom tag for `Date`

Initially, the only shortcut that had the Date tag was “View Custom DateTime Formats,” and it only matched because the word “Date” was in its name. The LaunchCutsTags comment was added to some shortcuts and Update Shortcuts was requested. Now, these shortcuts show up properly in the smart folder.

Maximizing Screen Real Estate

By hiding the search bar, sort bar, and the tab bar, you can maximize the number of shortcuts on your screen.

Maximizing screen real estate for the Shortcuts View

Multiple Windows and Multitasking

LaunchCuts supports multiple windows and app instances on iPadOS. This means you can have three LaunchCuts windows open at the same time:

  1. Split view
  2. Split view
  3. Slide over

Three instances of LaunchCuts running at the same time!

This is very useful when running LaunchCuts with the Shortcuts app side-by-side on an iPad. You can be editing a shortcut within Shortcuts and still have the ability to quickly run a shortcut before running to editing.

Editing a shortcut with LaunchCuts in Split View

Quick Actions

You can assign up to three folders or shortcuts to be accessible by long-pressing on the LaunchCuts app icon. You can do this from various places in the iOS interface:

To assign a folder or shortcut to a Quick Action slot, long-press on its icon from the Folder list or Shortcuts grid view in LaunchCuts.

Running a Quick Action from the iOS Home screen.

Context Menus

Long-pressing on a folder or a shortcut will display actions that you are perform on the respective object.

Shortcut Context Menu

Long-press on a shortcut in the Shortcuts View to reveal a context menu of options for the shortcut:

If the shortcut is already assigned to a Quick Action, the context menu will have a Remove Quick Action menu item. If another shortcut or folder is assigned to a Quick Action, you will be asked to confirm its replacement with the selected shortcut.

Context menu for a shortcut

Folder Context Menu

Long-press on a folder in the Folders List View to reveal a context menu of options for the folder:

Setting a Quick Action folder.

NOTE: If the folder is already assigned to a Quick Action, the context menu will have a Remove Quick Action menu item. If another shortcut or folder is assigned to a Quick Action, you will be asked to confirm its replacement with the selected folder.

Setting a Quick Action folder.

Settings

Tap the Settings icon in the Tab Bar to reveal the LaunchCuts Settings page.

LaunchCuts Settings

General

Remember Last Folder

Enabling this will cause LaunchCuts to open to the last folder you were viewing if the LaunchCuts application were to be closed manually or by the operating system.

Remember Searches

Enabling this allows folders to keep track of the last search string in the search bar. Otherwise, the search bar will be cleared whenever you leave a folder and return.

Enable this setting to turn of auto-correction when inputting text in the Shortcuts search field in the Shortcuts View screen and the Select Shortcuts sheet. This is useful if you take advantage of the wildcard searching capabilities of LaunchCuts, as it will prevent iOS from replacing your search strings with auto-correct suggestions.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Configure the folders and shortcuts you want to open and run respectively using the Command-NUMBER and Command-Option-NUMBER keyboard shortcuts. Learn more about this feature here.

Appearance

Use Bright Icons

If you used Shortcuts in iOS 12, you can bring back the brighter colors to your shortcuts by enabling this setting.

Reduce Shortcut Height

By default, LaunchCuts displays up to two line of a shortcut’s name. Enabling this setting reduces the display to one line. This allows you to fit more shortcuts in the grid view.

Reduce Shortcut Height

Show Update Button in Tab Bar

By default, the Update Shortcuts button is prominently featured in the Tab Bar at the bottom of the screen. It was designed that way to teach the user that they should sync shortcut references from the Shortcuts app to LaunchCuts on a regular basis.

If you want to simplify the user interface, disabling this preference will move the Update Shortcuts button to the Navigation Bar in the Shortcuts View.

Change App Icon

You can change the app icon for LaunchCuts. Future releases of LaunchCuts will bring additional icons. If you are interested in contributing an icon for LaunchCuts, please contact me on Twitter at @LaunchCuts.

Custom App Icons

Running Shortcuts

Reopen LaunchCuts After Running

Whenever you run a shortcut from LaunchCuts, the Shortcuts app must open. To prevent having to tap back to LaunchCuts, enable this feature to have LaunchCuts reopen after running a shortcut.

Note: If the shortcut being run is either cancelled by the user or experiences an error, the iOS home screen will be displayed instead of LaunchCuts. Here’s to hoping that Shortcuts for iOS 14 has better error handling.

Don’t Reopen for These Shortcuts

Select shortcuts that should not reopen after running from LaunchCuts. This is useful for shortcuts that have ending actions like Open App. In this scenario, you don’t want LaunchCuts to open after the final action.

Note: This setting is ignored if you choose Run and Return from a shortcut’s long press context menu.

Tags

Tags in LaunchCuts come in two forms:

  1. The name of a shortcut
  2. LaunchCuts Tags in a shortcut

This setting disables option 1 lookup for smart folders based on tags.

Shortcuts

Helper shortcuts for use with LaunchCuts.

Info and More

This section contains various ways to get more information about LaunchCuts:

Advanced

This section contains advanced settings.

Disable Shortcut Sync

Shortcuts allows you to have a different set of shortcuts across your iOS devices by giving you the option to disable iCloud Sync in Settings / Shortcuts. If you are doing this, you will want to check Disable Shortcut Sync.

Your folders will remain synced between devices. This only affects the shortcuts displayed in LaunchCuts. Be sure to run the Update Shortcuts command to get an accurate listing of your shortcuts if you change this preference.

Use Slower Sync Method

This forces LaunchCuts to use the old, slower method of syncing shortcuts using LaunchCuts Helper. This option is only to be used when there are problems with beta releases of iOS, such as iOS 13.4 Beta 1, that have broken the fast sync system of LaunchCuts.

Reset

This section allows you to reset LaunchCuts.

Reset Settings

Reset Settings

Resets LaunchCuts’ settings and redisplays the setup screen. This will revert all preferences to their default settings.

Settings that are synced across your iOS devices will be removed, including the following:

Resetting LaunchCuts does not delete the references to shortcuts in LaunchCuts, so you will not have to perform a sync using LaunchCuts Helper. None of your folders will be affected.

Erase All Content and Settings

Resets LaunchCuts’ settings and erases all LaunchCuts information, including your folders and shortcut references. You will need to recreate your folders, along with performing a sync using LaunchCuts Helper in order to see shortcuts in LaunchCuts again.

This operation cannot be undone. This does not affect any of your shortcuts on your iOS device, only their references in LaunchCuts.

Clear Shortcut References

Deletes the LaunchCuts shortcuts database. After doing this, you will need to perform a Quick or Full Update in order to see your shortcuts in LaunchCuts.

NOTE: This does not affect any of your shortcuts on your iOS device, only their references in LaunchCuts.

Create Sample Folders

Creates the same sample folders that were given as an option during initial setup of LaunchCuts.

Developer

This section covers tips for making shortcuts that work well with LaunchCuts.

Custom Actions

LaunchCuts has several custom actions that you can use in your own shortcuts:

Analyze Shortcuts

Given the list and names of your shortcuts, this action looks for 3rd-Party Tools or specific actions inside your shortcuts.

Analyze Shortcuts

Examples

Shortcut Action List

To get a list of action identifiers to use in the Actions parameter, you can use this shortcut, Shortcut Action List. Choose a shortcut from your library, and Shortcut Action List will display a list of every action in the selected shortcut.

Filter Shortcuts

This action can filter shortcuts based on the same criteria used by the LaunchCuts application. You can optionally create a new folder or replace an existing one in LaunchCuts.

Filter Shortcuts action

NOTE: The results returned by the Filter Shortcuts and Analyze Shortcuts actions are the names of your shortcuts, not the shortcuts themselves. This is because of a current limitation/bug in Shortcuts and iOS when sending data to external applications.

Get Folders

This action retrieved your list of folders in LaunchCuts. By default, it returns the following information in a list of Folder Detail objects.

By default, shortcuts are not appended to the Folder Detail object unless you enable the Include Shortcuts setting in the action. This is done for performance reasons.

NOTE: Folders that have the Show Unfiled Shortcuts Only flag set will never have their shortcuts returned. This is due to performance reasons.

Get Folder

Given a UUID for a folder, return the Folder Detail object, whose fields are listed above. By default, the list of shortcuts for a folder are returned to you.

NOTE: Folders that have the Show Unfiled Shortcuts Only flag set will never have their shortcuts returned. This is due to performance reasons.

Open Folder

Given a UUID, open LaunchCuts and focus on the folder.

Update Shortcuts

Updates the list of Shortcuts in LaunchCuts. Supply the action with the results of the Get My Shortcuts action. Under the Show More section, provide LaunchCuts will the Get My Shortcuts result in the Names section. This will ensure that the shortcut names are properly imported into LaunchCuts.

NOTE: Under Show More, there is a toggle for Update All. Leave this checked if you are supplying the result of Get My Shortcuts. If you are updating a subset of your shortcut collection, uncheck the Update All toggle.

Launch Shortcut

Run a shortcut with parameters using LaunchCuts. This action can be used with Siri to allow you to pass in text input parameters to a shortcut using your voice.

Exiting Shortcuts Properly

If users have the Return to LaunchCuts preference enabled, LaunchCuts will try to return to itself after running a shortcut. It does so by using x-callback-url. If your shortcut does not exit properly or if the user taps Cancel from a Choose From List or Choose From Menu action, the user will be thrown back to the iOS Home screen.

To prevent this from happening, it is recommended that you add a Quit, Exit, or Close option at the bottom of your menus. Attach an Exit Shortcut action to this menu item. Tapping this menu option will exit your shortcut properly and return the user back to LaunchCuts.

NOTE: If you do not want LaunchCuts to open after running, instruct your users to add your shortcut to the list of excluded shortcuts in LaunchCuts’ Settings.

Support

For technical support not covered below, go to the LaunchCuts Settings screen and tap Send Feedback.

Older Documentation

Documentation for previous versions of LaunchCuts is available here:

Troubleshooting and Known Issues

Here is a list of troubleshooting tips and known issues with LaunchCuts:

Version History

Future Roadmap

LaunchCuts is already very powerful, but there are plans to add even more functionality to the app. Here’s a sneak peek at what’s coming in a future release of LaunchCuts:

Have a feature request? Send feedback from the Feedback section within Settings in LaunchCuts. We can’t guarantee that your feature request will be added, but we will consider it.