I have an iPhone XS. If I create a medium Shortcuts widget, I can get 4 shortcuts in a space that would normally hold eight app icons.
Instead, I could save eight shortcuts to the same area of my Home Screen.
I’m puzzled why I’d want to use a Shortcuts widget. Presumably I’m missing something?
The only usage I see is if you want to stack the shortcuts under another widget. I do hope they get a better 4x2 widget for shortcuts.
The other benefit of the widget is the the shortcuts launch directly from the widget whereas when they open from an icon on the desktop, they tend to open the shortcuts app first.
That is the only advantage. They launch directly. If you have a Shortcut on the Home Screen it will first goto the Shortcut app before running. So Shortcut widgets are just a button. A fast button. But a button that takes up more room than an icon on the Home Screen. So you have to make the age old decision between speed or space.
Because if I use icons, it’s harder to reorganize groups on my home screen. Also, then I feel pressured to fill my home screen with shortcuts. Also, I can stack shortcuts underneath widgets I use like once a day. I can see that widget in the morning and flip it to Shortcuts for the rest of the day.
I’m actually okay with it. I’m using a Choose from menu action to wrangle groups of shortcuts by context. The launch experience is also much nicer.
Got it. Thanks all. I clearly wasn’t thinking of stacking widgets. Will have to try that. I still wish there was a more compact view for shortcuts widgets. Maybe that’s something one of the -cuts apps can handle.
Agreed! I really want to have 8 icons in that space which launch without launching the Shortcuts app.