I love automating stuff.
For whatever reason, saving one second of my time brings me joy.
I love messing around with the Shortcuts app. But Scriptable takes everything to next level.
Here's what you need to know.
What Is Scriptable?
It's an iOS and iPadOS app you can use to write scripts.
Using JavaScript, you can work with tons of integrations, including:
Files
Calendar
Reminders
Documents
Notifications
Alerts
and more
Here are some sample scripts from the App Store listing:
Ask Siri whether a web service is down
Create a widget that shows data from your weather station
Postpone the next event in your calendar by half an hour
Check what's currently on TV
Upload files to an image optimizer and store a URL of the optimized image
Receive a notification with the weather report every morning
Create todos with prefilled data in your favorite todo app using URL schemes
There's a ton of cool stuff you can build.
About Scriptable
The app is completely free. The only in-app purchases are tips.
People love Scriptable. With 4.7/5 stars from 2200+ ratings, people all over the world love the app.
It's also lightweight—just 21.6 MB. The UI is easy to use and relatively simple (for a coding app at least).
If You Know How To Code
Scriptable has well-organized docs, which you can find here.
You can also check out Scriptable for Dummies, which has a ton of easy-to-understand examples.
If You Don't Know How To Code
When I first saw Scriptable a few years ago, I was intimidated—I had no idea what was going on in the code.
But with ChatGPT you don't have to worry about that. Just ask it to code up whatever you want and you should be good to go.
Just be sure to test your script (I don't want your iPad to accidentally explode).
The Gallery
The Gallery has a ton of cool scripts you can check out.
You can check out:
A hyperlocal air quality report
A reminder to drink water
A database of movies you wanna watch
Transcripts of Apple's WWDC videos
and way more
An Example
I wrote my own script to see how easy it is to use Scriptable.
Here's a basic alert script I wrote in a minute:
Here's the result:
Add a bunch of these together, and you could get some pretty sick automations.
Final Thoughts
"Automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency"—Bill Gates
Thanks for reading!
Adi
Concepts is an "unlimited canvas" note-taking app I've used for years (if you don't believe me, check my post history). I use it to take notes, brainstorm article ideas, and come up with startup ideas.
It's one of the few apps I highly recommend for every iPad user out there. And I genuinely believe this (again, check my post history if you wanna verify this claim).
Concepts has been kind enough to offer a free 30-day trial. And no, you don't have to enter your credit card info.
Show Concepts some love ❤️—they're amazing sponsors.