Say it. Your hands stay where they are.
Your hands are in the sink, on a bike or around a coffee. Ten shortcuts move a run on, catch a thought, put a step off and write a new routine. Say nine of them to Siri, press the tenth, and five of them work on the watch too.
Nine things to say, one to press.
Start with “Routine Run” or end with “in Routine Run”. Either order works. Where a phrase has a blank, say the name of your routine.
Start and move on
“Routine Run me”
The brand phrase, and it costs nothing to say. Siri asks which routine you mean.
“Routine Run me through Morning”
Starts Morning and opens the run on its first step. Works with any routine name.
“Next step in Routine Run”
Moves the run you are in on and reads you the next step. Nothing to unlock, nothing to open.
“Put this step off in Routine Run”
Not now, by voice. The step goes further down the run and comes back. Nothing is lost.
Catch it before it goes
“Write it down in Routine Run”
Keeps what you say as a note against the step you are on. Sort it out later: make it a step, send it to another routine, or leave it with today.
“Add to To read in Routine Run”
Feeds a list that stays open. Inbox, To read and To watch ship that way, and take whatever you say.
“Write a routine in Routine Run”
Siri asks what it is for, and the phone writes the steps. You read the draft in the app before you rely on it. Needs an iPhone with Apple Intelligence.
Ask, then stop
“What’s coming in Routine Run”
Says what is going, what is coming next and what you put off until later, and shows the four nearest on a card.
“Routine Run in hand”
The panel: what is going, what is coming back and what to start, with the buttons on it. Also “Show me Routine Run”.
“Stop my routine in Routine Run”
Ends the run. It goes to the archive with everything it collected, and Reopen brings it back.
Every phrase
| Shortcut | On the phone | On the watch |
|---|---|---|
| Start Routine | “Routine Run me” “Routine Run me through X” “Start a routine in Routine Run” “Run X in Routine Run” “Routine Run start X” | “Routine Run me through X” “Start X in Routine Run” |
| Next Step | “Next step in Routine Run” “Routine Run next step” | “Next step in Routine Run” |
| Put the Step Off | “Put this step off in Routine Run” “Routine Run not this step” “Skip this for now in Routine Run” | – |
| Write It Down | “Write it down in Routine Run” “Note this in Routine Run” “Routine Run write this down” “Take a note in Routine Run” | “Note this in Routine Run” |
| Add a Step | “Add to X in Routine Run” “Routine Run add to X” “Add a step in Routine Run” | – |
| Write a Routine | “Write a routine in Routine Run” “Routine Run write me a routine” “Make a routine in Routine Run” | – |
| What’s Coming | “What’s coming in Routine Run” “Routine Run what’s coming” “What have I got in Routine Run” | – |
| In Hand | “Routine Run in hand” “What’s in hand in Routine Run” “Show me Routine Run” | – |
| Stop | “Stop my routine in Routine Run” “Routine Run stop my routine” | – |
| Do the One Thing | “Do the one thing in Routine Run” “Routine Run do the one thing” “Routine Run one thing” | “Routine Run one thing” |
The watch has one more, that the phone does not: “Routine Run current step”. Say X as the name of your routine. On the phone Siri forgives near misses; on the watch say it exactly as written. More than fifty other actions have no phrase and are in the Shortcuts app under Routine Run.
The same morning, with the phone in your pocket.
None of this needs the screen. Each line is something said out loud.
- 1“Routine Run me through Morning.”
You are brushing your teeth. The run starts, and the first step is on the Lock Screen and on your wrist.
- 2“Next step in Routine Run.”
Hands wet, so no tapping. Siri moves on and reads you what is next: the 4 minute stretch, with its timer running.
- 3“Write it down in Routine Run.”
You remember the dentist. “Call the dentist about Thursday.” It is kept against the step you are on, and it is waiting in the pile when the run ends.
- 4“Put this step off in Routine Run.”
The kettle is not done and the next step needs it. The step goes further down, the run carries on, and it comes back before the end.
- 5“What’s coming in Routine Run.”
On the way out of the door. Siri says what is next today, and what you put off.
- 6“Add to To read in Routine Run.”
On the train, a colleague mentions a talk. Say the title. It joins the list that stays open, with no band counting it against you.
An app you can only tap is an app only you can use.
Every phrase above is one App Intent: a named action, with typed inputs, that the system can read. It is the one part of the app that Siri, Shortcuts, Spotlight, the Action button, the Lock Screen and the watch all call. We bet on it early, and App Intents has the long version.
One definition, every surface
Next step is written once. The same action is a Siri phrase, a button on the Lock Screen card, a button in the Dynamic Island, a key on the watch and an action in Shortcuts. Fix it once, and it is fixed in all of them.
Assistants need verbs, not screens
A model cannot press a button it cannot see. An app that declares what it can do, in names and types, can be driven by your voice, by a shortcut or by an assistant. An app that only draws a screen can be driven by your thumb.
Phrases change, actions stay
Siri’s phrases are matched by the system, and Apple lets an app have ten. The actions underneath do not depend on them. We have more than fifty, and every one is in Shortcuts by name, so a phrase you cannot say is still a block you can use.
It happens on the phone
An intent runs inside the app, on your device. There is no account and no server of ours in the path, so there is nothing for what you said to be sent to. The routine stays where it is.
Safe because it can be undone
Siri changes things at once, because nobody is looking at a page. So every change keeps the earlier version, and Undo Change to a Routine puts it back. Nothing is asked for a face: on a locked phone at 2am, a prompt is the feature deleted.
It meets the method
The method says the step belongs where you already are, and shows only the one in hand. Your voice is the one place that is always there. An intent is how the step gets there without a new screen to learn.
Where this is going
Siri on iOS 27 can act on what is on your screen, and use what it knows about you. It calls an app’s actions by itself when they fit a set of shapes Apple defines, such as messages or photos. A routine does not fit one of them yet, so today Siri runs the action you name rather than choosing it.
That is the direction, and we built so we are ready when the shapes catch up. Every action here has a name, a typed input and a plain description, the same ones a model reads. When Siri can pick one for a routine by itself, a phrase will not need to be a phrase at all.
The honest list.
Siri runs an action you name. Say “rename my Morning routine” and it does not pick the action on its own. Use one of the phrases above, or run the action by name from the Shortcuts app: Rename a Routine, Add a Step, Move a Step and the rest.
Every phrase above, the actions and Shortcuts work. So do the buttons on the Lock Screen and the watch. A routine started by another app’s notification, and a step that runs the moment its alert arrives, need iOS 27.
Ask Siri on a routine or a run, and “this” on its page, hand Siri the routine as text: its steps, notes and where it stands. They need an iPhone 15 Pro or newer, and are not available in the EU or China. They answer. They do not change the routine; for that, use Describe changes in the app.
“Write a routine” uses the phone’s own model, so it needs Apple Intelligence. A bigger model can write or change one through the Ask shortcut; who writes it says which and why.
Siri on the watch matches a phrase as it is written, with no rewording. Say “Next step in Routine Run” exactly.
Try one phrase.
Start any routine, then say “Next step in Routine Run” with the phone in your pocket.
Every action, with what it does, is in Siri and Shortcuts. The phrases and the Action button are set up in Action button. What Siri sees when you ask about a routine is on Privacy.