How to Use Reminders and Calendar in iOS 12 Shortcuts

Integrating Reminders and Calendar events into iOS 12 Shortcuts allows you to automate schedule tracking, create dynamic tasks, and build unified daily briefings. By utilizing the native action blocks within Apple's Shortcuts app, you can pull existing schedule data, generate new entries conditionally, and link both services together without manual input.

Accessing Calendar and Reminder Actions

To begin creating a shortcut with these integrations:

  1. Open the Shortcuts app on your device running iOS 12.
  2. Tap Create Shortcut (or the + icon in the upper-right corner).
  3. Tap the Search field at the bottom of the screen to open the action library.
  4. Scroll to or search for the Calendar and Reminders categories to view the available building blocks.

Adding and Managing Calendar Events

iOS 12 provides dedicated actions to read and write to your system calendar:

  • Add New Event: Inserts a new calendar entry. You can configure the title, start time, end time, location, and the specific calendar to which the event should belong. Variables from previous actions (such as input text or calculated dates) can populate these fields.
  • Get Upcoming Events: Retrieves a specified number of events occurring over a set timeframe (e.g., the next 24 hours).
  • Find Calendar Events: Allows you to query events matching specific criteria, such as title, notes, location, or start/end dates.

Adding and Managing Reminders

Reminders can be queried or created using actions dedicated to task management:

  • Add New Reminder: Creates a new task. You can assign the title, specify the target Reminders list, set a due date, and configure priority or alert triggers.
  • Get Upcoming Reminders: Fetches incomplete reminders due within a given timeframe.
  • Find Reminders: Filters your existing lists by parameters such as list name, completion status, due date, or priority.

Combining Both Services in a Single Shortcut

You can pass data between both apps to create comprehensive automation routines:

  1. Daily Overview: Add Get Upcoming Events set to retrieve events for today, followed by Get Upcoming Reminders set to retrieve incomplete tasks. Add a Text action referencing both outputs, and finalize with Show Result or Speak Text to deliver a morning summary.
  2. Event-to-Task Conversion: Use Find Calendar Events to identify specific meetings, follow with a Repeat with Each loop, and place an Add New Reminder action inside the loop to automatically generate preparation tasks for each scheduled event.

Setting Permissions

For these integrations to function, the Shortcuts app must have system-level permissions to access your personal data:

  1. Open the Settings app on iOS 12.
  2. Scroll down and select Shortcuts.
  3. Under the permissions section, ensure toggle switches for both Calendars and Reminders are set to allowed.