The back of the case. A sticker on the door frame. The one button Apple lets you reprogram. Every one of them can send a notification — or ask someone a question and wait for the answer.
Bind these to a physical thing — the back of the phone, a button, a sticker on the door. No screen, no app.
Double-tap the back of your phone. Your people get an urgent push with where you are.
No app to open, no screen to unlock, no button to find. You just tap the back of your phone twice.
Stick an NFC tag by the door. Tap it on the way in. Everyone who cares knows.
NFC tags cost about 30 cents. Put one on the door frame, one in the car, one on the fridge.
Type it, send it. Bound to the Action Button so it's one press from anywhere.
The Action Button is the only physical button Apple let you reprogram. Most people set it to the torch.
"Hey Siri, on my way." That's the whole interaction.
Rename the shortcut and you rename the Siri phrase. "Hey Siri, I'm running late" works just as well.
The shortcut stops, a person answers on their lock screen, and it carries on holding the answer. This is the part nobody else does.
Ask a real human a real question. They type back from the lock screen. You get the words.
This is the one to show people. Watching a typed reply appear inside a running shortcut lands in a way a screenshot never does.
Your deploy script stops and asks a person. They tap Approve on the lock screen. It continues.
The same three HTTP calls work from bash, n8n, or an AI agent. Shortcuts is just the easiest place to see it.
A tag by the door. A visitor taps it. You get Approve / Reject wherever you are.
A doorbell that reaches your pocket instead of your hallway, for the price of a sticker.
Kid taps the tag when the chore's done. You get to be the judge, from the sofa.
Works unreasonably well. The tap is the fun part; the verification is the point.
Attach these to an automation and forget they exist. The phone notices, the push goes.
Below 10%, your other devices find out before you go dark.
The message writes itself. You never touch the phone.
Turn on a Focus, and the people who'd have messaged you find out why you went quiet.
Do Not Disturb tells your phone. This tells your team.
Geofence the office. Walk out. The push has already gone.
Turn off "Ask Before Running" or it'll sit there waiting for a tap, which rather defeats it.
CarPlay disconnects, and where you left the car is already in the thread.
Solves finding your car in an airport garage, permanently, for free.
A small recurring question. The kind of habit that only survives if it costs nothing.
9am. A question on the lock screen. Type one line. Done, without opening anything.
The whole standup, answered from the lock screen, before you've picked the phone up properly.
6pm. One question. The answer becomes a log you didn't have to keep.
Point the answer at a Note or an Airtable and you've got a work journal that maintains itself.
Sunday evening. The nudge arrives whether you feel like it or not.
The least clever shortcut here and probably the one you'll actually keep.
Downloading is not installing. The file lands in
Files › Downloads on iPhone or iPad, and in Downloads
on a Mac. Nothing appears in the Shortcuts app until you open it there — tap it, or
double-click it in Finder. Shortcuts then asks for your topic; scroll to the bottom of that
sheet and tap Set Up Shortcut. Dismissing that sheet adds nothing.
The download is the shortcut, not the trigger. Back Tap, NFC tags and automations are bindings you make once in Settings or the Shortcuts app — they can't travel inside a file. Each card tells you the one place to go.
Templates marked two-way need an account API key.
You'll be asked for it on import. They work on every plan — Free includes 20
approvals a month (see pricing). The plain push ones
need no credential at all on a public topic.
Get the iotPush app
