I have a Siri Shortcut that sends an email to my wife about placing a weekly order for her work. I have a reminder at 9am on Tuesdays to run this shortcut. When I get the reminder, I manually run the shortcut. (I usually tell Siri to run the shortcut, but the fact remains I have to do some sort of manual intervention for it to work).
Is there anyway to get the Reminders app to run the shortcut automatically? I actually don’t care whether or not the Reminder app is used. I don’t even care if it’s a Siri Shortcut. I just want a way to send out this email on a schedule, so my wife doesn’t blame me when she doesn’t get it.
I could write a 10,000 word article on how ridiculous it is that Shortcuts and Home.app automation apps aren’t themselves easily automated, and I could describe some Rube Goldberg’s using audio and Siri, but instead I will just remind you that Calendar.app on Mac can send an email Alert on a schedule; no need for Reminders or Siri or Shortcuts.
If you require further details, I’m happy to expound.
I know about email notifications for events on the Mac (and why it’s not in iOS, I don’t know).
The problem is I have to mail my wife’s email account at work which means I have to get on her Mac to maintain it and set it up.
I use Siri automations for a variety of stuff. But it only works if I instigate the action. It’d be nice if I could run an automation based up events, datetime, etc.
You can have Calendar launch an AppleScript, and have the script send an email.
For the Calendar Alert, choose Custom, then choose Open File, then select the AppleScript, saved as an application.
Many years ago, I wrote a birthday email message AppleScript. I put an alert for early morning of each of my family members’ birthdays. The email says, “Happy Birthday, [Name]!, Hi, I’m Jeff’s computer. Jeff probably didn’t remember your birthday, but I did.“
In recent years, the permissions have gotten more complicated, since the script needs to access Contacts and Mail. And I haven’t had time to install Mojave yet. But a message to your wife would be a lot simpler since you already know the address.
I guess I’m kind of confused about from which machine the email is being sent. As I understand it, you are sending an automated email from your iOS device, and you don’t mention if there’s any custom content each week. So I don’t understand where the maintenance comes in; and I don’t understand why it would otherwise have to be from your wife’s Mac at work.
Why can’t you just use your Mac at home to send this email using Calendar.app or Reminders.app on Mac to set up the email alert (both the event and the reminder would be visible on iOS once created)?
If it truly is the case of the only option being that this email is sent from your personal iOS device, this could be accomplished using URL schemes, as opposed to Shortcuts. You would probably have to combine it with a better app like Due.app for iOS that can handle URL schemes.
Another option might be to use IFTTT, have you considered this route?
OK so both Spark.app and airmail.app for iOS can each do scheduled emails; but I don’t see if there is a repeat option on the surface. However, airmail fully supports URL schemes and can integrate with other URL scheme apps like Due and Fantastical, etc.
This is the route I would go if iOS is the only choice.
David Weintraub wrote: “I have a Siri Shortcut that sends an email to my wife about placing a weekly order for her work.”
Is there some reason she can’t simply have a reminder or calendar notification directly on her work computer? Or if she has just about any smartphone, or even a ‘feature’ phone, it could happen there.
For Apple Mail, there are plugins that will send mail on a schedule. I’ve never used one so can’t recommend anything specifically.