These one-step Apple Shortcuts are favorites that I use almost every day

Apple’s Shortcuts app lets you program complex shortcuts, including 25+ new actions available in iOS 26. But two of my favorite and most used shortcuts in the Apple app include just one step each.

#1: One-tap noise cancellation for AirPods Pro

My all-time favorite shortcut is designed to enable noise cancellation on AirPods Pro.

I use AirPods Pro 3, but the headset works with any model of AirPods that supports Active Noise Cancellation (ANC).

My ‘Noise Cancelling’ shortcut does one thing, quickly and efficiently: it turns on AirPods’ noise cancellation.

Whenever I want to turn on ANC, I swipe to open the Control Center, and click the ‘Noise Cancellation’ button that I set there using the ‘Run Shortcut’ control.

Pressing the tip of the AirPods to turn on ANC is a simple enough method, but I found that I would often do it by mistake when ANC was already active. So, I go into Transparency mode and have to press ANC again.

And the volume controls hidden behind the control center’s volume slider take more steps to access than I’d like.

With my custom shortcut, I don’t have to think about what mode I’m in, or skip a few steps. I just click the Control Center button, and if ANC isn’t already on, it will. If it was already running, nothing happens.

It might seem like a small thing, but if you’re constantly going in and out of transparency and noise cancellation modes, it’s great to have a one-tap option to interact with ANC.

You can install a shortcut here. You will need to replace my AirPods with yours in the shortcut action.

#2: Open app settings without hassle

When Apple redesigned the iPhone Settings app in iOS 18, it buried the Settings app after multiple taps and multiple scrolls.

Fortunately, last year Quinn Nelson shared a one-step shortcut that solves the problem.

With Nelson Shortcut, whenever you use an app and need to access its settings, you can do so easily through the Control Center.

Setup is very easy:

1. Install this one-step ‘app settings’ shortcut
2. Add a Control Center ‘Run Shortcut’ widget
3. Assign that control to your new ‘Application Settings’ shortcut

The basic premise of a shortcut is that 99% of the time, when you want to access an app’s settings, you’re already using that app.

So instead of leaving an app, opening Settings, scrolling down to find ‘Apps,’ and then scrolling down again to find an app and tapping it—you can just call up Control Center and tap the ‘App Settings’ shortcut. That’s all.

It may take a while to break old habits of manually launching the Settings app, but once you do, this shortcut will save you a few steps every time.

You can install a shortcut here.

What are some of your favorite shortcuts in an Apple app? Let us know in the comments.

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