OmniFocus, OmniOutliner, and more now support Omni Automation via Shortcuts

Omni Automation With Shortcuts (Image credit: The Omni Group)

What you need to know

The Omni Group has updated its iPhone and iPad apps to add Shortcuts support to Omni Automation.
Now, Omni Automation scripts can be used within Shortcuts for the first time.

The OmniGroup has released updates for its iPhone and iPad apps that adds support for using Omni Automation via Shortcuts. The updates mean that people can now run more advanced automations using Apple's built-in shortcuts support.

The updates to OmniFocus, OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, and OmniPlan are all available for download from the App Store now and The Omni Group has published a blog post that goes into more detail — including offering examples of what the new automation capabilities can do. You can also download example shortcuts to try on your own devices, too.

For anyone who uses any of our apps on an iPhone or an iPad, we're starting out the year with updates across the board. With these updates, Omni Automation in Shortcuts is available across all of our apps and on all platforms.Specifically, this means that within Shortcuts, you can use the new Omni Automation Script and Omni Automation Plug-In actions to run scripts and actions—on any platform!

The Omni Group describes Omni Automation as a collection of "comprehensive user-controlled automation tools" that can be used across all of its apps.

"Omni Automation" is the name of the comprehensive user-controlled automation tools included with the productivity suite of applications from The Omni Group: OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, OmniPlan, and OmniFocus.Using the Core JavaScript language, Omni Automation "scripts" offer the same syntax and functionality across all Apple platforms (iOS, iPadOS, and macOS). For example, a JavaScript script written to automate an OmniFocus process will execute the same regardless of which Apple device is hosting the application.

Now, all of that is tied into Shortcuts on iPhone and iPad for the first time. Those interested in learning more about what they can do with Omni Automation can check out the tool's website. Anyone looking to find examples of what the new Shortcuts integration is capable of can do that over there as well.

All of The Omni Group's apps can be downloaded from the App Store now.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.