Recently switched to the light side. After a dozen years, I finally had enough with Android and Google’s lack of will for innovation.
Ten years ago, I was flying out of Chicago and couldn’t help but overhear the conversation next to me; the words that I should have taken to heart: Apple makes their own hardware, so they don’t need to worry about a thousand smartphones made by 3rd parties.
One inexpensive but frustrating bout with Google Fi as my phone provider later, here I am. But there is one thing that’s missing from iOS: the ability to toggle your location setting easily. Android users can do that from the drawer in a snap. Apple doesn’t want you to touch it, and forces you to acknowledge a warning each time you toggle the option. (Update: You can ignore the warning and the setting will remain off at my latest check.)
The other thing I prefer, that Android doesn’t provide built-in, is mono audio. Hear-through earbuds aren’t my solution and I want to catch every note when I listen to one side!
Luckily, iOS provides an easy way to toggle these options, and many others, using Shortcuts. You can create an oversized button on your secondary screen to have a quick toggle option. Apple auto-inserted suggestions at first, but I turned those off and the custom shortcut link has proven to be really efficient.
Shortcuts used to be intimidating to new users. The app has become much friendlier in short time.
To quickly and easily navigate to an iOS function, use this specific recipe generically for a given system URL. For this tutorial, open up the Shortcuts app, then click the + sign to create a new shortcut.
Next, choose “Web”. The select Safari > Open URLs.
You’ll see a new screen. Click “URL” in dimmed blue and enter the following text depending on which action you want to take.
Location toggle:
prefs:root=PRIVACY&path=LOCATIONMono toggle:
prefs:root=ACCESSIBILITY&path=AUDIO_VISUAL_TITLE#AXPAMonoSpecIDPretty straightforward — root is the top-level System Preferences item and path is the specifier.
Next, rename the shortcut to an easily identifiable name. Then long-click on your home screen, add a widget, and choose Shortcut from the long app list. It will be near the end. Select “Shortcut” and then add the specific one you just created.
Test, and enjoy!