iOS Command line actions

January 8, 2024

I personally use Spotlight on iOS as an app launcher most of the time – its a really quick way to navigate to apps instead of looking for it somewhere on my screen. But instead of launching apps to initiate actions, what if we could directly input those actions into the command line? For example, instead of launching the 'Uber' app for a ride, what if we could directly just ask to book it through the command line, wouldn't that be so much easier? Or, if I wanted to play some music, why can't I just ask Spotlight to play something?

While this is still a very simple text-based interface, the idea of a 'launcher/command line' to initiate any action with (hopefully) any sort of input seems extremely compelling.

Spotlight

Ask spotlight to book an Uber

Spotlight

Ask spotlight to play a song

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HUMAN INTERFACE

Web interface

Berkeleytime

GradTrak

Typography

Marqeta

SSO Forms

Bulk-Add /Users

PropertyGuru

Notifications

Web