Apple, in WWDC 2018, re-launched the “Workflow” app as “Shortcuts” with iOS 12 to store and run the Siri shortcuts, the feature that runs a series of tasks with just a voice command. However, with the “Shortcuts” app, users could also make their own shortcuts to ease their smartphone usage. So now, a user has created a Siri shortcut that starts recording a video and sends the user-location to a specific contact, whenever they are stopped by the police.
The shortcut is created by a Twitter user, Robert Petersen. This comes at a very crucial time for the US citizens as mass protests against the police forces continue to rise around the country. According to the creator of the shortcut, this could be the “civilian equivalent” of the body cams that the police officials have.
Now, by default, the phrase is set to “Hey Siri, I am getting pulled over”. So, as soon as you utter these words together, your iPhone’s “Do not disturb” mode will be turned on, the volume and the brightness levels will decrease and your device will send your location to a specified (by you) contact informing them that you have been pulled over by the police.
Once you stop the recording, your volume and brightness will come back to normal, “Do not Disturb” mode will be turned off and the device will send a copy of the video to the specified contact. Then it will give you the option to save the video in the iCloud Drive or any other cloud storage platform.
If you wish, you can also change the trigger-phrase to something which is convenient for you. For this, you have to use the “Shortcuts” app to edit the shortcut.
So, it is a pretty nifty shortcut, especially for US citizens who are protesting against police brutality after the tragic death of Minneapolis resident, George Floyd. However, as it a Siri shortcut, it is only available for Apple devices, which is pretty sad for Android users.
