How Personal Automation Can Help You Automatically Lock Your iPhone.

About Personal Automation

Personal automation allows you to perform specific actions automatically based on various triggers, such as the time of day, location arrival, or opening of an app. Unlike regular shortcuts that require manual activation from the Shortcuts app, widget or share sheet, personal automation actions are triggered by specific events, travel, communication, or settings to run.

Story

One of my colleagues went through an unfortunate incident where he lost his newly purchased iPhone. It was stolen from him, but thankfully it was locked. However, this incident raises an important issue — when we use our phones in crowded public places or leave them behind in a cafe, there is a risk of theft or loss. If our phones are not locked, it can result in severe privacy and security concerns.

Most of us use note-taking apps, whether pre-installed or third-party, to store crucial information like passwords. However, if our phones are left unlocked or stolen, these apps can be easily accessed by anyone, posing a severe threat to our privacy and security.

How to lock our phones when someone tries to access our apps? Personal Automation is the answer.

To accomplish this, we must configure a Personal Automation that incorporates a locking trigger and specify when this automation should be activated.

Configuring the Lock Trigger

1. Launch the Timer application.
2. Adjust the timer to “1 second” duration.
3. Select “Stop Playing” as the default “When Timer Ends” option.

Timer Setup

Configuring a Personal Automation

Creating Automation

1. Launch the Shortcuts app and go to the “Automation” section.
2. Tap on “Create Personal Automation.”
3. Select the “App” option.

Personal Automation Setup — Create

Defining Event

1. Ensure the “Is Opened” option is selected (the default option).
2. Tap on “Choose” and select the “Notes” app from the list of apps (we can select multiple apps simultaneously).
3. Tap on “Done” to save the settings.
4. Select “Next” to proceed to the next step.

Personal Automation Setup — Event

Defining Action — Part 1

1. Tap on “Add Action.”
2. Search for the “Start Timer” action and select it.
3. By default, the timer is set to 5 minutes. Change this to 1 second.
4. Tap on “Next” to move to the next step.

Personal Automation Setup — Action

Defining Action — Part 2

1. Disable the “Ask Before Running” option that is enabled by default.
2. Choose “Don’t Ask” from the resulting pop-up message.
3. Enable the “Notify When Run” option that appears after disabling “Ask Before Running.”
4. Click on “Done” to confirm the changes.

Personal Automation Setup — Action

We’re done with the setup :)

After completing the setup, the Automation page will display the newly created automation.

Automation Details

Testing the Automation

1. Close all running applications (if any) — this step is optional.
2. Launch the “Notes” app.
3. Observe that the screen locks within one second.

Please note that you need to unlock your phone before you can start using the app.

Disabling/Deleting Automation

1. Swipe left on the automation that was created.
2. The “Delete” option will be displayed.
3. Tap on the “Delete” option to remove the automation.

Delete Automation

Thank You for Your Time :)

Seyed Sahil