Add housework to your list with an iPhone shortcut

What you need

• An iPhone with Apple's Shortcuts app.
• A free ChoreMen account — an email address and a password. The shortcut adds to your list, so it needs one to add to. Nothing is charged for.
• A key, made on your list after you sign in. It is shown once, it can do nothing but add a chore, and making a new one stops the old one working.

What you can say

The chore, then how often, in one sentence. These are read exactly like this:

How often it understands: “every week”, “every 3 days”, “every three months”, “every other day”, “every couple of days”, “once a year”, “daily”, “weekly”, “fortnightly”, “monthly”, “quarterly”, “yearly”. “Add”, “remind me to” and “I need to” at the start are dropped. Anything else about when — “twice a week”, “on Friday” — stays in the title as a one-off due today, to re-time on the list, rather than being guessed at.

The setup

1. Make a key on your list

   Sign in or make a free account, then under “Add a chore” open “Say a chore from your phone, in one tap” and press Make a key. It shows a URL and a value starting Bearer, each with a copy button. The button below takes you straight there; nothing is made until you press it.

   Set up my free chore shortcut

2. Build the shortcut in the Shortcuts app

   New shortcut, then these actions, in this order:

   1. Dictate TextNew shortcut, this action first. The iPhone's own dictation does the listening and hands on the words; choremen is sent those words and never any audio.
   2. Get Contents of URLMethod POST, and the URL from your key. Under Headers add one header named Authorization, its value the Bearer line from your key. Under Request Body choose JSON and add one text field named text, set to the Dictated Text.
   3. Get Dictionary ValueValue for key notice, in the Contents of URL. Three words saying whether it landed: "Added to choremen", or "Not added to choremen" and then why.
   4. Get Dictionary ValueAgain, value for key spoken — in the Contents of URL, not in the value you just got. That is the one line saying what was added.
   5. Show NotificationTitle the notice from the first lookup, Body the spoken line from the second. This is the answer you get when the shortcut runs with nothing on screen: a banner that has already said added or not added before you have read the rest of it.
   6. Speak TextOptional, and worth it with wet hands: the spoken line read out loud, so you do not have to look at the banner either.

3. Put it somewhere one-handed

   • Home Screen. In the Shortcuts app, open the shortcut, tap the share button and choose Add to Home Screen.
   • Back Tap. Where your iPhone offers it: Settings, Accessibility, Touch, Back Tap — pick Double Tap or Triple Tap, then the shortcut.
   • Action button. Only on an iPhone that has one: Settings, Action Button, swipe to Shortcut and choose it.

   Run from any of these it has no window of its own, which is what the notification is for. No banner? Check Shortcuts is allowed to send notifications under Settings, Notifications.

4. Run it once

   Tap it and say something simple: “bins out every week”. Then read the banner. These are examples of what it says — yours says what actually happened:

   Example — it worked:

   Added to choremen

   Added Bins out, weekly.

   Example — the key was replaced or revoked:

   Not added to choremen

   That key is not one of mine any more. Make a new one on the list page.

   Example — the request body is not set up as above, or nothing was dictated:

   Not added to choremen

   Send JSON with a text field, up to 300 characters.

   Example — it heard how often, but not the chore:

   Not added to choremen

   I caught how often, but not what the chore was.

5. Check it on your list

   Open your list. The chore is there, due today, like one you typed: rename it, re-time it or remove it. “I have run it — check my list” in the setup names what has arrived since you opened it.

The key

A shortcut cannot sign in, so it carries a key instead. Treat it like a password: anyone holding it can add chores to your list — and do nothing else. It cannot read the list, post anything or change your account.

• One per account, and it is only ever made when you press the button. Making a new one stops every shortcut using the old one.
• It is shown once and kept only as a fingerprint, so it cannot be shown again. Lost it? Make another.
• Phone gone missing? Revoke it on your list.
• Do not paste it into a message, a screenshot or a shared shortcut. To recommend this, send this page.

Who hears what

ChoreMen receives the sentence as text and stores the chore it makes. No audio is sent to ChoreMen, and there is nowhere here that could keep any. The listening is the iPhone's own dictation, and how Apple handles that — on the phone or on its servers — depends on your phone and its settings, between you and Apple.

If it does not work, or you would rather not dictate

• “That key is not one of mine any more” — the key was replaced or revoked. Make a new one and paste it in.
• “Send JSON with a text field” — the Request Body is not JSON with a field named text, or nothing was dictated.
• No banner at all — run the shortcut inside the Shortcuts app to see the reply, and check its notifications are on.
• No shortcut, or no dictation: the list takes the same sentence typed, and in a browser that does speech recognition it has a “Say it” button too. Which browsers do is up to them.