iOS already lets one shortcut branch into a whole menu of actions, and Active Launcher leans hard into that idea. Instead of keeping a dozen single-purpose shortcuts scattered across your Home Screen, it bundles app launches, utility scripts, and a few odd extras behind one tap. Think of it as a control panel you build once and reach for whenever.

Inside the shortcut

Open it and you get a menu. Pick an entry, and the shortcut runs the matching action: open an app, calculate an ETA, start Apple Music, generate a throwaway email or password, measure something, or fire off another shortcut entirely. The author groups everything into a few buckets, mainly App Functions (anything that hands work off to an installed app) and Misc (the standalone scripting tools that don’t need a partner app). A small Extra section holds the novelty bits, like firing a burst of notifications. Most of the heavy lifting is plain Shortcuts logic wired to a single front door.

What you’ll need

The catch with an all-in-one menu is that each entry depends on whatever app it talks to. You don’t need every app below to run the shortcut, but a given menu item stays inert if its app is missing.

Files and iCloud Drive — for the entries that read, move, or save documents.
Apple Music, Maps, Weather, Calendar, Reminders, Contacts, Mail, Phone — the system apps behind playback, ETA, and other lookups.
ChatGPT, Toolbox Pro for Shortcuts, Pushcut — third-party helpers a few advanced actions call out to.
A long tail of optional apps (Safari, Microsoft Edge, Apple Books, Calculator, Camera, Clock, Home, Amazon Alexa, iTunes Store, MEGA, MEGA VPN, Morpho, Movie Tracker) that only matter if you use their specific menu entries.

How to install

Tap Add Shortcut on this page to open it in the Shortcuts app.
Scroll through the action list so you can see what each menu branch does.
Tap Add Shortcut to save it to your library.
Install the apps tied to the menu entries you actually plan to use.

First-run setup

There’s one quirk worth knowing before you tap Run. On every launch the shortcut asks where you got it from, and you have to type the answer in the exact casing it expects, or it treats the install as coming from somewhere else. Once you’ve answered, the main menu appears. Beyond that prompt there’s no account or key to configure; the menu is ready as soon as the dependent apps are present.

How to use it

Run Active Launcher from wherever you keep it and the menu pops up first. Choose a category or an action, and the shortcut carries out that one task, then stops. Because it’s a single menu rather than a fixed pipeline, you can wire it to a Home Screen icon, the Action Button, or Back Tap and reach any of its functions from that one trigger. If you lean on a handful of entries daily, that’s the appeal: one launch point instead of hunting through a folder of separate shortcuts.

FAQ

Do I really have to install all those apps?

No, and trying to would be overkill. The shortcut runs fine with a partial set; only the menu items pointing at a missing app fall flat. Install the ones behind the entries you’ll touch and ignore the rest.

Why does it keep asking where I downloaded it?

That’s a deliberate check the author built in. Answer with the exact wording and capitalization it wants and it’ll move on to the menu; a mismatch makes it assume the copy came from elsewhere.

Can I trigger it without opening the Shortcuts app?

Yes. Assign it to a Home Screen icon, the Action Button, or a Back Tap gesture, and the menu opens straight from that trigger without a detour through the app.