Tap once, ask a question out loud or point your camera at something, and you get an answer back. That’s the pitch here: a shortcut that rebuilds the headline Apple Intelligence features on top of ChatGPT, so an iPhone that Apple never blessed with the official AI can still do most of the same tricks.
What this shortcut does
The shortcut bundles several AI tools into one menu running through your ChatGPT account. You get plain question-and-answer assistance, a “Siri 2.0” voice layer for faster spoken interactions, and Visual Intelligence that reads text, dates, and numbers out of images. There’s a Share Sheet hook so you can summarize, proofread, or translate content from inside other apps, plus an Image Playground for generating illustrations or realistic pictures. In the latest version, Siri 2.0 works as an autonomous agent: once you give it a request, it keeps going until the task is finished rather than stopping after one reply.
Adding it to your iPhone
- Install the free ChatGPT app and sign in. A free account is enough to start.
- Make sure Files is on your device, since the shortcut stores conversation data there.
- Tap Add Shortcut on this page, then scroll to the bottom of the preview and tap Add Shortcut to confirm.
- Run it once and approve the permission prompts when they appear.
First run
The first launch is mostly about granting access. ChatGPT will ask permission to run, and the shortcut needs Files access to save its conversation history and any memory notes. Siri 2.0 installs separately from the shortcut’s own menu, so if you want the voice agent, open that menu and pick the install option. If you have an OpenAI API key, there’s a setting to route everything through the API instead of the app, with a second option for choosing which model it calls.
Using it day-to-day
For quick answers, run the shortcut and type or speak your question. Responses come back with buttons to copy or share, and tapping a message, code block, or math formula brings up an action panel. Visual Intelligence is handy when you’ve got a flyer, receipt, or screenshot and want the details pulled out without typing them. Through the Share Sheet, highlight text in Safari or Mail, send it to the shortcut, and ask for a summary or translation. Its handiest home is Control Center or the Home Screen, both of which you can set up through the shortcut’s options menu.
Worth knowing
Because everything runs on ChatGPT rather than on-device models, you need a network connection, and answer quality tracks whatever model your account has access to. The author has tested it across a wide spread of hardware, from the iPhone SE and iPhone 11 up through recent models, plus a few iPads and a MacBook Pro. If features go missing after an update, reinstalling both the main shortcut and Siri 2.0 usually sorts it out.
Quick answers
Do I need a paid ChatGPT subscription?
No, a free signed-in ChatGPT account gets you the core features. A paid plan or your own OpenAI API key unlocks more capable models and the API-only memory functions.
Will this work on my old iPhone that can’t run Apple Intelligence?
That’s the whole point of it. Apple restricts its official AI to the iPhone 15 Pro and newer, but this shortcut leans on ChatGPT instead, so older models that were left out can still get answers, image reading, and voice assistance.
Why does it want access to Files?
It writes your conversation history and any saved memory notes there so context carries over between runs. Nothing is uploaded beyond what you send to ChatGPT itself.
