Tap the icon and your iPhone gets a second, self-contained phone tucked inside the real one: FaceTime, Messages, weather, and a built-in maps tool, all stitched together from ordinary Shortcuts actions. There’s no App Store install, no account signup. Version 8 folds weather and navigation directly into the shortcut itself, so you spend less time bouncing out to Apple’s own apps than earlier releases required.
Inside the shortcut
ShortcutPhoneOS is ShortcutStudios’ stand-in for iOS, built entirely as one large Shortcuts file rather than a compiled app. It recreates a slice of your phone’s daily-use apps: FaceTime-style calling, messaging, and, as of version 8, hourly and daily weather forecasts alongside a built-in FindMeMaps Lite for basic navigation, so you no longer need the separate FindMeMaps companion shortcut older versions required. The author is upfront that most features are guaranteed to work, though an occasional bug can surface between updates. There’s also an iTunes-flavored music corner, but the author notes those bits don’t run on Mac or Apple Watch, and some features are limited to iPhone and specific regions.
What you’ll need
- iTunes Store – powers the music-playing side of ShortcutPhoneOS.
- iTunes Remote – works alongside iTunes Store to control playback.
- ChatGPT – runs the assistant tile built into the fake OS.
How to install
- Tap Add Shortcut on this page to open ShortcutPhone in the Shortcuts app.
- Scroll the preview to the bottom and tap Add Shortcut again to confirm.
- Allow the permissions it asks for; Shortcuts only prompts once per app it touches.
- Install iTunes Store, iTunes Remote, and ChatGPT ahead of time if you want every tile working on the first run.
First-run setup
The first launch is where ShortcutPhoneOS asks for the permissions its various actions need: contacts access for FaceTime and Messages, location for FindMeMaps Lite, and so on. Declining a prompt just switches off that corner of the fake OS instead of breaking the whole shortcut. Because it’s built from native Shortcuts actions rather than a compiled app, it runs on iOS/iPadOS 15 and later out of the box, with support for iOS/iPadOS 14 and earlier through a downgrader, and for macOS.
How to use it
Launch ShortcutPhone the way you’d open any app, from the Home Screen or a widget, and you land on ShortcutPhoneOS’s home screen equivalent. From there you tap through to a FaceTime tile and a Messages tile that hand off to the real apps, a Weather tile that now pulls hourly and daily forecasts without leaving the shortcut, and FindMeMaps Lite for a quick look at directions. The music tile leans on iTunes Store and iTunes Remote, so both need to be installed and signed in before it does anything useful. ShortcutStudios has kept this thing updated for two years and eight numbered versions now, and version 8 is built specifically to take advantage of iOS 26.
Tips
The shortcut’s own compatibility notes are worth bookmarking: iOS/iPadOS 15 or later is fully supported, iOS/iPadOS 14 and below needs a downgrader, and macOS works too. If a tile misbehaves, check that table before assuming something broke. Version 8 also hides a small two-year-anniversary extra somewhere inside, and the author says it disappears once the next release ships.
Common questions
Do I actually need ChatGPT installed for this to work?
Only for the assistant tile. FaceTime, Messages, Weather, and FindMeMaps Lite all run without it, though you’ll still want iTunes Store and iTunes Remote if you plan to use the music side.
Will ShortcutPhone run on an older iPhone?
iOS/iPadOS 15 or later is fully supported, and the author lists iOS/iPadOS 14 and earlier as reachable through a downgrader. macOS is supported as well.
What changed in version 8?
Weather and FindMeMaps Lite moved inside ShortcutPhoneOS instead of needing a separate companion shortcut, and the whole build was reworked around iOS 26.
