Toolbox Pro for Shortcuts

Name: Toolbox Pro for Shortcuts
Rating: 4.5 (415 reviews)
Author: Snailed It Development Ltd

Powerful new automation tools

Free · In‑App Purchases · Designed for iPad

415 Ratings
Ages

4+
Years
Category

Utilities
Developer

Snailed It Development Ltd
Language

EN
English
Size

108.7
MB

Toolbox Pro gives you 130+ powerful new actions to use within Apple’s Shortcuts app. Tools include the latest iOS technologies: • iOS document scanner • Lightning-fast, on-device text recognition (OCR) • Tag files • Manipulate reminders and calendar events with more options than Shortcuts • Apple Music tools give you access to the whole catalogue of 60 million songs (Apple Music subscription required) • Transcribe speech from audio files • Add contacts and contact groups • Get workouts and activity summaries from Health • TouchID/FaceID authentication • Style and render text to images • NFC Read + Write • Image filters • Create photo albums • The Preview Tool lets you present text, images, rich URLs & interactive maps with flexible layouts. Add your own buttons to create your own app-like experience • Global variables let you store data between shortcuts and devices • Menu creator • Icon generator • Recognise objects in images using machine learning • Get current motion of device (driving, walking etc) • Full-screen text input box • Remove duplicates from list • Quick-match text before, after or between words • Device details like orientation/is dark mode on/is audio playing/is silent mode on And many, many more. Get nearly 40 tools for *FREE*, unlock everything with a single in-app purchase. You can find detailed descriptions of what each tool does in the app along with *lots* of example shortcuts to get you started. This app supports dark mode, voice control and dynamic type. Privacy policy spoilers: I don’t store any of your data or track you. (Read more: www.toolboxpro.app/privacy-policy)

Ratings & Reviews

4.5

out of 5

415 Ratings

RIP Alex Hay. You will be missed
05/27/2023

smart burro
Toolbox Pro has been an invaluable tool to so many Shortcuts users. Sadly the developer, Alex Hay, recently lost his battle with cancer and passed away. TBH until I heard of his passing through a story on MacStories I didn’t even know who the developer of Toolbox Pro was. It was a good reminder to me that many of the apps I use and rely every single day aren’t made by some billion dollar big corporation but by real people who have a family, go through life issues like everyone else and most aren’t making a ton of $$ developing the apps we depend on. Alex and his family’s struggles were even bigger than many of us will ever face. So before you write a review or a feedback email ripping a developer try to remember they’re a person. We’re all imperfect and some people may be going through a major life issue that you’re unaware of. Toolbox Pro made Shortcuts so much better by including actions that Apple either forgot to include or simply wouldn’t include. It would be nice if Apple would buy Toolbox Pro from Alex’s family. It wouldn’t bring him back or make their loss any easier but it would help them during a time where they may be struggling financially. Apple in return would improve Shortcuts, make users happy and show their support for the developer community. Rest in peace Alex. You will be missed by many.
RIP Alex Hay. You will be missed
05/27/2023

smart burro

Toolbox Pro has been an invaluable tool to so many Shortcuts users. Sadly the developer, Alex Hay, recently lost his battle with cancer and passed away. TBH until I heard of his passing through a story on MacStories I didn’t even know who the developer of Toolbox Pro was. It was a good reminder to me that many of the apps I use and rely every single day aren’t made by some billion dollar big corporation but by real people who have a family, go through life issues like everyone else and most aren’t making a ton of $$ developing the apps we depend on. Alex and his family’s struggles were even bigger than many of us will ever face. So before you write a review or a feedback email ripping a developer try to remember they’re a person. We’re all imperfect and some people may be going through a major life issue that you’re unaware of. Toolbox Pro made Shortcuts so much better by including actions that Apple either forgot to include or simply wouldn’t include. It would be nice if Apple would buy Toolbox Pro from Alex’s family. It wouldn’t bring him back or make their loss any easier but it would help them during a time where they may be struggling financially. Apple in return would improve Shortcuts, make users happy and show their support for the developer community. Rest in peace Alex. You will be missed by many.
Awesome
05/13/2020

JoeXGray
This app has so many amazing functions, but my favorite is the Global Variable tool. If you’ve used shortcuts much at all, you’ve almost certainly had a moment when you wish that a shortcut could have some kind of memory. To know if it’s been run that day, or to remember a piece of information that changes. A score for a game, a simple tally, and countless other uses. Well that’s exactly what Global variable does. Beyond that, toolbox pro has lots of great functions that shortcuts can’t normally do, and even more functions that you could pull off in the shortcuts app, but that would be so cumbersome that they’re not worth it. But in Toolbox Pro, it’s right there, and works just the way it says. Seriously, if you like shortcuts at all, download this.
Awesome
05/13/2020

JoeXGray

This app has so many amazing functions, but my favorite is the Global Variable tool. If you’ve used shortcuts much at all, you’ve almost certainly had a moment when you wish that a shortcut could have some kind of memory. To know if it’s been run that day, or to remember a piece of information that changes. A score for a game, a simple tally, and countless other uses. Well that’s exactly what Global variable does. Beyond that, toolbox pro has lots of great functions that shortcuts can’t normally do, and even more functions that you could pull off in the shortcuts app, but that would be so cumbersome that they’re not worth it. But in Toolbox Pro, it’s right there, and works just the way it says. Seriously, if you like shortcuts at all, download this.
"Is audio playing" is bizarre
06/08/2021

April Arcus
I downloaded this app so that I could disable my morning alarm in case I was already awake and listening to music. I set up this flow (literal text input shown between caret quotes) Get clipboard -> Set variable <saved clipboard> to Clipboard; Is audio playing?; Wait to return; Get clipboard -> Set variable <is audio playing> to Clipboard -> Copy <saved clipboard> to clipboard -> If clipboard is <"true"> { Exit shortcut with Clipboard } otherwise { /* play my alarm */ }; I had to make sure to use the double quotes when testing the clipboard value, which was not clear from the instructions and nearly caused me to leave a one star review until I was able to guess the correct format. The "is audio playing?" action takes a very long time to return (nearly a minute!). It also wipes out whatever may have been on my clipboard previously, which forced me to jump through hoops to preserve the clipboard state as shown above. I suspect there is also a race condition in the event that I use the clipboard while the action is executing (which, again, is not a short amount of time). It would be much better to return a boolean or at least write to one of Toolbox Pros global variables. Three stars because it technically works and meets my needs, but very surprising and disappointing in the details. Finally, ZERO STARS to Apple for mangling the linefeeds and other whitespace in this review, making technical feedback extremely challenging.

Developer Response
Thanks for the detailed review.It definitely shouldn’t take as long as that to get a result - it should be instant.It looks like I missed updating the documentation on this tool (sorry) but it should now return the result directly in Shortcuts without having to open the Toolbox Pro app and use the clipboard.
"Is audio playing" is bizarre
06/08/2021

April Arcus

I downloaded this app so that I could disable my morning alarm in case I was already awake and listening to music. I set up this flow (literal text input shown between caret quotes) Get clipboard -> Set variable <saved clipboard> to Clipboard; Is audio playing?; Wait to return; Get clipboard -> Set variable <is audio playing> to Clipboard -> Copy <saved clipboard> to clipboard -> If clipboard is <"true"> { Exit shortcut with Clipboard } otherwise { /* play my alarm */ }; I had to make sure to use the double quotes when testing the clipboard value, which was not clear from the instructions and nearly caused me to leave a one star review until I was able to guess the correct format. The "is audio playing?" action takes a very long time to return (nearly a minute!). It also wipes out whatever may have been on my clipboard previously, which forced me to jump through hoops to preserve the clipboard state as shown above. I suspect there is also a race condition in the event that I use the clipboard while the action is executing (which, again, is not a short amount of time). It would be much better to return a boolean or at least write to one of Toolbox Pros global variables. Three stars because it technically works and meets my needs, but very surprising and disappointing in the details. Finally, ZERO STARS to Apple for mangling the linefeeds and other whitespace in this review, making technical feedback extremely challenging.
Developer Response 06/20/2021
Thanks for the detailed review.It definitely shouldn’t take as long as that to get a result - it should be instant.It looks like I missed updating the documentation on this tool (sorry) but it should now return the result directly in Shortcuts without having to open the Toolbox Pro app and use the clipboard.
RIP Alex, you are my inspiration
05/03/2023

JVLawnDarts
I’ve been using Toolbox Pro for as long as I can remember. When I first downloaded the app I was blown away by the number of actions and how easy of an app it was to use. I proudly paid for premium and still use the app daily in my shortcuts. I was incredibly saddened to hear of his passing as he was (and still is) such an inspiration to me as someone studying CS. I hope that one day I can be half the developer Alex was. I hope development continues but what’s most important is remembering his legacy. It’s worth the download even if some actions may not work pending future iOS updates. Sending my condolences to his family and friends who are grieving ❤️
RIP Alex, you are my inspiration
05/03/2023

JVLawnDarts

I’ve been using Toolbox Pro for as long as I can remember. When I first downloaded the app I was blown away by the number of actions and how easy of an app it was to use. I proudly paid for premium and still use the app daily in my shortcuts. I was incredibly saddened to hear of his passing as he was (and still is) such an inspiration to me as someone studying CS. I hope that one day I can be half the developer Alex was. I hope development continues but what’s most important is remembering his legacy. It’s worth the download even if some actions may not work pending future iOS updates. Sending my condolences to his family and friends who are grieving ❤️

- Add Photo Album now allows creating the album/folder inside an existing folder - Added a setting to sort keys of Global Variables containing JSON - Fix Global Variables 'Get Dictionary' action incorrectly parsing "smart quotes" (e.g. `”`), causing valid JSON not to be recognised as such. - Fix Is Audio Playing being documented as returning its value via the clipboard