Shortcuts is an Apple visual scripting tool available on the iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS operating systems. It enables users to develop macros that do certain activities on their devices.
If you’re looking to play a recorded iPhone voice memo (E.g memo1) in repeat you are at the right place!
Option 1 – Manual method
Firstly, it’s not possible to do it within the voice memo app but you can play it using VLC player.
Step 1 – Download and install ‘VLC Player‘ from App Store.
Step 2 – Open the ‘Voice Memos’ app on your iPhone and select the memo that you want to use and then tap on it to see the options.
Step 3 – Click on the three dots and select share (this will bring up sharing options).
Step 4 – From the list to share options, select ‘VLC’. If you don’t see the app on the list, scroll to left and tap ‘More’ to see all the apps, and then select ‘VLC’.
Step 5 – This will open up ‘VLC Player’ and play the voice memo. Pause play and tab on the three dots on the right (this will bring up play options). Under ‘Video Options’ select the option as you wish to enable repeat mode.
That’s it.
Option 2 – Automated method
If you want to automate it, then make use of the iPhone ‘Shortcuts’ application.
Part 1 – Prerequisites
The voice memo file must be saved on an accessible location.
Let’s begin,
Step 1 – Open the ‘Voice Memos’ app on your iPhone and select the recorded memo that you want to use and then tap on it to see the options.
Step 2 – Click on the three dots and select share (this will bring up sharing options).
Step 3 – Scroll down and tap on ‘Save to Files’. You can use any of the available storage (E.g iCloud/ iPhone storage, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.) to save the voice memo.
Step 4 – Make sure the file is copied correctly
Part 2 – Setup repeat
Step 1 – Open the ‘Shortcuts’ app. Tap on the ‘+’ sign to create a new Shortcut. Tap on the ‘Add Action’ and search for ‘File’ and tab on it to add it to the ‘Action’. Once the action is added tap on ‘File’ and select your file from the preferred location where you saved the file in Step 3, Part 1.
Step 2 – Now you could see our first ‘Action’ is added. Now, on the search bar below search for ‘Repeat’ and tap on it to add it to the ‘Action’.
Step 3 – Search again on the search bar below for ‘Play Sound’ and tap on it to add it to the ‘Action’.
Step 4 – Tap and drag ‘Play Sound’ action and drop it in between ‘Repeat’ and ‘End Repeat’
Step 5 – To set how many times you want to replay the voice memo, in the ‘Repeat’ action tap on ‘1 Time’ and increase the number accordingly.
Step 6 – If you want to test it, tap on the triangle button button below. If you’re happy with the ‘Shortcut’ then tap on the name field (default name will appear based on the action we add) and give it a name for your shortcut (E.g Play My Memo) and tap on ‘Done’.
Step 7 – And then tap on the close button on the top right corner of the screen. Now you can see our shortcut is saved under ‘All Shortcuts’.
You can add it as a ‘Widget’ on your Home Screen and run it manually or just leave as it is and ask Siri to run it for you. E.g Just say ‘Hey Siri, play my memo’ and Siri will run it for you.
If you don’t want to get into the setup process, just download the Shortcut i have shared below and follow the instructions in comment section.
Please note, you need to enable untrusted Shortcuts to run on your iPhone before you import the Shortcut. Here is how,
Under ‘Settings’ find ‘Shortcuts’ and tab to open it > enable ‘Allow Untrusted Shortcuts’ and click allow. It will ask you to run a ‘Shortcut’ first and you can use any of the default ‘Shortcuts’ to run.
Once enabled, download the ‘Shortcuts’ below and save it.
Happy automation!
I hope this post helped you with your journey. If you got few minutes to spare, take a look on my other blogs as well.
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