Usage extension on iOS

iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 let the Shortcuts app run when a notification arrives. Each example below starts in Zona on the iPhone: you send an alert, you see it in the inbox, and the shortcut uses the Zona notification for that same alert.

Apple’s list of these Shortcuts changes is New in iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and visionOS 27.

1. Open Zona on the iPhone and sign in.
2. Go to Sources and create a source named Office PC. Copy the zona_live_ token straight away. Zona shows the complete token once.
3. In Zona Settings, turn Message previews on, and allow notifications for Zona. Turn quiet hours off for this try. With previews on, the notification carries the alert title, body and source name. With previews off, the banner is a generic message and a filter on your real title will not match.
4. Leave Zona. Go to the Home Screen before you send. The shortcut reads the system notification. While Zona is open, the alert shows as Zona’s own banner instead, and the shortcut has nothing to run. The inbox row is there either way.

On the computer, put the token in the environment for this terminal only:

export ZONA_SOURCE_TOKEN='zona_live_YOUR_SOURCE_TOKEN'

A new alert returns 202 and then appears in Zona. Sending the same Idempotency-Key again returns the original alert, so the examples below put the time in the key. Use a new key each time you want a new notification. Quiet hours and delivery explains what a 202 does and does not guarantee.

Send this alert. It is the row you will open in Zona, and it is the notification the shortcut uses.

curl --request POST \
  "https://gerncrjtrdjtjvybvseb.supabase.co/functions/v1/notify" \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $ZONA_SOURCE_TOKEN" \
  --header "Idempotency-Key: ios-backup-failed-$(date +%s)" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{
    "title": "Backup failed",
    "body": "The nightly backup failed. The backup disk is full.",
    "category": "backup",
    "severity": "high"
  }'

On the iPhone:

1. A notification from Zona arrives. The title is Backup failed. The message is The nightly backup failed. The backup disk is full. The source name Office PC is on that notification.
2. Open Zona. The same alert is the inbox row under Office PC.

The shortcut uses that notification:

1. When I receive a notification from Zona, with a filter that the message contains failed.
2. Add Item to List. Name the list Zona failures. The item is the Zona notification.

Each matching Zona notification adds a line. The list stays in Shortcuts after Zona’s retention removes the inbox row. Open the shortcut’s stored values to read the list back.

Send a second alert from the same source, still with Zona in the background.

curl --request POST \
  "https://gerncrjtrdjtjvybvseb.supabase.co/functions/v1/notify" \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $ZONA_SOURCE_TOKEN" \
  --header "Idempotency-Key: ios-disk-check-$(date +%s)" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{
    "title": "Disk check finished",
    "body": "Office PC has 12 GB free.",
    "category": "disk",
    "severity": "low"
  }'

On the iPhone, the Zona notification shows Disk check finished and Office PC has 12 GB free. Open Zona and that row is at the top of the inbox, with a thin green ring for low.

The shortcut uses that notification:

1. When I receive a notification from Zona. Leave the filter off to keep every Zona notification, or filter the title for Disk check.
2. Store Content under the name last-zona-alert. The content is the Zona notification. Saving that name again keeps the newest notification.

Read it from a second shortcut you run yourself:

1. Get Stored Content named last-zona-alert.
2. Show that text on screen.

Delete Stored Content removes a value you saved with Store Content. Check the name first.

On the Home Screen, add the second shortcut as an XL widget. That size is part of this Shortcuts update and runs the shortcut from the widget. The widget shows what the shortcut stored from the Zona notification. The inbox in Zona is still the alert itself.

Send the failed backup again when someone else should see it. Send Message can address a group chat. Change the idempotency key, which the command below already does, or Zona returns the alert you already sent.

curl --request POST \
  "https://gerncrjtrdjtjvybvseb.supabase.co/functions/v1/notify" \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $ZONA_SOURCE_TOKEN" \
  --header "Idempotency-Key: ios-oncall-$(date +%s)" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{
    "title": "Backup failed",
    "body": "The nightly backup failed. The backup disk is full.",
    "category": "backup",
    "severity": "high"
  }'

On the iPhone, the same Zona notification arrives, and the same row is in the inbox. This shortcut uses the notification, and it only runs when the title is the phrase you sent:

1. When I receive a notification from Zona.
2. Filter the title for Backup failed.
3. Send Message to the on-call group. The message is the Zona notification text.

1. Open Shortcuts on the iPhone and create a shortcut.
2. Add an automation to that shortcut. Shortcuts also lists automations on the Automations tab. Choose Notification, then choose Zona. Apple’s own example is “When I receive a notification from News”; yours is the Zona notification from the send above.
3. Add the filter from the example, using the title or message you saw on the iPhone.
4. Pass the Zona notification into the action.

Automations are part of the shortcut, including a shortcut you share, and Apple syncs them between devices on these releases. You can write the shortcut on a Mac. It runs on the iPhone that receives the Zona notification.

On iPhone, iPad and Mac, Shortcuts can build one of these from a sentence when Apple Intelligence is available. Paste one of these:

When I receive a notification from Zona and the message contains failed, add that notification to a list called Zona failures.

When I receive a notification from Zona, store the notification as last-zona-alert.

When I receive a notification from Zona and the title contains Backup failed, send the notification text to my On-call group in Messages.

This needs Siri and the device language set to a language Apple Intelligence supports: Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish or Vietnamese. It also needs an Apple Intelligence device. Some of these features use server-side models with a daily usage limit, including describing a shortcut and the Use Model action. Apple says wider access will be offered for a fee later. Zona does not sell or raise that limit.

The three examples above do not need Apple Intelligence. Describing the shortcut does.

After Shortcuts drafts it, send the matching alert with Zona in the background and confirm the notification is the one that ran.

• The inbox in Zona is the alert you sent. The shortcut only sees the Zona notification.
• An alert held by quiet hours stays in the inbox. The shortcut runs when a Zona notification is actually shown.
• The shortcut stays on the phone. Zona has no remote shell, so it cannot start a script on your computer because a shortcut fired.
• These examples use a Zona notification. A keyboard connecting, and the other new automations on Apple’s page, leave the Zona inbox alone.