For the past few years, most AI assistants have lived inside apps. If you want help from ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, you open the app, type a prompt and wait for a response.
But after testing a simple iPhone shortcut that lets you text Claude like a personal assistant, I found myself doing something unexpected: asking AI for help the same way I text a friend.
“Summarize this article”
“Draft a reply to this email”
“Turn these notes into a to-do list”
…and Claude would text the answer right back.
How the shortcut works
The setup uses Apple’s Shortcuts automation tool to route a message to Claude and send the response back. I’ve used the shortcut automation before for things like, helping my kids get ready in the morning or chatting with ChatGPT, but this one is different in other useful ways.
Here’s the simplified version of what’s happening behind the scenes:
- You send a text with a trigger phrase.
- An iPhone automation detects the message.
- The text is sent to Claude through an API request.
- Claude generates a response.
- The shortcut sends the answer back to you.
- Once everything is configured, the process runs automatically.
How to set it up on your iPhone
You can build the shortcut yourself in just a few minutes. You don’t actually need developer tools or an API key to try this. Using Apple’s Shortcuts app, you can create a lightweight automation that sends your text directly to the Claude app. This setup takes about a minute.
- 1. Open the Shortcuts app: On your iPhone, open the Shortcuts app and tap the Automation tab at the bottom of the screen. From there, tap the “+” at the top right corner to create a new Personal Automation.
- 2. Choose the message trigger: Select Message as the trigger. Set the automation to run when you send a message containing a specific phrase, such as: “/Claude summarize this article,” “Claude/ turn these notes into a to-do list,” “Claude/ draft a reply to this email”
- 3. Send the message to Claude: For this part to work you’re going to need to make sure the Claude app is open during this action. Next, add an action to open the Claude app. Add these actions in order:
- Get Text from Input
- Open App > Claude
- Ask for Input
- When the automation runs, it automatically sends your message text to Claude so the AI can respond.
- 4. Copy the response back to Messages: After Claude generates a reply, simply copy the answer and send it back to yourself in Messages. It’s not fully automated, but it still turns texting into a fast way to capture ideas, brainstorm or summarize information with AI.
Once the automation is enabled, every message with the trigger phrase will automatically be routed through Claude. Now, this can be fully automated with an API, but for most everyday users, this simple hack is enough.
Why texting AI feels surprisingly natural
For me, I check my text messages more than anything else on my phone. Because I’m a Claude power user, I use this trick when I want my most important messages closer than the Claude app.
When I get what I need, I simply paste the message back to me and it’s ready when I need it. For new users or anyone who prefers using Claude on desktop or simply within the app, this trick might not feel useful. But for me, it’s a small psychological shift that happens when AI moves out of a chat app.
Instead of thinking, “I should open Claude and ask something,” you start thinking:
“I’ll just text Claude.”
For me, when I’m extra busy — juggling work, errands or family life — fewer steps often means the tool becomes that much more useful. During testing, texting Claude worked especially well for quick tasks like:
- summarizing long messages
- brainstorming ideas
- drafting quick replies
- turning messy notes into structured lists
Bottom line
What surprised me most about this experiment wasn’t the technology — it was how natural the interaction felt.
Because texting is something we already do constantly, interacting with AI this way feels less like opening a tool and more like casually asking for help. This trick also points to a broader trend happening across the AI industry. For the past few years, most assistants have lived inside dedicated apps where you had to go to them for help. Increasingly, though, AI is moving into the tools we already use — messaging apps, documents, browsers and operating systems.
Texting Claude won’t replace full AI apps when you need to write something long, analyze data or work through complex problems. But for quick tasks — summarizing something, brainstorming ideas or turning messy thoughts into a simple list — this shortcut works surprisingly well, especially when you want to keep those responses top of mind.
Give it a try and let me know what you think in the comments. And for those who want fully automated with API, let me know and I’ll share that hack.
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