How to Use iOS 27’s Notification Triggers for Advanced Cross-Device Automations

If you love building Apple Shortcuts, iOS 27 brings a massive underlying upgrade to your workflows. You can now use incoming push notifications to trigger automations silently in the background.

On the surface, it sounds like a minor tweak. In practice, it unlocks an entirely new way to control your Apple devices remotely. You can send a ping from your iPhone to trigger a shortcut on your iPad, Mac, or secondary phone. Let's break down how to set this up and what you can build with it.

What you'll need

To build cross-device automations, you need a few things in place:

• Devices running iOS 27, iPadOS 27, or macOS (the developer betas are required for now).
• A third-party push notification app. Pushcut is a great, standard option for this.
• Both devices logged into your apps.

Step 1: Set up the notification trigger

The magic happens inside the Automations tab in the Shortcuts app. You can now tell a device to listen for a specific notification from a specific app and take action immediately.

1. Open Shortcuts on your target device (the one you want to control).
2. Go to the Automations tab and create a new personal automation.
3. Select the When I receive a notification trigger.
4. Choose the app that will deliver the ping. We recommend Pushcut.
5. Add a filter to look for a specific keyword in the notification. This ensures the automation only runs when you send the exact right command.

Step 2: Build the cross-device battery checker

One of the most practical ways to use this is checking the battery status of your other devices without having to physically pick them up.

You can build a shortcut that asks your iPad for its battery percentage and sends that data right back to your iPhone's lock screen.

1. On your iPad, configure the notification trigger we set up in Step 1.
2. Add the Get Battery Level action.
3. Add a Text action to format the result. Type out "Battery is at" and insert the Battery Level variable.
4. Add a web request or Pushcut action that sends this text back as a notification to your primary iPhone.

Now, whenever you send that specific trigger notification to your iPad, it silently runs the shortcut in the background. A second later, your iPhone lights up with the exact battery percentage of your tablet.

Step 3: Triggering Mac actions from your iPhone

You don't have to stop at checking battery levels. This same framework works beautifully for controlling your Mac from anywhere in the house.

Because the notification trigger can kick off any shortcut, you can build a workflow that runs locally on your Mac Studio or MacBook.

• Send a notification to restart your Mac completely.
• Send a ping to launch a specific workspace. You can open all your required windows, start a focus mode, and load up your to-do list before you even sit down at your desk.
• Run complex, heavy-duty scripts that you don't want tying up your iPhone's processor.

You just create the automation on your Mac. Tell it to listen for your specific Pushcut notification. Then attach an Execute Shortcut action to run whatever heavy lifting you need.

Managing your new automations

If you start building a lot of these, the Automations tab can get messy quickly. iOS 27 adds a few much-needed quality-of-life improvements to help you manage everything.

There are now dedicated toggles next to every single automation in your list. You can quickly turn them on or off without having to tap into each individual menu.

There is also a new filter icon in the top right corner. Tap it to instantly filter your list to show All, Turned On, or Turned Off automations. It makes organizing your cross-device commands incredibly easy.

You're all set

By combining notification triggers with apps like Pushcut, you essentially turn your iPhone into a master remote for your entire Apple ecosystem. Start simple with a battery checker. Once you see how fast and seamless the background processing is, you can start automating your Mac workspaces and iPad routines from anywhere.