A current app settings shortcut can place a control in an iPhone’s Control Center that opens the Settings page for an app that was already open before the control runs. The recipe comes from a third-party video demonstration, while Apple separately documents the part where an existing shortcut is added to Control Center.
That distinction matters. This is not an announced Apple feature or a dedicated Settings control. It is a user-created shortcut that combines two Shortcuts actions, then assigns the finished shortcut to a Control Center button.
How do you create a current app settings shortcut?
In a July 2025 walkthrough, Edgar’s Home Tech said the technique was possible with iOS 18.5, though the supplied Apple documentation does not independently confirm that as the minimum version. The video’s reported build sequence is:
- Create a new shortcut in the Shortcuts app.
- Add the Get Current App action.
- Add Open URL.
- Enter the reported
apptext in the URL field, insert the Current App variable, then change that inserted value to Bundle Identifier.
The demonstration shows the control opening Settings for the app that had already been open in the background before the shortcut was triggered. It does not establish that the setup works for every app, iOS release, or device configuration, so treat it as a reproducible tip rather than a universal iPhone fix.
Apple’s deployment documentation lists bundle IDs for its own iPhone and iPad apps and notes that they are case-sensitive. The tutorial uses the Current App variable’s Bundle Identifier property as part of the URL passed to the Open URL action. The video demonstrates that combination reaching the relevant Settings page, but Apple’s Shortcuts guide excerpt does not document this specific construction.
How do you add the shortcut to Control Center?
Apple says users can keep frequently used shortcuts in Control Center. Its documented process is to open Control Center, tap the Add button in the upper-left corner, choose Add a Control, select Shortcut, tap Choose, and select the shortcut just created. Once assigned, tapping that control runs the shortcut.
Quinn Nelson also shared a prebuilt iCloud shortcut in a September 2025 post and described adding it through a Control Center “Run Shortcut” control. That is a third-party shared shortcut, not an Apple-provided download. Readers who choose that route should inspect its actions before adding it, rather than granting a mystery file the benefit of the doubt.
The utility is narrow but concrete: when an app is already in use and its Settings page is needed, the Control Center control avoids manually locating that app within Settings. The evidence supports the demonstrated workflow, not a claim that Apple guarantees it across the platform.
This story draws on original reporting from Daring Fireball.