AI Actions for Shortcuts vs Flow
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
AI Actions for Shortcuts
Enhance your iOS Shortcuts with advanced AI capabilities. This app integrates with your existing OpenAI API key to provide powerful new actions for your automations. Note that it does not support Apple Watch or HomePod.
- AI-powered actions for Shortcuts
- Integrates with OpenAI API key
- Adds new automation capabilities
- Supports iPhone and iPad
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Supercharge your shortcuts with useful AI-powered actions. It provides additional actions for the Shortcuts app. Note: The app requires you to specify your own OpenAI API key. The actions are not able to run on Apple Watch or HomePod. Restart your device if the actions don't show up in the Shortcuts app.
Flow
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Flow turns your iPhone and iPad into a powerful sensor hub. Build visual data pipelines by connecting nodes on a canvas — stream camera, motion, and AR data to any device over OSC, UDP, or TCP. VISUAL NODE EDITOR Drag, connect, and configure nodes on an interactive canvas. No coding required. Build complex sensor routing in minutes with an intuitive drag-and-connect interface inspired by tools like TouchDesigner and Max/MSP. 50+ NODES IN 3 CATEGORIES Sources — Camera & Vision (body pose, hand tracking, face landmarks), Sensors (accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, barometer, ARKit), Generators (signal, noise, counter, timer, clock, array sequencer), and Data (API request with JSON extraction). Processing — Math operations, trigonometry, normalize, quantize, smooth filters, map range, waveform modulation, oscillators, logic gates, comparators, thresholds, triggers, delay, sample & hold, looper, vector math, string formatting, and JSON building. Destinations — TCP client & server, UDP sender, OSC sender. Plus multi-device nodes that broadcast to sequential IP addresses with per-device value offsets — perfect for LED installations, coordinated displays, and multi-device performances. REAL-TIME LIVE DATA Monitor every node in real time. Source nodes show output data, processing nodes show both input and processed output, destination nodes show what they receive. Human-readable formatting for all data types — JSON pretty-printing, pose joint details with confidence bars, hex blob previews, matrix grids, and sparkline history charts. MULTI-DEVICE ORCHESTRATION Control multiple devices simultaneously. Set a base IP and device count — Flow sends to each device with optional per-device value offsets. Create wave effects, staggered animations, or synchronized installations across OSC, UDP, or TCP. API INTEGRATION Fetch data from any REST API with configurable HTTP method, headers, and request body. Extract values from JSON responses using dot-notation key paths. Auto-fetch on intervals or trigger manually. 30+ READY-MADE TEMPLATES Start instantly with pre-built workflows for hand tracking, body pose, face landmarks, accelerometer streaming, ARKit world tracking, noise generation, signal processing chains, multi-device broadcasting, and more. CAMERA PREVIEW Live camera feed appears automatically on the canvas when running vision pipelines. See your pose tracking, hand detection, or face landmarks overlaid in real time. SAVE & REUSE Save workflows and destination presets. Quickly switch between network configurations. Load saved workflows from the template picker. BUILT FOR CREATIVE TECHNOLOGISTS Flow is designed for artists, VJs, installation designers, creative coders, and anyone who needs to get sensor data from iOS to other software or hardware. Works seamlessly with TouchDesigner, Max/MSP, Processing, openFrameworks, Unity, Unreal Engine, Resolume, and any OSC/UDP/TCP-compatible tool. TECHNICAL HIGHLIGHTS • iOS 17+ with SwiftUI and Swift Concurrency • 60fps pipeline engine with actor-based architecture • Network.framework for low-latency TCP/UDP • Full OSC 1.0 protocol support • Vision framework for real-time pose estimation • CoreMotion for all device sensors • ARKit for world and face tracking
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: AI Actions for Shortcuts at Free against Flow's $4.99. AI Actions for Shortcuts also leads on update cadence (every 4 weeks vs every 4 months). Flow's advantage is iOS requirement (17.0 vs 27.0). On ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
AI Actions for Shortcuts is free to download; Flow costs $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
AI Actions for Shortcuts ships an update every 4 weeks, Flow every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | AI Actions for Shortcuts | Flow |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $4.99 |
| Rating | 4.6 (27 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 77.3% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 27 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 4 weeks — better | Every 4 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 27.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 7 MB | 5 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Sindre Sorhus | Ibrahim Sefa Tuna |
In-app purchases
AI Actions for Shortcuts
No in-app purchases
Flow
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is AI Actions for Shortcuts free?
Is Flow free?
Do AI Actions for Shortcuts or Flow have ads?
Which is updated more often, AI Actions for Shortcuts or Flow?
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