PocketHook vs BetterAutomation

Your iPhone, wired to anything you build. PocketHook is the native chat that connects your Apple devices to your own HTTPS server — your webhook, your n8n workflow, your Home Assistant, your own script. You type, your server answers, and iOS Shortcuts run on cue. No account. No tracking. No middleman between you and your own data. Send a message, watch your server reply with Markdown, images, links, even a Shortcut to trigger automatically. Chain steps. Speak instead of typing. Schedule background checks that poke your server and notify you when something changes. It all happens on your infrastructure, through your credentials, stored only in the Apple Keychain. PocketHook is a client. It ships with no backend of its own — you bring the server, and your data stays where it belongs. Features: - Connect to any HTTPS server you control - Trigger iOS Shortcuts and Siri from server responses, with multi-step chains - Six built-in App Intents for Siri and user-built Shortcuts: send a message and wait for reply, silent send without chat history, add a local message, and three helpers to extract fields (msg, data, shortcut name) from server responses - Rich chat: Markdown, HTML, images, interactive buttons - Voice dictation in 39 languages via the iOS Speech framework - Background polling with notifications - Offline queue with automatic retry - Optional compatibility mode for servers using a chat-style JSON format - Zero tracking, zero third-party SDKs - Credentials stored in Apple Keychain only Built for developers, tinkerers, automators, and anyone who wants their iPhone to talk to the things they actually run. If you can deploy an HTTPS endpoint, PocketHook plugs straight into it. More info: https://pockethook.app

BetterAutomation makes the Shortcuts app stronger: it delivers a whole toolbox of actions Apple doesn't include – ready to use in your shortcuts and personal automations (time, location, NFC, Focus, charging and more). ACTIONS FOR YOUR AUTOMATIONS • Text: uppercase/lowercase, title case, reverse, count words and characters, trim, find & replace, sort lines, remove duplicate lines and emoji • Encoding: encode and decode Base64, create URL slugs, calculate SHA-256 hashes • Extract: pull links, email addresses and numbers from any text • Date & Time: add days, differences and countdowns, weekday, week number, weekend check, next workday, calculate age, format date • Math: percentages, add and remove VAT, split tips fairly, round • Units: kilometers ↔ miles, kilograms ↔ pounds, Celsius ↔ Fahrenheit • Random: random numbers, dice, coin flip, secure passwords, UUIDs, random colors • Colors: convert hex values to RGB RECIPES TO BUILD Ready-made automation ideas with step-by-step instructions – from a morning briefing to a battery saver to an automatic end-of-day message. Every recipe shows the trigger, the steps, and the matching actions. PREMIUM – BUY ONCE, KEEP FOREVER Unlock every recipe and use the app completely ad-free. No subscription. PRIVATE BY DESIGN All actions run directly on your device. No accounts, no cloud, no data collection by the app. Note: BetterAutomation extends Apple's Shortcuts app. You set up automations in Shortcuts as usual – BetterAutomation provides the actions and the instructions for them.