Use iOS 26 to Create Short Stories in Your Target Language

Since Apple Intelligence was released last year in 2024, a lot of people have been disappointed with what it can do, or more like what is can't do. Apple Intelligence wasn't released until the iOS 18.1 release and even then, it didn't have all that it promised. Slowly over the year, more updates for it were released.

This year, in 2025, Apple changed the naming scheme of their OS' major release to contain the last two numbers of the upcoming year. With iOS 26, more Apple Intelligence features were added, except this year Apple let the products and updates shine and did not overly explain how much they used Apple Intelligence. The update that has me excited, is the ability to use the on device model in Shortcuts.

Shortcuts is an app that allows users to automate their phone and life. They can set up scripts (called shortcuts) that are available in the share sheet, on the home screen like an app, can live in the Shortcuts app ready to be activated when needed, or it can run automatically when certain events occur during the day. These shortcuts can connect with your data and other apps to perform a sequence of tasks.

The Shortcuts app has been around for a while, but with ever major release Apple continues to update and change it. The latest OS release has a new action called "Use Model". You provide it a prompt and it will return a text response. You can then pass the response to any other action or just have it displayed on the screen.

I love this update!! I immediately thought about how I can use it for my language learning journey. I am in this spot where I either find graded reader books that are way to easy and I know 100% of the words or I find books that are mislabeled and too difficult. These books use beginner words and I know about 70% of the words, but they also use intermediate grammar patterns. I get too frustrated trying to understand the words and then grammar patterns. I am currently focusing on Korean and Korean has a lot of the language hidden in its verb conjugation and grammar patterns. In Romance languages and other European languages, the complexity of the language usually means adding more words or using harder words in sentences. Sometimes a Korean sentence can be similar to RegEx. So, I decided to create a couple of shortcuts to help with my reading comprehension.

In this post, I'll walk you through the 4 shortcuts I made to create short stories and topic essays. In another post, I'll talk about some other helpful shortcuts I created to help with language learning. I only mention iOS 26 in this post, but this update is available in iPadOS 26 and macOS 26. The Shortcuts app can sync with your iCloud account if you have the setting turned on. If you open these new Shortcuts on an older version of the OS and app, the Use Model action will just contain an incompatible message.

Using the On-Device Model

The easiest way to get started with the models in Shortcuts is to just duplicate a shortcut that is already using the action. Go to the Gallery and under the "Apple Intelligence" section, add the "Haiku" shortcut. Now go to your Library and in "All Shortcuts", find that Haiku shortcut and duplicate it. Press on the three dots on the shortcut to edit it.

This shortcut is using the "Private Cloud Compute" model. Click on the text that says "Cloud" and switch it to the "On-Device" model. Press the triangle at the bottom right of the screen to run the shortcut and follow its instructions to see how it works. The "On-Device" model is an LLM that runs directly on your device. It's meant for smaller tasks. A 3 sentence story is perfect for the On-Device model.

When creating prompts for language learning, be sure to let the model know your current level so it can make content appropriate for what you are learning or you can understand. I am studying Korean, so I use TOPIK levels in my prompts, but a more universal leveling standard is the European standard called "Common European Framework of References" or CEFR. If you are not sure of your level, you can read about levels and use their Self-assessment grid here.

Change the prompt from "Create a funny haiku for this topic:" to something like:

Using [language level] grammar and vocabulary create a 3 sentence story in [language] for this topic:

When you are done, run the shortcut to test it out. You now have your own micro story generator that lives on your device!!

Using the Cloud Model

A three sentence story is good, but a five sentence story is better. Depending on your target language and your level, five sentences might be just enough to get a good arc of a story. Sometimes, the on-device model will display an error stating that it can't perform the task you asked it to do. Sometimes you're asking it to do too much or sometimes it's just a weird error and if you try again, the task succeeds. So for this shortcut, we'll use the cloud model to try to avoid that behavior.

Duplicate the three sentence shortcut and rename it to "5 sentence Short Story". Click on the "On-Device" button and switch it to "Cloud Model". Update the prompt to ask for a 5 sentence story instead. Run the shortcut.

The "Cloud Model" is a hybrid model. It will analyze your prompt and decide which model to use. If the task is too big, it will use the "Private Cloud Compute" model. The Private Cloud Compute model runs on Apple secure servers.

Three and five sentence micro stories are great for getting daily reading done in your target language. Depending on your level, it might be just enough to get you thinking in your target language and satisfying your practice requirement for the day, or it might just be an appetizer. You don't have to create a new story everyday. You can create a story and then reread the story until you know and understand all the words and grammar that is used. Then you can move on to another story. If you are ready for more, you can move on from micro stories to short stories.

Using ChatGPT

Sometimes the Cloud model chooses to use the On-Device model instead of sending your request to the Cloud Compute Model. The model then responds with an error about not being able to complete your request. As of writing this blog post, there is no way to force the action to always use the Cloud Compute Model. So in the next shortcut, we'll use the ChatGPT model.

Duplicate the five sentence shortcut and change the name to "[Language] Short Story". Change the model to "Extension ChatGPT". You may need to go to the Settings app and enable the use of ChatGPT. Go to "Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri > ChatGPT". You can use ChatGPT without an account. If you have an account, you can sign in and use whatever version your account has access to. As of writing this post, the not-signed in version is just ChatGPT 4. If you do sign in, be aware that OpenAI will get some information about you. Double check the links to the terms of service in the ChatGPT section in the Settings app to see what that really means.

Now lets change the prompt to something like :

Using [language level] grammar and vocabulary create a narrative short story in [language] for this topic: [Ask for Input variable] . Give the story a relevant title and display the title before displaying the content of the story.

Run your shortcut. You now have a shortcut on your device that creates comprehensible reading in your target language!! You may need to finesse the prompt if you find that the story is not long enough or too long. I used the term "narrative short story", because sometimes LMMs can produce stories that are just a list of events or simple situations. "Shindong woke up. He ate breakfast. Shindong went to work." If you add the term narrative, it should know to give the story an arc, conflict, or even tension.

I like to save my stories so I can read them later and not just read them from the display screen. Depending on the apps you have available on your device, you may be able to save the story somewhere else, but for this post, we'll just save it to Apple Notes.

In the Search Action bar at the bottom of the screen, type "create note" and choose the one associated with Apple Notes.

The "Response" variable should automatically populate next to the word "with" but if it doesn't, click on the box and choose "Response". Choose a folder in Apple Notes where you want to save your stories. Then run your shortcut again. This time when it is done, it should have saved a new note in Apple Notes in the folder you provided.

Creating Essays

But what is your don't want to read fiction all the time? What if you want to read interesting facts but in your target language? I got you. Duplicate the short story shortcut and rename it "[language] Topic Short Essay". Change the prompt to something like:

Using [language level] grammar and vocabulary create a 3 paragraph essay in [language] for this topic: [Ask for Input variable] . Give the essay a relevant title and display the title before displaying the content of the essay.

Now run your shortcut and bask in the glory that is solving your comprehensive reading problems.

You can even modify your prompts to use specific words or grammar patterns that you are having trouble with to get the LLM to include those words or grammar patterns in your story or essay. Then you can get use to seeing them in use and understand how they are really used.

Limitations

I already mentioned that the on-device model can display errors if the task is too big for it. In addition to that, it may also display an error if you ask it to do something beyond the Apple terms of service.

The Cloud model can sometimes choose to use the on-device model instead of the Private Cloud Compute model and that causes an error to be displayed. You can keep trying until it succeeds or you can press the feedback button, look at the data that will be set to Apple, see which model it tried to use, and send feedback to Apple that may help them fix that problem.

If you have a keen eye, you'll notice that the ChatGPT option has a daily limit that resets every 24hrs. As to what that limit is, I'm not sure. I haven't use this feature enough to get close to it. However, keep that in mind as you start to create shortcuts using ChatGPT without being signed in.

As far as I know, the Cloud Model doesn't have a daily limit, but that could change in the future. Apple is probably assessing how people use this new feature and will add more or less guardrails and maybe a subscription in the future.

How I Use These Shortcuts

Here is an example of how use these shortcuts and how I dissect my stories.

In the morning or right before I go to bed, I create a 3/5 sentence story. While reading the story, I double tap on words I don't know to bring up a menu and use translate to get translations. I highlight any words I don't know in purple and any words I am familiar with but can't remember, I'll highlight in yellow. I have a section below the story where I keep notes. I then go to an online dictionary to look up the meaning of words and any other relevant information. I add this information to the notes section. When I reread the story, I wont have to look up the words again. I can even cover the bottom section if I want to try to recall the meaning without looking, but so far I've noticed that in reading the story and doing the work to find out information about the words, I tend to remember the words.

The first time I read the story, I put an open book emoji in the title to let me know I've already read the story. I can choose to read another story or keep rereading that story. The next step is to completely translate the story. In a notebook, I write out the story and translate each line, making any notes about grammar usage I didn't notice the first time. I created a Genmoji that is a combination of a checkmark emoji and an open book emoji to use when I am completely done with a story.

In the next blog post I'll show you how to make some shortcuts to help with understanding grammar patterns, but for now, go forth and create a lot of interesting stories.