Add to Timely (Extended)

REQUIRES UNLOCK

Creates a new Timely Countdown with additional controls for colour, location, and travel. This action does not start a Live Activity. Supply the resulting Countdown to Start Countdown Live Activity to start one. This action is unlocked by a one-time in-app purchase or with a subscription to Timely Plus. Try Add to Timely to add Countdowns when this action is locked.

Parameters

Title

REQUIRED

The name of the Countdown.

Type: text

This can effectively be made optional by supplying whitespace as the input.

Time

REQUIRED

The date and time of the Countdown deadline.

Type: dateTime

Dates must be set in the future. Timely will immediately clear a Countdown with a deadline in the past.

Shortcuts also supports some natural language expressions of dates in this field, for example, ‘Tomorrow at 8am’ or ‘Tonight’, but it does not support expressions such as ‘in 10 minutes’. To set a relative date in this way, use the ‘Adjust Date’ Shortcuts action.

All Day Event

OPTIONAL

Treats Time as a calendar date rather than an exact deadline. Use this for events such as birthdays, holidays, or multi-day occasions where a specific time does not matter. Off by default. When enabled, Timely creates an all-day Countdown for the supplied date. Travel Time, Transport Type, and Route JSON are ignored, and all-day Countdowns do not use Live Activities.

Type: Boolean

Artwork

OPTIONAL

Choose Emoji or SF Symbol artwork. If you do not choose, Timely follows your current emoji or SF Symbol appearance preference.

Type: menu

Options:

  • Emoji
  • SF Symbol

Emoji

OPTIONAL

Used when Artwork is Emoji. Leave blank to let Timely choose from its available artwork suggestions.

Type: emoji

Only one emoji is supported. If multiple are supplied, Timely will use only the first.

SF Symbol Name

OPTIONAL

The exact name of an SF Symbol available on your device, used when Artwork is SF Symbol.

Type: text

Example: eraser.fill

Theme

REQUIRED

The colour theme used for the Countdown. Choose from Timely's colour themes, use AI to select a colour automatically when Apple Intelligence is available, or choose 'Custom Hex Code' to specify an exact colour.

Type: menu

Options:

  • Use AI
  • Red, Coral, Orange, Amber, Yellow, Lime, Spring, Green, Emerald, Mint, Aqua, Teal, Cyan, Sky, Blue, Indigo, Violet, Purple, Magenta, Pink, Brown, Tan, Olive, Slate, Gray
  • Custom Hex Code

Custom Color Hex

OPTIONAL

The colour used for the Countdown when Theme is set to 'Custom Hex Code'.

Type: text

Enter the six-character hexadecimal colour value without the '#'.

Example: 942192

Use Route JSON

OPTIONAL

Turn on Use Route JSON to create a Countdown with a route of up to ten stops. Off by default. In this mode, Timely uses the locations, travel times, and time at each stop supplied by your shortcut; it does not calculate a route or fetch travel estimates. When this option is on, Route JSON and Route Transport Type replace the single-location parameters. Location, Latitude, Longitude, Travel Time, and Transport Type are ignored.

Type: Boolean

Route JSON

OPTIONAL

A route represented as JSON or a Shortcuts List of route dictionaries.

Type: text

A route can contain:

  • One item, to create a standard single-destination Countdown with an optional travel time and buffer.
  • Two or more items, to create a multi-stop route. The first item is your starting point; every later item is a destination in the order supplied.

Each route item must provide:

  • location — a readable name or address for the stop.
  • latitude — the stop’s latitude.
  • longitude — the stop’s longitude.

For every item after the first, travelTimeMinutes is required. It is the travel time from the preceding stop to this one. bufferMinutes is optional for every item and defaults to 0; it is time reserved at that stop.

For the first item in a multi-stop route, bufferMinutes is treated as preparation time before leaving. travelTimeMinutes, if supplied for the first item, is also included in that preparation time.

All times are whole minutes. Individual travel times and buffers cannot be negative, and the route’s combined travel and buffer time cannot exceed seven days.

Route JSON format

Supply either a JSON array of dictionaries, a single JSON dictionary, or a Shortcuts List containing route dictionaries. The following is a two-stop route:

[
  {
    "location": "Home",
    "latitude": -43.5000,
    "longitude": 172.6000,
    "bufferMinutes": 10
  },
  {
    "location": "Christchurch Airport",
    "latitude": -43.4894,
    "longitude": 172.5322,
    "travelTimeMinutes": 25,
    "bufferMinutes": 90
  }
]

This creates a route from Home to Christchurch Airport, allowing 10 minutes to prepare before leaving, 25 minutes to travel, and 90 minutes at the airport.

Keys are case-insensitive, and spaces or punctuation in key names are ignored. For example, Travel Time, travelTimeMinutes, and TRAVEL TIME MINUTES are equivalent. Time at Stop, Buffer, and bufferMinutes are also equivalent.

Each item may contain only one value for each field. Additional or unrecognised fields cause the action to stop with an error.

Location

OPTIONAL

A location associated with the Countdown.

Type: location

Accepts a place name, street address, or a Location variable supplied by another Shortcuts action.

Latitude

OPTIONAL

The latitude coordinate for the Countdown location.

Type: number

Used with Longitude when both coordinates are provided.

Longitude

OPTIONAL

The longitude coordinate for the Countdown location.

Type: number

Used with Latitude when both coordinates are provided.

Travel Time

OPTIONAL

The travel time associated with the Countdown, in minutes.

Type: number

Transport Type

REQUIRED

When used with a Location, Transport Type preselects your mode of transport when opening Apple Maps from the Countdown screen or using the alarm's secondary button to start turn-by-turn directions.

Type: menu

Options:

  • None (the default)
  • Car
  • Biking
  • Walking

Set to None when not adding a location or travel time

Route Transport Type

REQUIRED

Route Transport Type applies one transport mode, Car, Biking, or Walking, to every leg of the route. It affects the directions Timely opens in Apple Maps; it does not change the travel times supplied in Route JSON.

Type: menu

Options:

  • Car
  • Biking
  • Walking

Result

The Timely Countdown that was created. This can be passed to other actions: Set Alarm Start Countdown Live Activity Open in Timely Remove Countdowns

Confused or found a mistake? please let me know.