‘Siri, I'm getting pulled over’: A new short cut for iPhones can automatically record the police
While the developer didn't base the short cut on existing apps, he's been inspired by projects of digital rights groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation
There is a big new feature for iPhone experts this year: It is called short cuts, and with a little bit of logic and know-how, you can stitch several apps together and create a script that can be activated by pressing a button or Siri.
Some of the early uses are predictable: saving Instagram photos, sharing the song you're listening to, or creating a morning routine that activates your lights and plays a song.
But Robert Petersen of Arizona has developed a more serious short cut called Police, which monitors police interactions so a user has a record of what has happened.
Once it is installed, you just have to say: “Hey Siri, I'm getting pulled over.”
Then the program, available on Reddit, pauses music you may be playing, turns down brightness on the iPhone, and turns on Do Not Disturb.
But it also sends a quick text to a predetermined contact to tell them you've been pulled over, and it starts recording using the iPhone's front-facing camera. Once you have stopped recording, it can text or email the video to a different predetermined contact and save it to Dropbox.