To me, the biggest thing here is that it takes a completely different approach than what has been the traditional path for voice assistants. In the past, it was always the game of waiting either for a custom skill or app, or it was hoping that Google or Amazon would program in some logic for handling a particular case.

Shortcuts enables basically any end user with enough devotion and dedication to short circuit this. It doesn’t require them to be an app developer and it doesn’t require them to learn code at all. The most basic shortcuts can be created without any if-then-else logic while enabling so much.

I’ve seen my mom ask her Google Assistant to do things with “and” a lot and they just don’t work because command chaining hasn’t been implemented. But with Shorcuts, she could conceivably make a chain and designate a phrase to be conversationally equivalent with an “and” in the middle.

Instead of having to explain to family why Siri can’t do X or Y, I can just make a Shortcut or show them how, and I’ve solved the problem rather than explaining why it can’t be done.