Direct links to Apple News sections
March 12, 2025 at 7:04 AM by Dr. Drang
Yes, the ads are annoying, but I’m coming around to Apple News. And I’ve found it’s better if I don’t have to scroll to get to my favorite sections or channels. Here are a couple of Shortcuts that get me directly to places I like to go in the app when I’m on my phone or iPad. I’ve saved them both to my home screen, so I can get where I want to go with just a tap.
Let’s start with Puzzles. Some months ago, I saw either a blog post or a toot on Mastodon that explained a simple way to make this Shortcut. I’d like to credit the person who created it, but I didn’t think I’d be writing about it, so I didn’t take note. Sorry about that, whoever you are.
When I say it’s simple, I’m not kidding. It’s a single step:1
| Step | Action | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
Open the given URL |
The URL in the action is
https://apple.news/puzzles
which is a nice, readable URL. And although the “documentation” for (it’s just one sentence in the Shortcuts app) says it opens the URL in Safari, it doesn’t. The system is smarter than the people who write the Shortcuts docs, and it knows to open a URL like this in News.
Like all Shortcuts, this one can be activated by an icon on the home screen. To make the icon, follow Apple’s directions, which are, thankfully, more complete than the info on the action.
More recently, I wanted a similar way to go directly to the Scientific American channel in News. I copied the Puzzles Shortcut and tried changing the URL to something equally nice, like
https://apple.news/scientificamerican
or
https://apple.news/sciam
but none of these nice URLs worked. So I went to the SciAm channel in News, tapped on the three-dot menu in the upper right corner, and chose from the menu.
This put the rather unfriendly URL,
https://apple.news/TveHp0EHGTXenwIFMSprU9g
on my clipboard, which I pasted into the action, giving me this Shortcut:
| Step | Action | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
Open the given URL |
I made a home screen icon for it, too, and it works as expected. The hardest part was choosing a “scientific” icon. I thought there’d be an Ehrlenmeyer flask or microscope icon in the list of choices, but no go. Then I saw the atom icon, which is perfect.
I was a little worried that the unfriendly URL was somehow unique to me, so I asked on Mastodon for others to try it. It seems to work for everyone, even if you don’t follow the SciAm channel. Thanks to Eric Wooten, keven humdrum, and Dr. Juande Santander-Vela for testing it for me.
Obviously, this is a technique you can extend to other parts of the News app. It’s often nice to skip over the political news to get to more pleasant topics.
Update 12 Mar 2025 11:41 AM
James Fee wanted to jump immediately to the Sports section. It wasn’t as easy as finding the link to Scientific American, but he figured it out. The URL is
https://apple.news/TYOpCNr2eTWS1swf0gCKkOQ
He shared it with me, so I’m sharing it with you.
-
Which is why I’m not bothering to make an iCloud link to the Shortcut. ↩