Button

A button makes part of a canvas tappable. Add one when a widget should open a URL or run a shortcut from the Home Screen.

A button can contain any other view as its tappable content. A button does not draw a built-in label or shape of its own, so its visible content normally comes from child views or view settings such as background and border.

When a Run Shortcut button has no child views, a configured widget shortcut can supply the visible title.

Open a link when the tap should open a destination. Run a shortcut when the tap should do a small task, such as logging a value or changing a canvas.

The Action setting for choosing what a button does is available on iOS 27 or newer. On iOS 26, buttons can only use the Open URL action.

Open a Link from a Button

A button can open a website URL, such as https://example.com. It can also open another app with a URL scheme, if that app supports one.

For example, a button could open a website with https://example.com, open Mail with mailto:hello@example.com, or open another app with that app’s URL scheme.

To set it up:

1. Select the button view.
2. Set Action to Open URL.
3. Enter the website URL or app URL scheme in URL.

Run a shortcut from a button

To run a shortcut from a widget button, first create the shortcut, then tell the widget which shortcut each button should use.

To set it up:

1. Create the shortcut in the Shortcuts app.
2. In Canvases, open the canvas that contains the button.
3. Select the button view.
4. Set Action to Run Shortcut.
5. Set Shortcut Index to the shortcut position the button should run.
6. Add the canvas as a widget, then choose the shortcut when configuring the widget.

The Shortcut Index starts at 1. Use 1 for the first shortcut you choose in the widget configuration, 2 for the second shortcut, and so on.

Choose which Shortcuts the buttons run when configuring the widget on the Home Screen.

To run a shortcut from a button on iOS 26, set URL to a Shortcuts URL scheme. For the full workflow, see Run a shortcut from a widget button.

Properties

Identity

Property	Description
ID	Identifies the view so you can find it in the canvas and modify it with Shortcuts actions. Keep it stable for automations.
Visible	Hides the view without deleting it. Hidden views are not shown, but they stay in the canvas.

Action

Property	Description
Action	Chooses Open URL or Run Shortcut on iOS 27 or newer. On iOS 26, buttons only support Open URL.
URL	Sets the link used when Action is Open URL. On iOS 26, this can be a Shortcuts URL scheme that runs a shortcut.
Shortcut Index	Chooses which configured shortcut should run. 1 uses the first configured shortcut, 2 uses the second, and so on. If there is no shortcut at that position, nothing runs.

Layout

Property	Description
Frame	Controls size and alignment.
Offset	Moves the view visually with an offset.
Padding	Adds padding.

Appearance

Property	Description
Opacity	Sets transparency from 0 to 100.
Background	Adds a background.
Shadow	Adds a shadow.
Clip Shape	Clips the view to a shape.
Border	Adds a border.