Shortcuts

What are shortcuts?

"Shortcuts let you create faster, easier ways to do your favorite things with your Google Assistant." For an overview on Shortcuts, check out this link.

For Prayer Pal, you can set up shorter phrases to equal longer phrases, so that you don't have to say the full query "Ask Prayer Pal what time is X prayer" every time. For example, you can set up "when is Fajr" to equal "ask Prayer Pal when is Fajr in Mountain View" and then you would only have to ask the Google Assistant "when is Fajr" instead of the full query.

How do i set them up?

Open the Google Assistant app's Settings page (or "More Settings" in the Google Home app), and go to Services → Shortcuts.

Click the plus (+) button to add a new shortcut, with a shorter phrase, such as "when is Fajr", to expand to "ask Prayer Pal when is Fajr". This will allow you to trigger Prayer Pal more quickly. Add variations of your query to equal the same longer phrase.

You can set this up for multiple prayers, and it should be reflected across all of your devices running the Google Assistant (e.g. iOS, Android, Google Home).

Although Prayer Pal also saves your location after your first request, you can also include it in your phrase:

• "when is Fajr?" → "ask Prayer Pal when is fajr in Mountain View"
• "what time is Isha?" → "ask Prayer Pal what time Isha is in Mountain View"

To use this with the most ease, set up multiple shortcuts and include variations for each of them:

• "when does Suhoor end?" → "ask Prayer Pal when suhoor ends in Mountain View"
• "when is Dhuhr?" → "ask Prayer Pal when is Dhuhr prayer"
• "what time is Asr?" → "ask Prayer Pal when is Asr"
• "when can I break my fast?" or "when is iftar?" → "ask Prayer Pal when can I break my fast"
• "when is Isha salah?" → "ask Prayer Pal when is Isha salah"