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How can I control Time Out from another app?

· FAQ · Time Out

Time Out supports Apple Shortcuts and URL schemes, so you can control your breaks from other apps and automations.

Apple Shortcuts, Siri, and Spotlight

Time Out 4.0 and later includes native actions in Apple’s Shortcuts app. Search for Time Out when adding an action to find:

  • Start Break
  • Pause Breaks
  • Resume Breaks
  • Postpone Break
  • Skip Current Break
  • Reset Break Schedule
  • Make Break Due In
  • Get Break Status

Choose one of your configured breaks where applicable. Saved break selections continue to work if you rename the break.

For example, you could create a shortcut that pauses breaks before you give a presentation, or starts a stretching break when you’re ready to step away.

Make Break Due In changes a break’s due date to a chosen number of minutes from now. Use zero to make it due now. This preserves whether the break is enabled or paused.

Get Break Status returns information including the break’s name, whether it is active, paused, or enabled, and its next due date when applicable. You can use these values in other shortcut actions and conditions.

You can also run Time Out actions from Spotlight. Try searching for “check break status” or “check normal break status”. The actions provide spoken responses when used with Siri, too.

URL schemes

For apps and automation tools that can open URLs, Time Out also supports the following commands:

  • timeout://break/micro/start will start the Micro break.
  • timeout://break/micro/postpone1 will postpone the Micro break by the first postpone amount configured for that break.
  • timeout://break/normal/postpone2 will postpone the Normal break by its second postpone amount.
  • timeout://break/micro/postpone/2m will postpone the Micro break by a custom amount, in this case two minutes.
  • timeout://postpone/2m will postpone all breaks by two minutes.
  • timeout://break/mybreak/skip will skip “My Break”; use lowercase and omit spaces and punctuation for the break name in the URL.
  • timeout://break/micro/reset will reset the Micro break.
  • timeout://break/micro/pause/1h will pause only the Micro break for one hour.
  • timeout://break/micro/resume will resume only the Micro break.
  • timeout://pause will pause breaks indefinitely.
  • timeout://pause/10m will pause breaks for 10 minutes.
  • timeout://resume will resume after a pause.
  • timeout://settings or timeout://preferences will show the Settings window.
  • timeout://calendar/reload will reload all calendar break schedules.
  • timeout://break/micro/reload-calendar will reload the Micro break’s calendar schedule.
  • timeout://settings/advanced/console will open the Console app.
  • timeout://settings/advanced/terminal will open the Terminal app.

For time intervals, use “s”, “m”, “h”, or “d” for seconds, minutes, hours, or days. An interval without a suffix is interpreted as minutes.

Replace “micro”, “normal”, or “mybreak” with the name of your own break, using lowercase and omitting spaces and punctuation.

Run a shortcut from Time Out

You can go the other direction, too: have Time Out run an Apple Shortcut before, during, or after a break.

On the Break Actions page, add a Run Shortcut action, choose your shortcut, and select when it should run. You can optionally pass text to the shortcut as input.

You can even choose When Button Clicked to add a button to the break control panel, so you can run the shortcut whenever you choose during a break.

Let me know if there are other automation features you’d find useful!