Siri, Shortcuts, Widgets, and System Intents

Expo recently shipped expo-app-intents, which wires Apple’s App Intents framework to JavaScript: Siri and Shortcuts phrases, runtime entity catalogs, Apple app schemas for Apple Intelligence, Spotlight indexing, and a native queue for invocations that arrive before JavaScript starts.

@capgo/capacitor-app-intents is the Capacitor bridge for Apple App Intents: Siri and Shortcuts phrases (via compile time codegen), runtime entity catalogs, Spotlight indexing, Home Screen quick actions, and a pending invocation queue for cold starts. Widget Kit, Live Activities, Share Target, and Intent Launcher still cover adjacent surfaces. This page maps how they fit together so you can ship system integrations without mixing Android Intent APIs with Apple App Intents.

Quick map

System surface	Capgo plugin	What the plugin actually does
Home Screen widgets, Lock Screen Live Activities, Dynamic Island (SVG or native widget code)	@capgo/capacitor-widget-kit	Persist template activities, run declarative actions, log widget or Live Activity taps, sync full-native widget sessions over App Groups.
Live Activities with JSON layout trees	@capgo/capacitor-live-activities	Start, update, and end ActivityKit activities from Capacitor; timer sequences; shared images in App Group.
Receive shares from other apps	@capgo/capacitor-share-target	shareReceived events for title, text, and files via Android intents or an iOS Share Extension plus App Group.
Open Android settings or activities; open iOS Settings URLs	@capgo/capacitor-intent-launcher	startActivityAsync, openIOSSettings, openApplication. This is not Apple App Intents.
Siri phrases, Shortcuts, Spotlight, quick actions, App Intent queue	@capgo/capacitor-app-intents	Dispatch bridge, setEntityCatalog, indexSpotlightEntities, setHomeScreenShortcutItems, getPendingInvocations, useAppIntentsListener. iOS 16+.
On-device LLM (Apple Intelligence on supported iPhones)	@capgo/capacitor-llm	Chat and model APIs. No App Intent or schema bridge.

Comparison with expo-app-intents

Use this table when evaluating parity. Rows marked partial mean only a narrow slice overlaps.

expo-app-intents capability	Capgo today
Custom actions in Siri and the Shortcuts app with spoken phrases	Yes with @capgo/capacitor-app-intents. Phrases are compile time literals in generated Swift (AppShortcutsProvider), not runtime JavaScript strings.
Shortcut parameters backed by JS entity catalogs (AppEntity, EntityQuery)	Yes with @capgo/capacitor-app-intents via setEntityCatalog() and native EntityQuery wiring.
Apple app schemas (for example mail draft intents for Apple Intelligence)	Partial. App Intents exposes performAppleSchemaTemplate as a JavaScript queue only (no native Mail API). You implement compose UI or deep links in your app.
Spotlight indexing and searchable app content	Yes with @capgo/capacitor-app-intents via indexSpotlightEntities() (CSSearchableItem, plus IndexedEntity on iOS 18+).
Associate onscreen content with entities for system intelligence	Partial. Entity catalogs power Shortcuts parameters; full onscreen association APIs are not exposed yet.
Native queue for actions fired before JavaScript is ready	Yes for App Intents via @capgo/capacitor-app-intents (getPendingInvocations, appIntentInvoked). Share Target and Widget Kit still use their own retention models for shares and template events.
Interactive Live Activity or widget buttons via App Intents	Partial. Widget Kit ships CapgoTemplateActionIntent and CompleteSetIntent as LiveActivityIntent types for template hotspot and workout actions on iOS 17+. They update native state and the event log; they do not expose arbitrary Siri phrases from JavaScript.
WidgetKit and ActivityKit from app JavaScript	Yes. Widget Kit and Live Activities plugins (see below).
Android Intent actions (settings, VIEW, SEND, and similar)	Yes for launching and receiving via Intent Launcher and Share Target.

Widget Kit: widgets, Live Activities, and template actions

@capgo/capacitor-widget-kit is the closest match to system-visible UI outside your WebView. You can drive Lock Screen and Dynamic Island surfaces from Capacitor, render Home Screen widgets from SVG templates or native Swift/Kotlin code, and process taps after the fact.

Start a template Live Activity and handle actions in JavaScript

Register a listener when the app boots, then poll or call after App resume because widget taps may run while the WebView is still loading:

import { App } from '@capacitor/app';
import { CapgoWidgetKit } from '@capgo/capacitor-widget-kit';

const ACTIVITY_ID = 'order-tracker';

async function drainTemplateEvents() {
  const { events } = await CapgoWidgetKit.listTemplateEvents({
    activityId: ACTIVITY_ID,
    unacknowledgedOnly: true,
  });

  for (const event of events) {
    if (event.actionId === 'mark-delivered') {
      // Update your app state from event.state or event.payload
    }
    await CapgoWidgetKit.acknowledgeTemplateEvents({
      eventIds: [event.eventId],
    });
  }
}

await CapgoWidgetKit.startTemplateActivity({
  activityId: ACTIVITY_ID,
  state: { status: 'On the way' },
  definition: {
    id: 'delivery-card',
    actions: [
      {
        id: 'mark-delivered',
        eventName: 'delivery.marked',
      },
    ],
    layouts: {
      lockScreen: {
        width: 200,
        height: 80,
        svg: '<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 200 80"><text x="8" y="40">{{state.status}}</text></svg>',
        hotspots: [
          {
            id: 'deliver',
            actionId: 'mark-delivered',
            x: 120,
            y: 20,
            width: 70,
            height: 40,
            label: 'Mark delivered',
          },
        ],
      },
    },
  },
});

App.addListener('resume', () => {
  void drainTemplateEvents();
});

void drainTemplateEvents();

On iOS, interactive controls in the widget extension can call the bundled CapgoTemplateActionIntent (LiveActivityIntent). That path updates stored template state and appends to the same event log your JavaScript reads. It is not the same as adding a user-visible Shortcut phrase in the Shortcuts app.

See Widget Kit getting started for App Group setup and full-native widget sessions.

Live Activities: JSON layouts from Capacitor

@capgo/capacitor-live-activities focuses on ActivityKit with declarative layout JSON (text, images, timers, gauges, Dynamic Island regions). It does not register App Intents or Siri shortcuts.

import { CapgoLiveActivities } from '@capgo/capacitor-live-activities';

const { supported } = await CapgoLiveActivities.areActivitiesSupported();
if (!supported) {
  return;
}

const { activityId } = await CapgoLiveActivities.startActivity({
  layout: {
    type: 'container',
    direction: 'vertical',
    children: [
      { type: 'text', content: 'Order {{orderId}}', fontWeight: 'bold' },
      { type: 'text', content: '{{status}}' },
    ],
  },
  data: { orderId: '42', status: 'Preparing' },
});

await CapgoLiveActivities.updateActivity({
  activityId,
  data: { orderId: '42', status: 'Out for delivery' },
});

Choose Live Activities when you want the layout DSL and image helpers. Choose Widget Kit when you need Home Screen widgets, SVG frames, or the template event log and LiveActivityIntent buttons.

Share Target: incoming shares (not outgoing Shortcuts)

@capgo/capacitor-share-target lets other apps send content into your app. On iOS you add a Share Extension that writes to an App Group; the main app plugin reads and clears that payload and emits shareReceived.

Cold start is handled on iOS: the native plugin calls notifyListeners(..., retainUntilConsumed: true) so the first JavaScript listener still receives the event.

import { CapacitorShareTarget } from '@capgo/capacitor-share-target';

await CapacitorShareTarget.addListener('shareReceived', (event) => {
  const firstText = event.texts[0] ?? '';
  const firstFile = event.files[0];
  console.log(event.title, firstText, firstFile?.uri);
});

This complements Android SEND intent filters. It does not publish share shortcuts or Siri actions from your app.

Intent Launcher: Android intents and iOS Settings (not App Intents)

The name is easy to confuse with Apple App Intents. @capgo/capacitor-intent-launcher only launches Android activities (including ActivityAction.CREATE_SHORTCUT for legacy launcher shortcuts) and opens iOS Settings URL schemes.

import { IntentLauncher, ActivityAction, IOSSettings } from '@capgo/capacitor-intent-launcher';

await IntentLauncher.startActivityAsync({
  action: ActivityAction.WIFI_SETTINGS,
});

await IntentLauncher.openIOSSettings({ option: IOSSettings.App });

For Siri, the Shortcuts app, and AppIntent types, use @capgo/capacitor-app-intents. Intent Launcher only launches Android activities and iOS Settings URLs.

Suggested combinations

Goal	Start here
Lock Screen plus Dynamic Island with SVG and tap logging	Widget Kit
Rich layout JSON and timer sequences	Live Activities
User shares a link or file into your app	Share Target
Deep link user to WiFi or app settings	Intent Launcher
Siri phrase that runs your JS handler with entity parameters	App Intents (codegen for phrases, setEntityCatalog, useAppIntentsListener)

Remaining gaps (for planning)

Area	Status
Widget Kit custom AppShortcut phrases tied to the template event log	Widget Kit still bundles LiveActivityIntent helpers only; arbitrary Siri phrases belong in App Intents codegen.
Share Target polling API	Events only today; use addListener('shareReceived') early on boot.
Native Apple Mail schema intents	Not available to third party apps; App Intents queues a JS handler instead.
Android App Intents parity	App Intents is iOS 16+ only; Android returns a clear error.

Keep going

• App Intents overview
• Widget Kit overview
• Live Activities overview
• Share Target overview
• Intent Launcher overview