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Selfie Ghost
Damned

Selfie Ghost

"Who's that standing behind you?"

Download shortcut⏱ 1m 15s setup

Open in Safari on your iPhone. Download the file, open it from Safari Downloads or Files, then follow the prompts to add it in Shortcuts.

What happens

Every third time they open Camera, the shortcut snaps a front-camera photo. It cuts them out of the picture, slips a pale ghost into the background behind their shoulder, then shows them the result with one line: who’s that behind you?

Setup

  1. Open this page in Safari on the iPhone, download the file (or AirDrop it), open it from Safari Downloads or Files, and tap Add Shortcut.
  2. Long-press it in Shortcuts → All Shortcuts → Rename and call it Camera Helper, so it doesn’t give itself away.
  3. With the phone unlocked and your face in view of the front camera, run it once. A fresh installation takes a test selfie immediately and shows the ghost composite. Tap Always Allow where offered for Camera and Files; allow any other requested access. The result is shown without an image-editing step.
  4. If you already used an older version, delete only selfie-ghost-count.txt in Files → iCloud Drive → Shortcuts → shortcut-to-hell before testing. Otherwise the saved counter still makes it run every third time. If it fails, run from the … editor to see the action that stops; check iCloud Drive and try a well-lit photo with a clear person for background removal.
  5. Once the manual test works, create Shortcuts → Automation → + → App, pick Camera, Is Opened, select Run Immediately, tap Next and choose Camera Helper. After the setup preview, the effect runs when the saved run count is divisible by three. Manual runs count too.

Undo

Open Shortcuts → Automation, swipe left on the automation and tap Delete. Then delete the shortcut. The composite is never saved to their library.

Variations

  • Edit the 3 in the shortcut to make it rarer (every 5th open) or every single time.

State and testing

The saved state lives in Files → iCloud Drive → Shortcuts → shortcut-to-hell: selfie-ghost-count.txt. Keep iCloud Drive available. Manual runs affect the same counters as automation runs. Deleting this shortcut does not delete its saved state.

Test the trigger

Installing the file does not create its automation. After the manual test, trigger the event once and check the result. If the shortcut picker is unavailable, create a blank automation, add Run Shortcut, and select this shortcut. Menus, previews and app-opening actions may still need interaction or an unlocked phone even with Run Immediately selected. If it stops, run from the shortcut’s … editor to identify the failing action.

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