Shrinking Phone
Text gets one notch smaller every day. They'll blame their eyes first.
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
Each morning their system text size drops one notch: Default, Medium, Small, then Extra Small, where it stays. Slow enough that it takes days to notice, and by then they’ve booked an eye test.
Setup
- 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.
- Long-press it in Shortcuts → All Shortcuts → Rename and call it Display Helper, so it doesn’t give itself away.
- Run it while unlocked and choose Always Allow where offered; allow any other requested access. Confirm its effect before creating the automation. (The first run sets Default, so nothing visibly changes yet.)
- Shortcuts → Automation → + → Time of Day, set 6:00 AM, Daily, select Run Immediately, tap Next and choose the shortcut.
Undo
Open Shortcuts → Automation, swipe left on the automation and tap Delete. Then delete the shortcut. Reset Settings → Display & Brightness → Text Size, and delete shortcut-to-hell/shrinking-phone-day.txt in Files → iCloud Drive → Shortcuts so a reinstall starts fresh.
State and testing
The saved state lives in Files → iCloud Drive → Shortcuts → shortcut-to-hell: shrinking-phone-day.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.