Set Group State

The Set Group State App Intent changes the active state of one Group or Smart Group. It can run in the background without opening Action Phrase.

Use it to:

• Add one group to the active phrase scope.
• Remove one group without affecting other active groups.
• Toggle a group based on its current state.
• Build Shortcuts and personal automations that change phrase availability.

Set Group State changes phrase scope only. It does not start listening, run a phrase, or enable individually disabled phrases.

Requirements

• Action Phrase must be installed.
• At least one Group or Smart Group must exist.
• Groups require Action Phrase Core or higher.
• To use a group stored On This Device, the On This Device account must be enabled in Action Phrase.

Add the action to a shortcut

1. Open Apple’s Shortcuts app.
2. Create a shortcut or open an existing one.
3. Select Add Action.
4. Search for Set Group State or Action Phrase.
5. Select the group you want to change.
6. Choose Enable, Disable, or Toggle.
7. Configure Turn Off All Phrases if needed.
8. Run the shortcut to test it.

After naming the shortcut, you can run it from Siri, a widget, the Action button, another shortcut, or a personal automation.

Parameters

Actions

Enable

Adds the selected group to the active group selection.

• Other active groups remain active.
• Enabling an already active group does not create a duplicate.
• If Turn Off All Phrases is on, All Phrases is turned off.

Disable

Removes the selected group from the active group selection.

• Other active groups are not changed.
• Disabling an already inactive group has no additional effect.
• Turn Off All Phrases does not apply when disabling a group.

Toggle

Checks the group’s state when the shortcut runs:

• An inactive group becomes active.
• An active group becomes inactive.
• Turn Off All Phrases applies only when the toggle results in the group being enabled.

All Phrases behavior

When All Phrases is enabled, it takes precedence over the active group selection. Updating a group while All Phrases remains on changes the saved group selection, but all enabled phrases remain available for matching.

Turn on Turn Off All Phrases when you want an enabled group to become part of the effective phrase scope immediately.

Turn Off All Phrases only takes effect when the command enables the group. To turn off All Phrases while disabling a group, add a separate Set All Phrases action configured to Disable.

Examples

Enable a production group

This turns off All Phrases and adds Production to the active groups without removing any other active groups.

Disable a rehearsal group

This removes Rehearsal while preserving every other active group.

Create a group toggle

Each run switches Presentation between active and inactive. All Phrases is turned off only when Presentation becomes active.

Groups and Smart Groups

For a standard Group, activating it makes its enabled member phrases available for matching.

For a Smart Group, activating it makes enabled phrases matching the Smart Group’s tag filter available. Its contents can therefore change automatically as phrase tags are edited.

Related App Intents

Troubleshooting

“Upgrade to use this advanced action in phrases.”

Group controls require Action Phrase Core or higher.

“The selected group could not be found.”

The group may have been deleted or become unavailable. Edit the shortcut and select the group again. If it is stored On This Device, confirm that the On This Device account is enabled.

Phrases outside the selected group still match

All Phrases is probably enabled. Enable Turn Off All Phrases, or add Set All Phrases with its state set to Disable.

The action ran, but listening did not start

Set Group State only changes phrase scope. Add Set Listening State if the shortcut should also start listening.