Beacon provides reading actions to Siri and the Shortcuts app, so you can refresh before a commute or file an article without opening Beacon.
Asking Siri
Say what you want done, naming Beacon: “Refresh Beacon”, “Follow a feed in Beacon” or “Mark all articles read in Beacon”. Actions that read or change your articles require local-device authentication.
The actions
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Refresh Feeds | Checks every feed you follow for new articles |
| Follow Feed | Follows a website or feed |
| Find Articles | Returns articles matching a search, for use in a shortcut |
| Find Feeds | Returns the feeds you follow that match a search |
| Open Article | Opens Beacon to one article |
| Open Feed | Opens Beacon to one feed |
| Set Article Read State | Marks an article read or unread |
| Set Article Saved State | Saves an article, or removes it from Saved |
| Mark All as Read | Marks every unread article read (in Classic) |
| Summarise Article | Summarises an article on your device |
| Ask About Article | Answers a question about an article, on your device |
| Get Article Text | Hands a whole article to Siri, if you have turned that on |
Find Articles is the one to build on: it returns a list, so a shortcut can take those articles and act on each in turn without you naming them.
Widget
Unread shows what is waiting. Add it from the Home Screen or Lock Screen widget gallery, or from Edit Widgets on Mac.
Asking about what you are reading
Open an article and say ”Summarise this article in Beacon”. Beacon knows which article you have open, so you do not have to name it.
It works on the whole article, not the part on screen. Beacon hands Siri a reference to the article rather than a picture of your screen, then reads the full text itself, so a summary covers the paragraphs you have scrolled past as well as the ones in front of you.
”Ask about this article in Beacon” answers a question from the same text. Both are processed on your device through Apple Intelligence. If the article does not answer the question, Beacon says so rather than guessing.
Letting Siri read the whole article
Beacon’s own answers are deliberately narrow: one article, one question, no outside knowledge. If you want Siri’s full reasoning instead (open-ended follow-ups, comparing a piece with something else, or carrying it into another app), turn on Let Siri read full articles in Settings ▸ General.
With it on, Beacon can hand a whole article to Siri when you ask. Apple Intelligence may process that request on Apple’s servers rather than on your device. It is off until you turn it on, and Beacon’s own summaries and answers keep working either way.
Automations worth building
- Refresh Feeds on arriving at a location, so the queue is current before you sit down.
- Find Articles for a topic, then Set Article Saved State, to file a subject automatically.
- Mark All as Read on a weekly trigger, if you want to clear unread items on a regular schedule.
- Summarise Article over the results of Find Articles, to triage a backlog without opening each one.