App Store Guideline 2.5.11: SiriKit and Shortcuts in Fitness Apps

The guideline text#

Quoted verbatim from Apple's App Review Guidelines, which the page states were last updated June 8, 2026. We checked the text on October 3, 2026. Apple revises the guidelines and sometimes renumbers sub-items, so compare this against the live page before you cite it in a reply to App Review.

2.5.11 SiriKit and Shortcuts

(i) Apps integrating SiriKit and Shortcuts should only sign up for intents they can handle without the support of an additional app and that users would expect from the stated functionality. For example, if your app is a meal planning app, you should not incorporate an intent to start a workout, even if the app shares integration with a fitness app.

(ii) Ensure that the vocabulary and phrases in your plist pertains to your app and the Siri functionality of the intents the app has registered for. Aliases must relate directly to your app or company name and should not be generic terms or include third-party app names or services.

(iii) Resolve the Siri request or Shortcut in the most direct way possible and do not insert ads or other marketing between the request and its fulfillment. Only request a disambiguation when required to complete the task (e.g. asking the user to specify a particular type of workout).

What it means for a fitness app#

Apple uses workouts as the example twice in this guideline: once for an intent an app shouldn't register, and once for a follow-up question that's acceptable.

• (i) Which intents to register. A workout app that starts and tracks workouts itself can register a start-workout intent. A meal planning or nutrition app shouldn't, according to the guideline's own example, "even if the app shares integration with a fitness app". The test is whether your app can complete the intent without another app, and whether users would expect it from what the app says it does.
• (ii) Vocabulary and aliases. Phrases in your plist should be about your app and the intents it registers. An alias has to relate directly to your app or company name. A bare generic word, or another company's app name, doesn't qualify.
• (iii) Fulfilment. When someone asks Siri or runs a shortcut to start a workout, the workout should start with nothing promotional in between. Asking which type of workout is the one disambiguation the guideline names as acceptable, and only when it's needed.

The workout intents Apple documents#

Two Apple APIs carry a start-workout request:

• SiriKit's INStartWorkoutIntent. Apple: "SiriKit creates an INStartWorkoutIntent object when the user asks to start a workout using your app. A start workout intent identifies the user-selected workout type and goals." It also says that "SiriKit launches your app and passes it an NSUserActivity object your app must then use to start the workout."
• App Intents' StartWorkoutIntent, "An App Intent for starting a workout", which Apple lists as available from iOS 16.0 and watchOS 9.0. Apple: "On Apple Watch Ultra, this intent registers a start workout action for the Action button."

Guideline 2.5.11 covers both, since it names SiriKit and Shortcuts.

What typically triggers it in a fitness app#

These come from the guideline text, not from a log of rejections.

• A start-workout intent the app can't fulfil by itself. For example, a nutrition app that registers one and hands the workout to a partner app. The guideline's example rules this out.
• Generic or third-party aliases. An alias that is a generic term, or that includes another app's or service's name.
• Marketing before the workout starts. An ad or promotion between the Siri request and the workout, which 2.5.11(iii) says not to insert.
• Follow-up questions the request didn't need. Asking for details when the request was already complete. The guideline says to request a disambiguation only when required.

Checklist before you resubmit#

1. Register only intents the app fulfils by itself. Go through each SiriKit intent and shortcut the app signs up for, and drop any that needs another app to complete. Guideline 2.5.11(i) says apps should only sign up for intents they can handle without the support of an additional app.
2. Match intents to what the app says it does. A start-workout intent belongs in an app users would expect to start workouts. The guideline's own example is a meal planning app that should not incorporate an intent to start a workout, even if it shares integration with a fitness app.
3. Audit plist vocabulary and aliases. Keep the vocabulary and phrases in your plist about your app and the intents it registers. Under 2.5.11(ii), aliases must relate directly to your app or company name, not generic terms or third-party app names or services.
4. Start the workout directly. Remove ads, promotions or other marketing between the Siri request or shortcut and the workout starting. Guideline 2.5.11(iii) asks you to resolve the request in the most direct way possible.
5. Ask follow-up questions only when you need the answer. Request a disambiguation, such as which type of workout, only when the request can't be completed without it. That is the example 2.5.11(iii) itself uses.

Related#

• If a voice-started workout keeps running with the screen off, background modes come under guideline 2.5.4.
• For how a watchOS workout app is put together, see the anatomy of a watchOS workout app.
• Apple's health-data rules are summarized in the App Store health data rules overview.

A note on limits#

The guideline doesn't say how App Review treats a start-workout intent behind a subscription, and we couldn't find Apple text on it. 2.5.11(iii) covers ads and marketing between a request and its fulfilment, nothing more specific. This page is general guidance, not legal advice.