Sequel 2.3’s Magic Lookup Is a Perfect Example of How Apps Should Integrate AI

If you haven’t tried Sequel to track your media queues, you’re missing out and have some catching up to do. There’s a reason we gave Sequel 2.0 the MacStories Selects Best App Update award last year. The app, which is available on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro, is one of the very best media trackers in a very crowded field.

One way to get up to speed with Sequel’s core features is my review of version 2.0, which I won’t repeat here. Since that review, developer Romain Lefebvre has released updates that continue to improve the app in meaningful ways. However, today’s version 2.3 release is special because it’s one of the first apps I’ve tried that uses AI in a truly useful, non-gimmicky way. Plus, the update adds Shortcuts integration, allowing users to automate the app in new ways, as well as a Markdown-compatible note-taking feature and new layout and search options.

Adding a game to Sequel from an article on The Verge.

At the heart of Sequel’s latest update is the app’s aptly named Magic Lookup feature. If you use a media-tracking app, you can probably relate to the fact that adding new media to the app can be tedious. For example, maybe you’re reading an article about a new movie that you want to save in your media tracker. Most apps would require you to copy the movie’s title from the article, head over to the media app, run a search, and save the results.

Sequel’s Magic Lookup reduces that process to a few quick taps. The feature starts with Sequel’s share extension, which is available on the iPhone, iPad, and Vision Pro versions of the app. Tap it, and the app grabs the URL and runs the content through an AI model. A second or two later, Magic Lookup suggests media to add to Sequel. That’s all there is to it.

Best of all, Magic Lookup is reliable. It isn’t perfect, but it’s surprisingly good at pulling media from all sorts of sources. The feature will even offer multiple suggestions when an article mentions several different things, which I thought might stump it. Throw a Top 10 Movies of 2024 article at Magic Lookup, and more likely than not, the app will find all ten, which you can quickly add to the app by tapping the plus buttons from the search results.

The AI sometimes has trouble with TV series numbers, but overall is remarkably accurate.

If Magic Lookup finds something that looks like media but can’t find a perfect match in the media databases Sequel uses, you’ll get a search button instead, which will kick off a search in Sequel for the suggested text. If that doesn’t return the results you want, editing the search a little can help.

One example where Magic Lookup has a little trouble finding content is with TV shows where the name is described along with a season number. So, for example, when I found a Polygon article about TV shows debuting this summer that included ‘The Bear, season 3,’ Magic Lookup offered to search for ‘The Bear season 3’ instead of finding the show. I then ran a search for ‘The Bear, season 3’ and removed the reference to season 3, which worked. Later, I tried running the article through Magic Lookup again, and the AI found the series. Perhaps Sequel can be fine-tuned to deal with the app becoming confused about seasons, but that’s about the only wrinkle I’ve been able to find so far. Most of the time, I’m reading about a particular videogame, movie, book, or whatever, and the app finds it immediately, making it quick to add to my queue.

Adding Markdown notes to an item in Sequel.

Personal Notes is another excellent addition to Sequel. I often save media in the app that I want to talk about later on MacStories Unwind. With the app’s new notes feature and dedicated formatting bar, it’s simple to add headings, formatting, checklists, horizontal rules, block quotes, and links. Plus, because the notes are formatted as Markdown, it’s easy to then export them with the share sheet to another app, if you’d like.

A selection of Sequel’s Shortcuts actions.

Sequel 2.3 brings Shortcuts automation to the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro versions of the app for the first time, too. The app includes App Shortcuts to add items and open specific sections like ‘Movies,’ ‘Series,’ and ‘Games.’ However, for more complex automations, Sequel includes actions to edit items; get, add, and remove collections; open collections, items, libraries by type, and the search view; and find books, audiobooks, TV series and episodes, games, movies, and specific items, all with filtering options.

I haven’t spent a lot of time building shortcuts for my Sequel media collections yet, but there’s plenty here to explore and use to create some handy automations. For instance, I plan to create a shortcut that finds items with notes that contain ‘Unwind’ to make it easy to find media I want to recommend on the show.

Finally, Sequel 2.3 adds a layout option for larger media artwork and the ability to search for items within individual Library categories like Movies, Series, and Games.

Sequel has helped me fill out my movie queue effortlessly as I read my RSS feeds.

Sequel 2.3 is a big step forward for the app and one of my favorite app updates so far this year. Quickly saving things for later and then finding them again makes a big difference. Even the smallest amount of friction can convince someone that it’s not worth the time to save an item to the app in the first place. Magic Lookup reduces that friction in a meaningful way that makes it much easier to use.

Magic Lookup is also a shining example of AI implemented in a useful, positive way. It doesn’t try to make the reviews of media you find on the web obsolete. Instead, Sequel’s use of AI is additive, making it easier to continue enjoying what you’re reading and save recommendations for later. This is exactly the sort of AI integration I hope we see from Apple at WWDC next week.

Sequel 2.3 is available as a free download on the App Store. Certain features require a subscription.

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