Keeping Shortcut Links Up-to-Date With RoutineHub
I’m the kind of person who likes to tinker, to fiddle, to update, to improve. So I was thrilled to find RoutineHub, which is a straightforward place for sharing shortcuts and, critically, keeping them updated over time.
It’s not overtly obvious, but an iCloud link created by Shortcuts is like a snapshot. It captures the shortcut only at the moment that it’s shared, so any changes made in the future are not reflected in that link. If you wanted to share a newer version, a new iCloud link must be generated. So while old links, like those I put in blog posts, still work just fine, they don’t point to the newer, better version when I make a change.
That’s where RoutineHub comes in. My plan going forward is to make sure each post gets two links when I write about shortcuts I’ve created:
- The original iCloud link. Since most of my blog posts about shortcuts contain screenshots, I want to make sure the original version can be referenced if a reader is following along.
- The RoutineHub link. This lets readers get the latest version of the shortcut, and see a change-log of updates over time.
As an example, I’ve updated my post about the Stand Goal Cheater shortcut with a RoutineHub link. My hope is that this also provides a guard against link rot in case Apple or RoutineHub change their URLs in the future.
In a nice touch, RoutineHub makes it quick and painless to update shortcuts right from the Shortcuts app itself using RoutinePub. This shortcut allows you to send your latest shortcut link, a version number, and an update note to the correct entry on your profile — all from the Share Sheet using an API. Because of course they do.
My profile on RoutineHub is pretty bare-bones right now, but I’ll be filling it out with things I want to share in due course.