After last week’s outage with Shortcuts links shared online, I received a statement from Apple on the manner:
“We are aware of an issue where previously shared shortcuts are currently unavailable. Newly shared shortcuts are available, and we are working to restore previously shared shortcuts as quickly as possible.”
Since then, they seem to have begun restoring access to previous iCloud links (according to Federico Viticci’s tweets).
It was good to see Apple give a proper response to the situation as well as promptly begin fixing things – although I haven’t received any official statement as a follow-up, so it’s unclear whether it has been fully resolved yet.
I hope Apple also reconsiders making .shortcut files available to install locally so users don’t have to rely on links instead of actual files for the multitude of programs that they spend time and effort creating with this app.
Until then, here’s what’s new this week:
? LINKS SINCE LAST TIME
New Shortcuts videos from Mikah & Rosemary, Christopher Young, and the folks at MacRumors:
- **Jason Snell: Sharing All My Shortcuts | Six Colors**
In the processing of restoring his shortcuts, Jason Snell has shared his own set for public consumption – it’s a great list and gives insight into one of the top Apple writers’ particular workflows built on top of Shortcuts. - **John Vorhees’ new shortcut | Club MacStories**
John Vorhees has come up with another great Club MacStories shortcut – I wanted to link it here because it uses a clever combination of online services and local files to create a personal read-it-later system outside of normal article-saving apps. - **Working Agile in Slack with Shortcuts**
Scotty Jackson is back at it again with his shortcuts work, this time tapping into Slack’s API to use their Block Kit capability to create rich posts for his workspace – he’s also got data stored in Data Jar which is a good way to interact with APIs.
? NEW FROM ME THIS WEEK
I had a bit of downtime last week after the Shortcuts outage trying to get my website properly updated and reassessing some of how I’m backing up my shortcuts, so just one new shortcut for members this week – I’m lining up a few streams for next week, so stay tuned:
- **Overcast Controller** ?
I’ve taken all the actions available in Overcast and created a new Overcast Controller shortcut for members – it includes menus for playback, controlling speeds at specific intervals, and what I think is a clever way to save a quote from a specific moment.
