Install and Sync Shortcuts
Before we dive further into the world of shortcut creation, we should look at how to cheat and let someone else do all the hard work—after all, that’s another step on the rung of the automation ladder.
Install Shortcuts from iCloud Links
Throughout this book, and on the internet in general, there are links to shortcuts you can download and install. Anyone can make and share these shortcuts. However, unlike in the App Store there is no vetting process, so you have to judge for yourself whether something is safe.
Before you can install shortcuts from links, you must enable “Untrusted Shortcuts” in Settings > Shortcuts, and type in your device passcode to confirm your choice. If the option isn’t there, install a shortcut from the gallery (one that shouldn’t interrupt your life too much is the “Word of the Day”) and run it a few times, then try again. Once the setting is turned on, you can install shortcuts from iCloud links and share them in the same way.
Evaluate Actions
Before you install a shortcut, you should evaluate it to see what it does and what it is trying to access. Each shortcut needs your permission to access apps and URLs, but before you get that far you can see what is in a shortcut when you first click the link to install it (Figure 41).
On this screen you can see all the actions in the shortcut, exactly what it does, and which apps it accesses. There are two buttons at the bottom of the view, below a disclaimer from Apple. Our gut instinct is usually not to tap the big red button, but in this case that’s exactly what we need to do to install the shortcut. To back out and avoid installing the shortcut, tap the second button (or tap Cancel at the top).
Review Shortcut App Access
Tap on the More 
icon in the shortcuts editor or open the Details view from your Shortcuts Library. Now you can see which apps your shortcut wants to access and whether or not it currently has access to them. You can toggle each app on and off. When the shortcut runs, it asks for any permissions it needs to run. If you do not permit it, then it will exit when it reaches that action.
Sync Your Shortcuts
I personally get really confused when something that is on one of my devices isn’t on another, which is why I recommend that you turn on Shortcuts Sync. This is a toggle in Settings > Shortcuts.
The setting Sync Shortcut Order does what it says on the tin—it keeps the order of shortcuts consistent across your devices. This has a knock on effect because the order of your shortcuts reflects the order of the shortcuts your today widget.
Share Your Shortcuts
You can share your shortcuts with friends, family, and if you want to—the wider internet. First you must enable untrusted shortcuts, if you haven’t already done so (detailed above in Install Shortcuts from iCloud Links). Afterward, when you open a shortcut to edit it the, share 
icon will show up in the bottom bar. When your share a shortcut, it generates an iCloud link, which contains a random combination of letters and numbers. Every time you generate a link, it creates a new URL.
Import Questions
When you share your shortcut, you want to remove any personal information, but also make it easy for others to set up. Import Questions are an easy way to do this—when someone installs the shortcut after tapping “Add Untrusted Shortcut,” you walk them through filling in any necessary details, and you don’t have to be there to do so.
To create import questions, tap the More icon in the shortcuts editor, and then tap Import Questions. Here you can add almost as many questions as there are actions—if that’s necessary. For each question, you can write out your query—providing multiple lines of detail and information if you want to—and you can also specify a default answer. What the import question is for dictates what kind of default answer you can set—text fields need text, and you have to set a toggle to true or false. A good example of an import question would be your home address in a shortcut to get directions home. You probably don’t want everyone to come and see you when they want to go home, they need to go to their home. Anything that needs to be customized for the user is a good candidate for an Import Question.
Security
There is no way to limit who can see a shortcut after you create the link, so give the link only to people you want to be able to access it. Technically anyone can guess and use your iCloud link, but it’s statistically highly unlikely that they will find the needed URL. If you delete the shortcut from your device(s), the iCloud link will still work, so if you keep it somewhere safe, you can reinstall at any time.
You can stop sharing a shortcut if you want or need to, though the steps are not the most obvious:
Share the shortcut again.
Copy the link to the shared shortcut.
Open the link (you can paste it into Safari to do this).
Tap the Open to open the shortcut in Shortcuts.
Tap the More
icon in the top-right corner.Tap Stop Sharing.