How to shorten a link on iPhone

Three ways to do it on the device, and one situation where shortening actively hurts.

6 August 2026 by PAD team

With Shortcuts, no app required

The Shortcuts app can call any shortening API and return the result to the share sheet. Build it once with a URL action, a Get Contents of URL action pointing at your service, and a Copy to Clipboard at the end. After that, shortening is two taps from anywhere.

With a service directly

Any shortener works in Safari. The friction is switching apps, which is why the Shortcuts route wins if you do this more than occasionally.

With your own domain

Worth it if links are part of how you present a product. Links on your own domain avoid the reputation problems generic shorteners have with spam filters and some social platforms, and they survive the service going out of business.

When not to shorten

If the destination is an App Store link that people will tap inside Instagram or Facebook, shortening changes nothing about the outcome. The short link resolves in the same browser and meets the same wall, described in the main write-up.

Worse, some services drop query parameters on redirect, which quietly removes your campaign attribution while leaving the link apparently working.

A quick check

curl -sIL 'https://short.example/abc' | grep -i '^location'

Follow the chain and confirm your parameters are still attached at the end. If they are gone, the shortener is eating them.