Gadgetory

have you been looking for an easier way to create and share short links from your phone I'm Taylor Martin this is pocket now and this is how you automate short links on Android smartphones have become powerful social tools we tend to use them not only for consumption but also for sharing personally I share a lot of photos some videos and a ton of links almost every single day unfortunately sharing links isn't always straight forward on a mobile platform when sharing from my computer I tend to use a bit ly extension not only because it's convenient but because it helps me track the number of clicks my personal links get as well as various demographics about those who click the links using the bitly extension in chrome is simple instead of clicking in the address bar and manually copying the link I simply click the pufferfish icon click save link and I have it set to automatically copy the short link is then ready for pasting the problem with sharing links while mobile is that there are very few quick and simple ways to shorten links why shorten why not simply share a long link for starters it looks neater and obviously saves characters sharing a long link via SMS may break the link up between two text messages and if like me you like to track the analytics of your shared links you can use a shortening service when sharing with Google+ Twitter or Facebook to keep tabs on the performance of your personal links the fact of the matter is shortening links for mobile is terribly over complicated however there is an application on Android when set up correctly make shortening links even with your preferred shortening service much easier the application is called URL why I've been using it for years and it's always among one of the first applications I install when setting up a new device unfortunately the UI is hideous and antiquated and the application hasn't been updated in over a year but it works flawlessly and best of all it's entirely free initially it works just as any link shortener app works open the browser tap in the address bar long press select all copy openurl why paste and shorten that's no less than seven steps every time you want to share a shortened link after two or three times a process like that forces you to not want to share shorten links and you'll likely end up going back to sharing long nasty looking links and only returned to URL why when you absolutely need a shortened link you can also choose to share to you are ly and it will auto shortened links using a default service and from there you can choose to share the short link but you r ly offers settings toggles that make it even easier to share short links open the application and press the wrench icon at the bottom of the display open the short URL sub menu choose manage services then select services I personally use bit ly but if you have a short number of choice it's best to select just one under the user credentials menu you can also log into your service which will help with tracking later back out to the short URL submenu once again and select options in the page titles menu uncheck fetch page title next make sure complete long URL is checked and if you prefer the prefix HTTP colon forward slash forward slash to be removed from your short URL check crop short URL then check paste from clipboard auto shorten and prompt for custom URL should already be checked uncheck prompt for custom URL if you plan on pasting links often you can leave copy to clipboard checked.check autoshare and the last two options are completely based upon preference to share a shortened link now open a page in your browser and share the page select URL why the link is automatically shortened with your service of choice and automatically shared again simply choose the application you want to share to from there after this is set up it adds only one step to the original share process choosing URL why before choosing the shortened links final destination that's going to wrap this video up if you found it helpful be sure to click the thumbs up button below and subscribe and follow us in all the usual places twitter google+ and facebook and pocket now I'm zelo Martin you can find me on twitter at casper tech i'll see you soon