Short links

Pick a handle, point it at anything, share the URL. Re-point the destination tomorrow without breaking the link you printed today.

What you can point a link at#

How it works#

1. Open Links → New link.#

   The button sits in the top right of your Links page.

2. Pick a slug.#

   The bit after the slash. Short, memorable, campaign-flavoured.

3. Pick a destination type.#

   URL is the default. Switch to vCard, calendar, file, phone, or any of the payment / chat types.

4. Share it. Forever.#

   The slug is yours. Edit the destination, swap the file, change the phone number — the URL on the poster keeps working.

The destination types#

Each type below is its own kind of link. The slug behaves the same way regardless — it's the destination format that changes. You can switch a link from one type to another at any time without breaking the URL.

URL#

The default. Any https:// web address — your homepage, a product page, a blog post, a Notion doc you've made public, an Instagram post, a YouTube video, a Google Doc, an Airtable view.

Why use it instead of the raw URL

• It's shorter. A clean linkedco.de/spring-sale reads better on a poster, in a podcast description, or across a TikTok bio than a 90-character URL stuffed with UTM tags.
• It's editable. Change where it points whenever the campaign moves. The thing you printed last quarter still works for next quarter's sale.
• It tells you who clicked. Counters, country breakdown, device mix, referrer — the original URL gives you none of that.

Real patterns

• Campaign redirects — /black-friday, /launch, /q3-promo. Same handle every year, point it at this year's page.
• Cleaning up affiliate links — replace ?ref=ABC123&aff_sub=foo with a clean slug.
• Bio links across socials — one short URL on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, threads. Update once when the destination changes.
• A/B testing on the cheap — swap the destination between two URLs every other day, watch the click counter.
• Print materials — flyers, business cards, conference banners, packaging inserts. Print is forever; URLs aren't.

Phone, SMS, FaceTime#

Tap-to-call, tap-to-text, tap-to-video. On a phone, the link opens the right app and pre-fills the number. On desktop, most operating systems ask which app to open — and FaceTime works straight to the dialer on Macs.

Phone

• A "Call now" button on a one-page brochure site that doesn't need a contact form.
• Restaurant takeaway menu PDFs — diners hit the link and the call connects.
• Plumber / electrician / locksmith QR codes on vans — the kind of jobs people decide in 30 seconds.
• Conference booth signage — "tap to call our regional rep".

SMS

• Same as phone, but pre-fills a text message. "Hi, I saw your sign at [venue]" works.
• Voting / poll responses (text VOTE A to 555-1234).
• A support backchannel that's lighter than starting a phone call.

FaceTime

• Telehealth practitioners who want a one-tap video call from a marketing page.
• Concierge / private-banking style services where the relationship matters more than the form.
• Apple-leaning customer bases — designers, photographers, mac-shop developers.

vCard contact#

The link serves a .vcf file. Tap it on a phone and the OS offers to save the contact — name, phone, email, company, title, website, address, photo if you set one. One tap and you're in their address book.

Why use it

• Conferences and networking events. Print one QR on the back of every business card. Anyone who scans it has you in their phone in three seconds.
• Sales reps. Each rep has their own slug pointing at their own vCard. Email signatures and lanyards too.
• Real estate signage and yard signs. Drive-by interest converts to a saved contact instead of a missed call.
• Trade shows. Beats trying to type your name into someone's contact app while standing.

What you can put on it

Full name, phone (multiple), email (multiple), website, company, job title, postal address, profile photo. The card serves cleanly into iOS Contacts, Google Contacts, Outlook, and most CRM intake forms.

Calendar event#

Generates an .ics file with a title, start, end, location, and description. Tap the link on a phone and the calendar app offers to add it. Works the same on desktop.

Real patterns

• Webinars and AMAs. "Add this to your calendar" link in the announcement email and on the registration page.
• Product launches. Pre-launch landing pages that let interested visitors block the time even before there's a sign-up form.
• Workshops, classes, sessions. Yoga studio's Tuesday class, a cohort-based course, a beta tester sync.
• Wedding invitations and parties. Saves the host emailing the address and time three times.
• Sale start times. "Doors open Friday 9am AEDT — add to calendar" beats relying on people remembering.
• Event series. One slug per session, all rooted at /calendar/wk1, /calendar/wk2.

Maps location#

A drop-pin or directions URL. On iOS the link opens Apple Maps; on Android, Google Maps; everywhere else, the browser version. You can either pin a single place by name and address, or build a directions URL with origin and destination.

Real patterns

• Brick-and-mortar shops. "Find us" link in the email signature, on the website, on packaging inserts.
• Restaurants and cafés. Print one on the door for delivery couriers — saves the typo on the third call.
• Event venues. A clean /venue link in the registration confirmation email.
• Pop-up locations. This week we're at one address, next week another. Same slug, swapped destination.
• Multi-location store finders. One slug per branch — /cbd, /airport, /bondi.

Provider toggle

A small switch under the Mode picker decides which maps app the link opens in. Auto (the default) sniffs the device — Apple Maps on Apple devices, Google Maps everywhere else. Override to Google or Apple if you have a reason to force one.

File download#

Upload a file (PDF, image, audio, video, Word doc, zip, mp3, mp4 — up to 5 MB). The link redirects to the file. Replace or delete the file later — the URL on whatever you printed keeps working with whatever's behind it now.

Real patterns

• Restaurant menus. Print one QR on the table, swap the PDF when prices change. The QR sticker stays.
• Product manuals. "Scan for the manual" sticker on the back of the device. Update the PDF when there's a v2.
• Lead magnets. "Download our 2026 guide" — same link, fresh PDF every quarter.
• Resumes and portfolios. Single short link in your LinkedIn, replace the PDF when the resume's updated.
• Audio demos. Musicians, voice actors, podcast pilots — /demo that always points at the latest.
• Conference handouts. No paper, no QR-app dance — just a slug on the slide.
• Event recordings. Workshop replay video, reusable URL.
• Press kits. Logos, screenshots, founder photo — wrap into a zip behind one link.

Payment links#

A single slug that opens the right payment app on tap. Three sub-types:

• PayPal.me — handle, optional amount, optional currency. Opens the PayPal app on phones, PayPal web on desktop.
• UPI (India) — VPA, optional amount, optional payee name and note. Triggers any installed UPI app — Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm, BHIM.
• Crypto — wallet URI for any chain whose scheme is registered on the device. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Solana — pass an address, optionally an amount and a label.

Real patterns

• Tip jars and donations. Live performer's QR on the case, charity's "donate" link in the email footer, content creator's Buy Me a Coffee replacement.
• Freelancers and contractors. "Pay invoice" link in the PDF, no Stripe processing fees on small jobs.
• Splitting bills. A single PayPal.me link for "everyone Venmo me" but international.
• Crypto-native businesses. Direct wallet URI for customers who'd rather not click through a payment processor.
• Fundraisers. One slug per campaign, change the amount field as the goal moves.

Chat apps#

WhatsApp or Telegram with a pre-filled message. The visitor taps, the chat opens with your number / handle and the message ready to send. They tap send.

WhatsApp

• Customer support that doesn't need a portal. "Message us on WhatsApp" beats a contact form for response time.
• Tutors, coaches, instructors. Booking and follow-ups in the channel they already use.
• Sales hand-off from a landing page. "Talk to a real human" — the message text is pre-filled with the page they came from.
• Restaurants taking reservations. Pre-fill "Table for 4 at 7pm Friday — name?" and the customer fills in their name.

Telegram

• Community sign-ups. A button labelled "Join our community" that drops you into a group chat or the bot.
• Bot commands. Newsletter subscribers get a slug that lands in your Telegram bot with a pre-filled /start abc123 so the bot knows where they came from.
• Crypto-leaning audiences that prefer Telegram over WhatsApp for privacy reasons.

Email#

A mailto: link with the subject and body pre-filled. On mobile, it opens the default mail app; on desktop, whatever the OS has registered for mailto:.

Real patterns

• Sales / partnerships inbox. "Get in touch about partnerships" with subject already set to "Partnership enquiry — [from website]" so it lands in the right filter.
• Bug reports. Subject pre-filled with [Bug report] v… and a body template asking for OS / browser / steps to reproduce.
• Press inbox. "Press contact" link with subject set to [Press] — auto-routes via your email rules.
• Booking enquiries. Wedding photographer's "Book me" with body pre-filled with date / location / package questions.
• Replacing a contact form when you actually want a real conversation, not a CRM ticket.

Text snippet#

A tiny landing page that just shows a short piece of text. No images, no design — your message on a clean page, big and readable.

Real patterns

• Wi-Fi password. linkedco.de/wifi shown on a sticker by the door — guests tap, get the password, no awkward "what's the wifi" question.
• "Closed today" notice when something's off-schedule. Print one QR on the door, swap the text when state changes.
• Event details. Address, dress code, parking, start time — short enough that an event-page is overkill.
• Quick announcements. "Be back at 2pm" sign behind the counter, but a QR so phones can scan.
• Free-form notes. Anywhere you'd otherwise text the same thing to ten people.

The text supports basic line breaks and a single linkable URL if you need to send the visitor onward.

Share or copy#

The list view has a one-tap copy button on every row. Share it anywhere — the click counter ticks up live as people follow it.

Forward query parameters#

A toggle inside the link editor — Query forwarding card. When on, any query string the visitor lands on (e.g. linkedco.de/promo?name=alex&ref=email) gets merged into the destination URL before the redirect.

A few rules that make this safe:

• Destination's own params win. If the destination URL already has ?lang=en and an incoming ?lang=fr comes in, the destination keeps en. The owner's intent isn't overwritten by a forwarded value.
• Your configured UTMs win too. If the link has UTMs set in the editor, those are applied first and forwarded params can't overwrite them.
• Off by default. New links don't forward. Flip the toggle on per link when you want it.
• http(s) destinations only. Forwarding into a mailto:, tel:, sms: or wifi: destination doesn't make sense, so we skip it.

Common patterns:

1. Email tracking. Send linkedco.de/promo?recipient=ABC123 in your campaign. The destination's analytics see recipient=ABC123 on the click. No per-recipient short link needed.
2. Affiliate IDs. Partners hit linkedco.de/get-the-app?aff=partner42. The mobile app's onboarding sees the affiliate ID.
3. A/B test variants. Drop ?variant=B on half your traffic. The destination's analytics splits the buckets without changing the short URL.

Duplicate a link#

Open the link and click Duplicate in the top right. You land on a copy that carries the destination, type, tags, UTMs, expiry, password, and every other setting — only the slug picks up a -copy suffix and the name picks up (copy). Click history starts fresh on the copy.

Useful for A/B variants, branching a campaign without losing the original, or copying a stack of settings (UTMs, password, expiry) into a new short URL.

Delete a link#

Click Delete on the row and confirm. The link goes dead immediately for anyone who's saved or printed it, so be intentional.

What's next#

• Make a short link without signing in — the free generator gives you a linkedco.de/<slug> and a QR; sign up later to claim it and read its click analytics.
• QR codes — turn any short link into a styled, printable QR.
• Click analytics — country, device, referrer, live count.
• Your account — profile, password, plan.