How to expand a short link before you share it
Short links hide their destination and usually a layer of tracking. Preview one manually (bit.ly links show their target if you add + to the end), or turn on Resolve short links in tdy to expand them automatically when you copy — and clean what comes out.
What's wrong with short links
- You can't see where they go —
bit.ly/3xYzAbCcould be anything, which is why phishing loves shorteners. - They add a tracking hop — the shortener logs every click (that's the product) before redirecting.
- They rot — when a shortener shuts down or a link expires, every copy of it dies at once.
- The destination is often dirty anyway — expanded, you usually find a URL stuffed with
utm_and click IDs.
Previewing one by hand
Some shorteners offer a preview trick: add + to the end of a bit.ly link to see its stats page (and target) instead of redirecting. Various "URL expander" websites do it for arbitrary links — you paste the short URL in and they follow the redirects for you. Fine for the occasional suspicious link; tedious as a habit.
Expanding automatically
tdy has an opt-in Resolve short links transform: copy a link on a known shortener (t.co, bit.ly, tinyurl and 1,300+ more from its maintained list) and tdy follows the redirect chain — capped, and only for recognized shorteners — then hands the real destination to the rest of its pipeline. So what lands on your clipboard is the final URL, tracking stripped, ready to share.
It's off by default — resolving requires a network request, and tdy defaults conservative. Flip it on in Settings → Transforms.
Share destinations, not mysteries.
tdy expands short links and cleans what comes out — automatically. Native, one-time purchase, no subscription.
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