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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