The web is stuffed with cool web sites, and a few of them are so attention-grabbing and helpful, it’s no surprise folks wish to save them for posterity. Bookmark managers, notes apps, and read-it-later companies like Pocket are nice for accumulating and organizing hyperlinks, however the reality is that there are too many hyperlinks throughout too many platforms and apps to maintain observe of simply.
A former Twitter engineer, Joe Fabisevich, has constructed an app known as Plinky that goals to sort out that drawback with a brand new strategy that prioritizes customization.
Out there for iPhones, iPads, and Apple silicon Macs, Plinky permits you to save hyperlinks to webpages, apps, movies, photos and even app shops, label them neatly, and arrange them in numerous folders. You may customise these labels and folders, and even how a hyperlink reveals up within the app. Moreover, you possibly can seek for hyperlinks and pin them for straightforward entry.
You may simply set the app as a favourite within the share menu to shortly share a hyperlink from anyplace — inside browsers, different apps, messengers. It’s simple to avoid wasting a hyperlink with just some faucets, and I preferred the save animation, too.
Fabisevich advised TechCrunch he was impressed to construct the app as a result of he used to ship his fiancee a ton of hyperlinks — tweets, articles, movies and memes. Whereas she liked the gesture, she discovered it distracting and requested him to avoid wasting of them for later. That’s when Fabisevich began engaged on Plinky.
The founder feels that the ethos of a link-saving app needs to be to make the method simple. He famous that apps like Pocket and Instapaper are nice for studying, however hyperlinks usually have video and images, and people apps won’t be well-suited for consuming multimedia.
Fabisevich has additionally constructed extensions for Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, in addition to integrations with RSS reader Unread, iOS Shortcuts, and Zapier. There may be an open API, too, that third-party builders can use to construct integration for extra surfaces.
The free model permits you to save as much as 50 hyperlinks, and create as much as 5 labels and three folders. To take away these limits, you possibly can pay $3.99 a month or $39.99 a yr. Or, you should buy lifetime entry for $159.99.
By way of options, Plinky falls brief when put next with Raindrop, a well-liked bookmarking app, which provides Android, Mac (Intel), and Home windows apps, too. Raindrop provides extra integrations and its free tier permits you to save any variety of hyperlinks and bookmarks. Nevertheless, Raindrop doesn’t play properly with YouTube and App Retailer hyperlinks, as they open by its in-app browser reasonably than redirecting you to the native app — an issue Plinky solves higher.
Plinky provides a significantly better resolution than saving hyperlinks by a browser’s bookmark supervisor, on condition that it’s simpler to prepare hyperlinks within the app with folders and labels.
Fabisevich mentioned he has used Raindrop, however wished to construct an answer anybody can use. “In their own words, Raindrop is ‘designed for creatives, built for coders,’” he mentioned. “While I love that, being both, that’s a very small slice of people who would benefit from having a universal inbox for their links.”
“From the first time you save a link in Plinky, you can see that the app does its job and gets out of the way. It’s a different approach than Raindrop, which requires you to think about categorization right from the start.”
What’s subsequent for Plinky?
Within the coming months, Fabisevich needs to construct higher organizational and customization options for the app.
He needs to make it simple for folks to import hyperlinks from current companies like Goodlinks, Raindrop, and Pocket, the place they may have already got a library of bookmarks and clippings.
The founder additionally goals so as to add safe folders for saving delicate hyperlinks, an in-app studying expertise, and the flexibility so as to add reminders for hyperlinks that you could be wish to learn later. He additionally needs to construct a local Mac app for the reason that present one is simply an iPad app that’s solely suitable with MacOS gadgets that run on Apple’s personal chips.
I preferred it that the app’s help part has an inventory of upcoming options that customers can vote on. The options with essentially the most votes shall be constructed first.
In the long run, Fabisevich needs to construct extra customized workflows to avoid wasting and prioritize hyperlinks, together with a greater search expertise.
