Shortening and unshortening links on mobile
Shortening links is a common practice when sharing URLs on social media so they have a smaller presence or character count than a full URL. By default, links in Buffer will not be shortened, however, you can choose to have your links shortened automatically if you prefer.
In this article:
- As of February 28th, 2025, we changed how link shortening works within Buffer. If you were using Buffer’s connection with Bitly, your link shortener has automatically switched to buff.ly. If you’ve connected a custom link shortener, it should still work as expected.
- As of March 11, 2025, link shortening will be turned off by default. However, you can enable link shortening for your channels using the steps below.
- Looking for the web version of Shortening and unshortening links?
Enabling link shortening
On the mobile app, tap the three horizontal lines in the upper left corner and select the channel where you'd like to enable link shortening, then follow these steps:
- In the bottom right corner of the app, tap Settings
- Make sure the channel settings are selected at the top of the app - you should see the name of the channel listed, like "[Channel name] Settings"
- Under the "Composing" area, tap Link Shortening and select buff.ly.
Unshortening links by default
First, tap the three horizontal lines in the upper left corner of the app and select the channel where you'd like to turn off link shortening. Then:
- In the bottom right corner of the app, tap Settings
- Make sure the channel settings are selected at the top of the app - you should see the name of the channel listed.
- Under the "Composing" area, tap Link Shortening and select No Shortening to turn link shortening off for that channel.
Setting up your custom link shortener
Follow the steps from this article to set up your custom link shortener account.