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. With Buffer, you can choose whether to have your links shortened automatically or display the full URL if you prefer.

In this article:

1. Changing your link shortener
2. Setting up your custom link shortener
3. Unshortening links

Changing your link shortener

On the mobile app, tap the three horizontal lines in the upper left corner and select the channel where you'd like to change your link shortener, then follow these steps:

1. In the bottom right corner of the app, tap Settings
2. 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"
3. Under the "Composing" area, tap Link Shortening and select your new link shortener. If you have a Bitly account, you can click Connect Bit.ly to connect your account to Buffer and any bit.ly links you create in Buffer will appear in your Bitly dashboard.

Setting up your custom link shortener

Follow the steps from this article to set up your custom link shortener account.

Unshortening links

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:

1. In the bottom right corner of the app, tap Settings
2. Make sure the channel settings are selected at the top of the app - you should see the name of the channel listed.
3. Under the "Composing" area, tap Link Shortening and select No Shortening to turn link shortening off for that channel.