My partner and I made a website to make us easily share links between our devices.
Backstory
Many times when we found something interesting and wanted to share a link from one's phone or laptop to her desktop so we can both watch it on the big screen, we had to send the link by email, or sent to her phone via some app and she had to copy the link from her phone to the PC, Or we have to download some apps, etc.. The process was really annoying.
Therefore, we decided to make a website that can allow people share link by simply visit our webpage.
How it works:
This webpage will hold the shared link for 2 minutes, for now, and people can share the link via a share code so other people can access the shared text.
Steps are very simple:
- Share your text on the website.
- Use the share code to get your text on other devices. If the text contains a URL, website will detect it and extract the link for you.
How we made it & Costs
- We used NextJS to implement both the frontend and backend API.
- We opened a free Redislabs account so we can host our cache.
- We used the free hosting service provide by Vercel.
- We brought a domain name on Vercel for $70/yr.
Why a two minutes limit?
- We don't want to make a cloud storage.
- We don't want to pay for a cloud storage.
- In most use cases, this webpage just works like clipboard, so no long term storage is needed.
- We don't want to pay for a cloud storage.
Why don't just use a chat app?
- We're using WeChat, their desktop version login is annoying.
- We don't like to download unnecessary apps in our phones and PCs, and people are using different apps, so a website can avoid installing unwanted apps.
We really hate the trend that everything needs an app to use nowadays.
Thank you!
Please feel free to leave your comment!
Latest comments (27)
legend.
love y'all
I added LinkShared to qk.rs (tool to search sites quicker)
very cool - for a simple solution not requiring building a website I have created either a google doc or google sheet that is editable and created a shortlink that goes to it. That way I’m the only one who knows it and can share with people I know. But your project allows anyone in the world to do it without having to create something. Well done. It would be nice to have a copy button to copy the text. Thanks for building!
Pretty cool tool to have! There are times when I'd need something exactly like this 💯
On another note, those .io domains can be pretty costly for real 😅
Really cool Idea, would be awesome if a two-way-binding could be implemented just for that short span of 2 mins and if there's a mistake then user could update it without regenerating a new code.
Nice idea, I'll use this for my daily works. Thank you
Google Chrome can do it. Push arrow on the end of URL field and choose "share between my devices", then choose one of them.
I don't know chrome has this, but looks like can only send to the device within same account.
Hi @anxiny ,
Did you look into firebase hosting? Since you're not putting any advertisements in your website, you aren't getting profit here. $70/year may not sound much but is a lot. Firebase hosting on the other hand is free.
Thanks for sharing the idea. Vercel hosting is free too, the cost is for me to own the domain name.
Best
Add to that AirDrop for Apple users
Amazing