The internet is full of interesting websites. Some of them are so cool and useful that people want to keep them forever. There are so many links on many platforms and apps that it is difficult to keep track of them all. However, bookmark managers, note-taking apps, and read-it-later services like Pocket are great for gathering and organising links.
Former Twitter engineer Joe Fabisevich created the app Plinky to address this issue in a novel way that prioritises customisation.
Plinky is an app for iPhones, iPads, and Apple hardware Macs that lets you save links to websites, apps, movies, photos, and even app stores. You can name the links clearly and put them in different files. You can change tags, groups, and even the appearance of a link within the app. You can also look for links and “pin” them so they are easy to find again.
Through the Share menu, it’s easy to make the app a favourite. This way, you can quickly share a link from any app or website. It only takes a few taps to save a link, and I liked the motion that happened when I did it.
Eltrys asked Fabisevich what motivated him to create the app. He claimed it was because he used to send his fiancée a lot of links, such as tweets, stories, videos, and jokes. She liked the thought, but it was getting in the way, so she asked him to save some for later. That’s when Fabisevich began creating Plinky.
The founder thinks that an app for saving links should make the process as simple as possible. He said that reading apps like Pocket and Instapaper are great, but links often have video and photos, and those apps might not be the best for watching or listening to.
Plus, Fabisevich has made add-ons for Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, as well as links to the RSS app Unread, iOS Shortcuts, and Zapier. People from outside the company can also use an open API to add more media support.
In the free version, you can save up to 50 links, make up to 5 notes, and store files in up to 3 groups. You can pay $3.99 a month or $39.99 a year to get rid of these limits. You can also pay $159.99 for admission for life.
Raindrop is a popular sharing app that has apps for Android, Mac (Intel), and Windows. Plinky doesn’t have the same number of tools as Raindrop. Raindrop allows you to save as many links and notes as you want, and its free plan lets you do that. But YouTube and App Store links don’t work well with Raindrop because they open in their own browser instead of taking you to the original app. Plinky is better at fixing this issue.
Plinky is a better way to save links than using a browser’s bookmark manager because it’s easier to organise links in the app with names and groups.
He said he had used Raindrop, but he wanted to make a system that anyone could use. He stated, “We designed Raindrop for creatives and built it for coders.” “I love being both, but that’s a very small group of people who would benefit from having a single inbox for their links.”
“You can tell that Plinky does its job and stays out of the way the first time you save a link in it.” Raindrop makes you think about how to group things right from the start, but this method doesn’t.
What will Plinky do next?
From now until the end of the year, Fabisevich plans to improve the app’s organisation and customisation tools.
A lot of people already have a lot of bookmarks and clips on services like GoodLinks, Raindrop, and Pocket. He wants to make it easy for them to copy links from those services.
The founder also wants to add safe files to store private links, a reading mode inside the app, and the ability to set notes for links you might want to read later. He also wants to create a native Mac app because the one currently available is only for iPads and only works with MacOS devices that have Apple’s own chips.
I liked that the app’s help page lets users vote on a list of new features that are coming soon. We will build the things that receive the most votes first.
Fabisevich wants you to make your own ways to save and organise links over time, as well as search better.
