Linky Release Notes

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Added support for modern contextual menus with previews in the message editor: long-press the “Link”, “Title” or “Text Clip” buttons in the toolbar to get a quick preview.

Improved Universal Music Links feature

• Added the possibility to use Songwhip as an alternative to Songlink. Go to "Settings > Extension Settings > Universal Music Links" to choose your preferred service.

• Linky now gets the short URL link for both Songwhip and Songlink.

• Fixed a bug where song tracks links went to their corresponding album.

Other additions

• Added a link to our Mastodon account in the settings. You can follow us at @pragmaticcode@mastodon.social.

• Fixed a bug that would prevent to add pictures with the webp format from the photos picker.

Added support for attaching an alternative text (alt-text) to the images. It works for both Twitter and Mastodon.

New

• Added support for new iPhone (late 2020) screen sizes.

• Added support for new Photos privacy permissions introduced in iOS 14.

• Added support for extracting the text, links and pictures from Twitter tweet URLs.

• In order to have more transparency with clipboard usage, Clipboard Detection is now an opt-in preference that you can enable by going to "Settings > Clipboard Detection". Like before, Clipboad Detection allows to check your clipboard for URLs and pictures to help you quickly add them to your messages. Like before, these checks only happen on your device and the clipboard content is not sent anywhere. Linky will ask if you want to turn on the feature when upgrading to this version.

Other Changes

• Fixed a bug where the title and the picture could not be extracted from YouTube URLs.

• iOS 13+ is now required.

Updated bit.ly url shortener integration for future proofing.

This update adds support for iOS 13 and Dark Mode.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed title parsing with Universal Music Links.

• Fixed issue where signing in with decentralised.social (Mastodon instance) would fail.

Other Changes

• Removed 1Password dedicated button in sign-in sheets because it's now built-in in iOS.

• Linky now requires iOS 12.4 or later.

Fixed a crash that could occur when launching the message composer.

• Improved url extraction when sharing from News app.

• Improved analytics tags stripping from shared URLs (Google Analytics UTM parameters, …).

Linky 6.2 allows to make better Text Shots with two big new features: making text highlights and customizing the visual appearance.

Open the editor by tapping on the Text Shot thumbnail in the message composer. Here is what you can do:

Making text highlights

Swip over the text to highlight the parts you want people to pay attention to. You can make multiple highlights and choose between different colors.

Selecting the text is easy and fast because unlike a manual selection character by character, the selection is done by words. This is made possible by prior analysis of the text to determine the language and split it into sentences and words.

Once an initial selection is done, swiping the lower or upper bound moves the selection character by character so that it can be adjusted precisely if needed.

Customizing the appearance

Adjust the style between white, sepia, gray and black variants. Choose the text font and adapt other settings to make the Text Shot you like.

Choose the highlighted style: make it plain or select the natural style that uses a random highlighter texture varying with each line of text.

Other improvments

• Added 2 new items in the tips gallery: “how to create universal music links” and “how to share to Messages, Mail and third party apps.”

• The application is now built using Swift 5 which reduces the app size by more than 40% on iOS 12.2+.

• Fixed Universal Music Links initiated from Apple Music app.

• Fix user interface glitches in the message composer.

• Removed Songwhip provider (Universal Music Links) due to an incompatibility introduced with recent changes in Apple Music.

Fix sign-in issue with Pleroma Mastodon instance.

Fixed a bug that could prevent images with a wide color depth (eg. iOS screenshots) from being sent to Twitter.

• Added a keyboard shortcut (CMD + ENTER) to send the current message.

• Removed support for Google URL Shortener because Google will discontinue the service on March 30, 2019.

• Fixed an issue for extracting the url when sharing links from Medium app.

• Fixed a bug when editing the message where the message would not be scrolled automatically to ensure that the edited text was visible.

Improves integration with Mastodon:

• Adds support for content warning message.

• Adds support for sensitive content media option.

• Optimized for latest iPad devices.

• Tweaked application icon and some colors in the user interface for wide color gamut displays.

• Added a Home Screen Quick Action to show the message composer.

• Fixed an issue where sign in with Mastodon could fail with some instances including pawoo.net.

• Removed the ability to send the same message to multiple Twitter accounts in order to comply with Twitter tightened anti-spam rules. Note that this does not affect cross posting, i.e. sending a message to different services (Twitter + Mastodon).

• Added support for Mastodon.

• Optimized for iOS 12.

• Optimized for iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR.

Convert music links from Apple Music or Spotify into a single link that works across different streaming service. To enable the feature, go to “Settings › Extension Settings › Universal Music Links”.

Facebook integration had to be removed from Linky. Facebook has reevaluated the integration of third-party applications into their platform and no longer allows Linky to post to Facebook Profiles and Pages. We had no alternative but to remove Facebook from Linky.

Linky 6 introduces an all new home screen.

The in-app web browser is gone:

For years, the home screen was a web browser dedicated to sharing links. At the time it was useful as Safari didn't support third-party Share Extensions. It's now much easier to share links directly from Safari or your favourite browser using Linky's Share Extension. Note that it's still possible to compose messages directly in Linky or using the Automation URL Scheme.

Two new onboarding screens:

A “Getting Started” section helps new users install the Share Extension and “Tips” helps you to make the most of Linky and learn helpful hints.

Less obstructive clipboard management:

When Linky is launched with a URL in the clipboard, the link is now presented in a non-modal widget replacing the modal alert.

And more:

• You can now drag and drop a URL from Safari into Linky for sharing the link.

• A refined image picker.

• Accessibility Improvments.

Added support for sending tweets with up to 280 characters.

• Optimized for iPhone X.

• Improved title and URL extraction for pitchfork.com.

Optimized for iPhone X.

Fixed a bug that would prevent to pick HEIF photos in the image picker.

• Fixed a bug that would occasionally freeze the app when parsing links (including YouTube).

• Improved performances when parsing URLs.

• Optimized for iOS 11.

• iOS 11 Drag & Drop support for the iPad allowing to drop images in the share's extension. Here is an nice example for Safari: start by dragging an image from a web page, show the share's extension by tapping using an other finger on the share's button and then drop the image in the composer's sheet.

• Google Analytics parameters (also called UTM parameters) are removed from shared URLs when using the app's extension.

• Added support for custom template when sharing a link using the x-callback-url API. Use the placeholders {title} and {url} to customize the message. Look at the documentation (Settings > “URL Scheme”) for more information.

• Smart Quotes option is now managed by iOS 11. You can switch the setting by going to iOS Settings > General > Keyboard > Smart Punctuation.

• Added a Getting Started Guide (Settings > “Get started with Linky”). You will find answers to common questions like how to install the share's extension, how to make a text shot, how to cross post, …

New

• The image picker allows to select multiple images at once.

• The image picker highlights the selected images.

Fixes & improvments

• Fixed a bug that broke the availability of the extension for some apps including Notes.

• Fixed a bug that would prevent "+suggested_image" option in the x-callback-url api from working.

• Improved app extension stability when handling very long text.

• Bitly and Goo.gl URL shorteners now use the Safari View for sign in.

• Added support for 1Password extension when sign in with CloudApp and Droplr.

• Updated CloudApp, Facebook and Goo.gl to their last API version.

With this update, Linky will ask you to reconnect your Twitter and Facebook accounts. Linky no longer uses the system's social accounts (iOS Single Sign On) as this feature will be removed in an upcoming version of iOS.

Other changes:

• Linky now requires iOS 10 or later.

• When clipping text in Safari, the Text Shot image is now automatically inserted if the text is longer than 80 characters (go to “Settings > Extension Settings > Insert as Text Shot” to change this behaviour).

• The image picker now displays the image size to make the selection easier. It's particularly useful when there are duplicated images in order to pick the best one. It also gives a hint about the image quality: red for low quality, orange for fair quality, black for good quality.

• Improved image search results when fetching images from web pages.

• Removed the patch introduced in the previous version to fix a bug in an upcoming version of iOS because a later version of iOS fixed the issue.

Fixed a bug for an upcoming version of iOS where sending tweets containing images could fail.

• Added support for searching for Twitter public accounts when autocompleting a username.

• Improved the user interface of username autocompletion. It now displays the name, username and verified account badge.

• Added the ability to share the message and pictures using the iOS standard sharing sheet. To enable this option, turn on ‘Show Share button’ in the Extension Settings. We’ve added this option to allow more interoperability (e.g. saving the textshot image in the Photo Album, sending the content aggregated by Linky to a third-party App Extension.

Fixed an issue causing a wrong parsing of the clip text in some situations (e.g. long press or 3D Touch on a link in Safari).

Markup Editor New Features:

• You can now create basic shapes: rectangles and ovals. Sketch a rectangle or an oval, in any orientation, using a single stroke. If your drawing is recognized as a standard shape, it’s replaced by that shape. To use your drawing instead, choose it from the palette that’s shown.

• Choose straight or rounded corners for rectangles.

• Rotate, using the two fingers gesture, sketches, shapes and arrows.

• When cropping an image, you can now fix the aspect ratio (same as photo, square or wide).

Other New Features:

• Open the attached link in a web view. It allows to check something in the web page while writing your message without having to go back and loose your pending message. Press firmly (Peek & Pop) the "Link" button in the toolbar of the composer sheet to open the web view. If the device doesn't support 3D Touch, you can long press the "Link" button as a fallback.

Fixed an issue preventing the custom url shortener to work with Rebrandly service.

New

• Added "Friends Of Friends" privacy option when sharing to Facebook.

• Added support for custom URL shorteners.

• Added some new links in the Feedback screen: our Twitter account, website and newsletter.

Fixes:

• When using the x-callback-url, encoding images in Base64 is now working.

• When opening Linky with a shortened url address (or with a url having a redirection), Linky will expand automatically the url to its final destination.

• Improved experience when posting on Facebook: messages with multiple pictures will appear as a single post, as Facebook app does. PS: It only applies if pictures are not stored in a custom album (Facebook's restriction).

• Improved performance and stability when fetching clipboard's contents in the image picker.

• Fixed a bug that caused invalid url addresses in textshots with urls composed of a second-level domain (com.tw, com.uk, …).

Fixed a bug where characters could be duplicated when typing with a Traditional Chinese keyboard.

• Added settings to choose straight or curly quotes in the message template (Go to Settings > Extension Settings).

• Fixed display glitches in the Markup tool.

Fixed a crash of the share extension that could occur when cropping a picture.

Linky 5.4 is built for iOS 10.

New

• Support for Twitter extended Tweets: photos no longer count towards the character limit.

• Added 3D Touch Peek and Pop in the message composer: peek at toolbar buttons (Link, Title, Text Clip) to get a quick preview and pop to insert in the message.

• Added haptic feedback for iPhone 7. Get a subtle tap when a message is sent. When cropping a picture, get a subtle tap as the crop rectangle collides with the bounds or reaches his minimum size.

• Requires iOS 9.3 or later.

Fixes & Improvments:

• Improved image search results when fetching images from web pages.

• Fixed layout issues when cropping pictures on iOS 10.

• Repaired animation of the markup toolbar on iOS 10.

• On September 1, 2016, App.net will no longer be available in Linky. We drop support for App.net because the service is no more actively developed since 2 years. This action only concerns App.net accounts, it has no impact for Twitter and Facebook accounts.

• Future-proofing for upcoming Twitter Extended Tweet feature.

• Improved error feedback when login fails with Facebook.

• Updated Facebook API to the latest version.

Linky has been localized to French.

This release introduces Markup.

Markup is a new feature that lets you easily annotate, crop and edit images inline. You can use Markup to write or draw on the attachment, or to add arrows and lenses, or to obscure sensitive information.

Available tools:

• Sketch: Draw using a single stroke.

• Arrows, lenses, text blocks.

• Pixelate: Easily obscure sensitive information.

• Crop & rotate images.

This update also brings accessible text shots for Twitter.

Text shots are now accessible images where the text contained in the text shot is available as a description for visually impaired persons.

If you like Linky, please take the time to give us a good review; it really helps!

Fixed a crasher when sending messages when Google Shortener is enabled in the Settings. Sorry!

IMPORTANT: The app will crash when sending messages IF YOU USE GOOGLE SHORTENER. A fix has been submitted to the App Store. As a workaround, you can temporarily disable Google Shortener in the Settings (Settings > URL Shortener > Select None). Sorry!

New features

• A new button in the image picker allows to import images from iCloud Drive and third-party services by using the iOS Document Picker.

• A new setting to add quotes around the title in the message template (Settings > Extension Settings > Quote Title).

• Added Bing and Yahoo as search engines for the in-app web browser.

Improvements

• Better formatting of the inserted text (clip text, title, url) by conditionnaly adding white spaces before and after the insertion following the context.

• Improved image search results when fetching images from web pages.

• Added an icon optimized for the iPad Pro.

• Better error message with some guidance for fixing the issue when the extension fails to load in Safari.

Bug fixes

• Fixed the appearance of the composer sheet that could be corrupted in some third-party apps (e.g. The Guardian).

• Fixed a crash of the extension that could occur on some websites (e.g. amazon.com, premiere.fr).

• Fixed a bug causing incorrect character counts when composing tweets. Twitter now reserves 24 characters for images (formerly 23) and 23 characters per link (formally 22).

• Improved the error message when Facebook sign in fails, details for fixing the issue.

• Easier selection of the text shot image by placing it before suggested images in the image picker.

This update introduces many new features!

New

• Attach multiple images at once when composing.

• Pick multiple images from Photos.app for sharing with Linky's extension.

• Added support for selecting the destination album when sharing images to Facebook (supported for both Facebook Accounts and Pages).

• Improved image suggestion for links by suggesting images included in the webpage. Webpage content is parsed to find the best images and to evict not relevant ones (decoration, ads, logos, …); for this reason, more or less images can be suggested depending on the webpage layout.

• Added yourls.org shortener service. It's a free self-hosting open source service.

• Removed "Shared via Linky" watermark in textshot images.

• Added in-app help for fixing authentification issues with Twitter and Facebook.

Improvments

• Improved accessibility in the image picker.

Linky now requires iOS 9.

New

• Deep support of Multitasking APIs (Slide Over and Split View on the iPad).

• Support of the new system font introduced with iOS 9.

• Better support of Dynamic Type in the app and the extension (go to System Settings > Display & Brightness > Text Size).

• Optimized for iOS 9 latest APIs.

Fixes & improvments

• Fixed constrast issues when turning on accessibility "Darken Colors" setting (go to System Settings > General > Accessibility).

New

• VoiceOver accessibility for the visually impaired.

• Added a setting to enable/disable Smart Quotes.

Fixes & improvments

• Fixed text font issues when inserting emoji characters.

• Fixed a bug that could prevent to insert a block of text after an opening quote.

• Fixed a bug that caused HTML elements to sometimes appear in webpage titles.

• Fixed a bug that could occur when keyboard autocompletion was suggesting a text containing quotes.

• Fixed a minor glitch in the Settings.

• Fixed a crash that could occur when sharing some webpage links.

• Fixed a crash that could occur when sharing images.

• Fixed a bug where the path of a link shared from Safari could be replaced by the root domain url.

• Fixed the image preview that could not be displayed with some images.

• Fixed an issue with the text shot image format.

• Webpage link is now correctly extracted (and image suggestion works) when using the “Compose” x-callback-url action.

Introducing Linky 5.0!

Share Images

• Add images to your posts (animated gif images are also supported).

• Share pictures from Photos app and third-party applications using the extension.

• Preview images in fullscreen before sending.

Suggested images

Linky suggests images related to shared links and can attach them to your messages.

Text Shot

Linky generates a text shot from selected text in Safari.

More Powerful Extension

The extension can now be used in applications to share text extracts and images.

New Composer Design

The message composer has been redesigned. Account selection is now easier and the all-new image picker allows you to quickly select images from your recent Photos, a suggested image, a Linky-generated text shot, and a clipboard image all from one easy to use view.

And More

• When available, the Twitter account of the website's author is displayed in the mention toolbar (tap "@" in the message composer to show the mention toolbar).

• There are no more restrictions when sending a message to multiple accounts (previously, it was limited to 2 accounts).

• Change the audience of your Facebook post directly in the composer (previously, it was a fixed setting in the preferences).

• x-callback APIs have been updated and there are 2 new actions: "compose" (open the composer with an input text and image) and "shorten" (shorten an input link and returns it to the caller). The documentation of the API is available in the Settings screen.

Tips

• Go to "Settings > Extension Settings" and toggle "Insert Image Automatically" to automatically add suggested images to your messages.

• In the composer, you can long tap a Facebook account to change his audience.

• To post a message simultaneously on multiple accounts: in the message composer, go to the accounts view, then for each account tap the corresponding checkmark.

• fixed a bug causing the extension to fail in some applications (for example: Podcasts app, Amazon app).

• fixed issues that could occur when sharing RSS feed urls.

• Share extension is available in more applications (App Store, iTunes Store, Overcast, Tweetbot, …)

• Share extension displays an error if the contents sent by the host application is missing or not supported.

• Preference "Prefer clipped text over title" now works properly (Settings > Message Template).

• Optimizations when loading the share extension.

• Proofread and corrected English text.

• Support of both portrait and landscape orientations on the iPhone.

• Layout optimized for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

• Artwork optimized for the screen of the iPhone 6 Plus (Retina HD).

• Fixed a bug when using keyboard shorcut in sign-in screen.

• Ready for iOS 8: Linky has been optimized for iOS 8 new features and capabilities.

• User Interface Refresh: Visual tweaks for clarity and consistency with iOS 8.

• New application icon.

• iOS 8 Share Extension: With a tap of the Action button in Safari, you can share the page using Linky Activity. It will display Linky as an embedded composer sheet in Safari. You can also do that in other apps sharing web page links and presenting iOS Share Sheet.

• Web Text Clipper: Selected text in the web page is clipped to make it available in the composer sheet.

• Web Pages are rendered using much more performant iOS 8 web views.

• Settings Screen Refresh: Some new preferences and a new design including a Tips Screen.

• Size of the app is 3x smaller.

Features that have been dropped from version 3:

• Dropbox sync has been removed.

• Readability mode in the browser has been removed.

• In-App purchase has been removed. Linky is now a paid app on the App Store. There is no change for existing users. It's a totally free update with an access to all the features.

Bug fixes and performance improvements.

• Fixed layout of the composer sheet when using the Japanase keyboard (thanks Kumi for the feedback).

• More efficient network connections using the modern APIs provided by iOS 7.

• Improvments and fixes in the caching mechanism for URL requests.

If you like Linky, please take the time to give us a nice review. It really helps.

Now Linky lets you also post to Facebook.

• Post To Facebook Profiles and Pages. It uses single sign-on integrated in iOS.

• Swipe left/right in the message composer to move the cursor.

• Shake-to-undo is now supported in the compose screen. You can also undo commands like inserting title/url, clearing text.

• Fully supports Apple's latest 64-bit processor.

• Preference to reset caches and clear the browser history including cookies.

• Settings screen has been reorganised for more clarity.

• No more distracting animation when the value of the message character counter changes.

• Composer screen first-apparition doesn't freeze anymore.

Pro-tip: Tap on the counter in the composer screen to clear the text.

If you like Linky, please take the time to give us a nice review. It really helps.

• Fixed a crash that could occur when downloading metadata from App.net accounts.

• Reverted the Chrome bookmarklet to the same version as Safari (the bookmarklet was changed to manage a bug in Chrome but it's fixed in the latest version 33.0.1750.15)

• For Chrome users: an alternative bookmarklet has been added in the x-callback-url documentation (Settings > Post From Other Apps > URL Scheme) to go back back to Chrome when the message is posted.

If you like Linky, please consider writing a review. It really helps us. Thanks.

New

• URL Scheme API (x-callback-url) to launch Linky from other apps. There is a complete documentation with examples (includes an action for Launch Center Pro app, a bookmarklet for Safari to go back to Safari when the message is posted) in Settings > Post From Other Apps.

Fixes & Improvments

• Better handling of the App Store receipt.

• Improved the App Store receipt user interface.

• Fixed a possible crash occuring when the username autocompletion toolbar appears for App.net accounts.

• Fixed the bookmarklet for Chrome.

• Tweaked several elements of the user interface.

If you like Linky, please consider writing a review. It really helps us. Thanks.

• Linky becomes a freemium application. PS: There is no change for existing users. It is a totally free update with an access to all the features.

• Fixed a text encoding issue with some Japanese websites.

• Fixed issues with Dropbox.

• Improved First Launch setup screen.

• Fixed a crash when using the bookmarklet for specific urls.

• Fixed a possible crash when adding the url or the title in the Composer.

• Fixed a possible crash with the Twitter API.

If you like Linky, please consider writing a review. It really helps us. Thanks.

New

• A new preference lets you choose if links should be shortened when sending a message (Settings > URL Shortener > Ask to Shorten Links).

• Clipboard URL: If a URL is copied to the clipboard from an other application, Linky will ask you if you want to use it. (You can modify the behavior in Settings > Post from Other Applications > Detect Clipboard URL).

Fixes

• Lot of improvements for the recognition of webpage titles.

• Optimizations to make the app faster and more responsive.

• fixed urls containing non ASCII characters.

• fixed a lot of minor issues.

If you like Linky, please consider writing a review. I really helps us. Thanks.

Version 3 of Linky is alive.

What's new?

• A beautifully designed user interface fitting in with iOS 7.

• Linky has been enhanced and optimized for iOS 7.

• Keep all your devices in sync with Dropbox.

Composer, what's new?

• Switch between your accounts easier.

• Cross-post your messages : post simultaneously up to 2 accounts.

• All shorteners require a user account.

• When launching the app from Safari, the link is processed faster and the UI is more responsive.

• Links, hashtags and mentions are colored when composing.

• Lower case, upper case or capitalize the text selection in the composer.

• mart quote support when composing.

In-app browser, what's new?

• Readability mode.

• Browser history is kept in sync between devices.

Notes

• Drafts feature has been removed.

• Landscape support on the iPhone has been removed.

• links are now shortened when the message is sent. The button to manually shorten urls has been removed.

Bug fixes

Fixed: web page title grabbing could fail in some situations.

• Better lookup of title and canonical url of web pages.

• A new preference to enable or disable iCloud.

• Removed lookup of websites short domains.

• UI fixes.

• Minor bug fixes.

Support the last changes of the App.net API.

Fixed an issue where the app could crash if the Twitter account username was changed.

Username auto-completion for App.net and Twitter accounts when typing the “@” symbol in the compose screen.

• Support of Droplr to shorten urls.

• Fixed an issue with iCloud when the device is not connected to the Internet.

• New setting in the Preferences to directly shorten links (Settings > URL Shorteners)

• Fixed a bug causing the counter of characters giving a wrong value in some cases.

Support of Twitter single sign-on integrated in iOS.

• Support of App.net.

• Support of the latest Twitter API (v1.1).

• iCloud: Keep your messages up to date across all your iOS devices.

• Support of the iPhone 5 taller screen.

• Optimized for iOS 6.

• bit.ly account sign-on using your credentials.

• Graphics optimized for the new iPad’s retina display.

• Improved t.co links handling and character counts.

• Improved support of bit.ly for registered users.

• Fixed some issues in the in-app browser.

• Fixes and Optimizations for iOS 5.0.

• Fixes for Vimeo and Dribbble services.

• New : Pages to create drafts or to tweet messages later. Access the feature by taping on the counter button.

• New : is.gd added in the URL shorteners.

• YouTube : Videos from YouTube Channels are now correctly recognized.

• Bug fixes.

Introducing Linky.