How to Shorten a URL with Shortshare on Mac, Windows, or in a Browser

Updated

Shortshare is a utility that shortens URLs across macOS, Windows, iOS, and browsers. On macOS you can trigger it from the menu bar icon, a keyboard shortcut, the Safari App Extension button, or a Share Extension in any other browser; on Windows you send a URL to the app through the Share menu. Before relying on it, note the current availability limit: Shortshare is no longer available for iOS and macOS, and it is no longer compatible with iOS 27 / macOS 27 or newer. Existing customers can download a fixed macOS build for macOS 27 and later.

What Shortshare does

Shortshare is a front end for URL shortener services. Rather than locking you into one provider, it connects to 14 established services plus custom APIs and self-hosted setups. Supported services listed on the site include Bitly, Rebrandly, Shortio, Tinyurl, OpenMyLink, Kutt, Is.gd, Hive, Url.rw, Kurze Links, Linko, dub.co, and dsh.re, along with custom APIs and self-hosted solutions such as YOURLS.

It also supports custom URL keywords where the underlying shortener allows them, so you can produce links like bit.ly/your-short-url instead of a random string.

Shortening a URL on macOS

There are four ways to trigger a shortening action on a Mac:

  1. Menu bar icon — click the Shortshare icon in the menu bar and shorten the current or pasted URL.
  2. Keyboard shortcut — assign and use a shortcut to shorten without leaving the keyboard.
  3. Safari App Extension — enable the native extension, which adds a button to the Safari toolbar to shorten the URL of the current tab.
  4. Share Extension — from any other browser on macOS, use the system Share menu to send the URL to Shortshare.

The expected result in each case is a shortened link you can copy and use. If a step doesn't work, the most common cause is that the extension isn't enabled or no shortener service has been configured yet.

Shortening a URL on Windows

On Windows, Shortshare works through the Share menu: send a URL to the app from the Share menu and it shortens it. The app is distributed through the Microsoft Store.

Browser extensions

Shortshare ships a native Safari App Extension on macOS. For Chrome and Firefox on macOS, extensions are available from the Chrome Web Store and the Firefox Add-On Directory respectively. Installing one of these adds the same quick-shorten capability to that browser.

Link history and sync

Shortshare keeps a link history that synchronises automatically across macOS and iOS devices via iCloud. This means links shortened on one device are available on the others without manual export or import.

Availability and compatibility

This is the part that decides whether Shortshare still fits your setup:

  • Shortshare is no longer available for iOS and macOS and can no longer be updated for reasons outside the developer's control.
  • It is not compatible with iOS 27 / macOS 27 or newer.
  • Existing customers can download a fixed macOS build for macOS 27 and later.
  • The Windows version and the browser extensions are described as available through their respective stores.

If you are a new user on a current Apple OS, Shortshare is not a viable option. If you are an existing customer on macOS 27+, use the fixed build the developer provides. For setup questions about a specific shortener service, the site points to its knowledge base.