Introducing T.LY

3 min read
Introducing T.LY

Over the past several months, I have been working on a Link Shortener Extension for (Chrome|Firefox|Edge|Opera)which has grown to over 400,000 users! The feedback has been great and many users love how simple it is to shorten long links. The extension allows users to select their default shortener services such as T.LY, TinyUrl, Bit.ly, is.gd, To.ly, Cutt.ly, Brevis, Rebrandly, and Lnnkin. In one click, they can shorten a URL which is then automatically copied to their clipboard in less than a second.

Since the creation of the extension, the goal has been to give users an alternative to goo.gl which shut down in March 2019. This has worked well but shortener services come and go. So to make the extension more stable, I needed to create my own URL shortener.

Introducing T.LY

T.LY is now live and is currently the default URL shortener for the extension. It is a shorter domain than other popular services such as bit.ly. Stats are also being tracked for each shortened URL by adding a + sign to the end of a short URL. This feature mimics goo.gl stats. There is also an API for the service which allows users to use the service in their own applications. To get an API Key, register here.

In the future, I plan to add more features such as:

  • Expire links by date/clicks
  • Update links redirect URL
  • Custom link endings
  • Custom domains

Update: May 2026

I wanted to do a quick update on T.LY since this launch post. It has grown well beyond the default shortener behind the browser extension. Today, T.LY is a full link management platform with short links, QR codes, OneLinks, custom domains with SSL, private stats, editable destinations, teams, and API access.

T.LY has grown to be an all-in-one URL shortener and QR code platform for marketers, developers, creators, and teams. We have created 60M+ URLs and QR codes, reached 1M+ users worldwide, and now see 80M+ monthly visitors. The browser extension is still a big part of the story too, with 450,000+ users.

T.LY homepage screenshot showing the URL shortener, QR codes, and OneLinks features

A few items from my original future list above are now live: expiring links, editable redirect URLs, custom endings, and custom domains. The bigger shift is that QR codes and link-in-bio style OneLinks have become first-class parts of T.LY. They are not side ideas anymore.

Check out the site and extension. Let me know what features you would like to see in the comments below.