That link a friend just sent you probably has a dozen tracking parameters glued to the end of it. Clean Links strips them off. It also opens up QR codes so you can read where they actually go before you commit to tapping.
The app does a handful of things, and does them without an account, a subscription, or an ad:
QR reader that shows you the destination URL first. Quishing scams work because nobody can read a QR code with their eyes, so you scan and hope. This one puts the real address on screen and waits.
Link cleaner. Paste anything, get back the same link minus the utm tags, click IDs, and referral junk. Works on links from hundreds of shopping sites, social networks and search engines.
Send to Mac. Push a cleaned link from your iPhone straight into the browser on your Mac. If the Mac is asleep or offline the link waits for it.
Unshorten. Feed it a bit.ly or t.co address and it follows the chain to whatever sits at the end. Useful when a shortened link turns up from someone you don't know, which is how most phishing starts.
Tracker blocker covering 71+ services, running as a parameter remover across everything you paste.
QR generator for making your own codes out of links you trust.
Safari extension that cleans every link on a page in one tap.
Shortcuts, a Control Center widget, and a share sheet action, if you want the whole thing automated.
Nothing leaves your device. There's no analytics SDK in here, no crash reporter phoning home, no account to create. Privacy isn't a feature we bolted on; there was never any data to collect.
■ Send Links to Your Mac
Share a cleaned link from your iPhone or iPad and it lands in your Mac's browser. Links queue up if the Mac is offline. You can also fire Shortcuts on your Macs from an iOS device.
You'll need Clean Links on both machines, iCloud turned on, and the same Apple account.
■ Coming from Hyperduck? Clean Links does the same handoff, adds tracker stripping on the way out, handles more than one Mac, and costs nothing.
■ Link Sharing FAQ
‣ Why not AirDrop? AirDrop needs both devices awake and nearby. This doesn't, and it drops the link straight into a background tab.
‣ Why not iCloud Tabs? Because iCloud Tabs only works in Safari, and the tabs are easy to lose. These open in whatever browser you actually use.
‣ Why not Reading List? Reading List is where links go to be forgotten. Yours open immediately.
‣ Why not Handoff? Handoff wants the devices in the same room. Clean Links supports Handoff anyway, for when they are.
‣ More than one Mac? Send to all of them. Any Mac signed into the same Apple account with the app installed will get it.
‣ Want to skip a particular Mac? Turn off receiving in that Mac's settings.
■ Spotted a tracker we don't catch yet? There's a link in Settings to tell us. We add them.
App does exactly what it says it does with no extra fluff or frills. It just works and that’s pretty refreshing these days. However, to the developer: when opening a cleaned link in browser I noticed it goes straight to Safari and this can’t be changed. I use Chrome as my default browser—never touch Safari. Being able to select your browser, or bare minimum have the app use the browser the user has selected as their “default browser” in their iPhone settings seems like a simple update/implementation. My two cents!
Developer Response
Thanks for the review! For privacy reasons, iOS does not provide an API for apps to find out what the users' default browser is. The latest version of the app (1.0.11), now detects if Chrome is installed on the device and adds a "Open in Chrome" button.
Works great. Killer feature is the optional, automatic clipboard monitoring!
Likwidtek
I was looking everywhere for a safari extension that automatically strips out tracking junk from links. I searched and saw this one but it didn’t mention that it has a feature to automatically monitor your clipboard and automatically clean links! This is your killer feature and I would add an image preview for it! Great app!
Great App for Cleaning Useless Tracking Junk from Links
Bad|Timing
It occasionally leaves a dangling piece but saves me a bunch of editing before I send links to others or when posting online.
Works well, but still connects to network
Neutron-conveyor-squeeze
Great option for QR codes, but really needs a way to prevent automatically expanding short links. This can still attribute a click to you if the original URL was targeted or shared only to you.
Developer Response
Thanks for the thoughtful feedback. You’re right that some short links require a network request to resolve. Clean Links only does that when the final destination cannot be determined from the URL alone, which is common with URL shorteners and some ad-network redirects. Those requests go directly from your device to the destination, not through our servers, and we do not log the links you clean. We also use isolated requests with no persisted cookies or browsing history, and we strip tracking parameters before and after redirects. We mention this in our FAQ under “Is this really local?” Edit: Based on your feedback, we've added an "Allow network requests" toggle in the app settings and for shortcuts. I hope that addresses this issue. If not, please feel free to get in touch with us on Discord or X (@CleanLinksApp) or email us at support@cleanlinks.app
- Performance improvements across the board in the app, the share extension and the Safari extension
- Improved support for Handoff between the iOS and macOS versions of the app
- Added support for stripping hundreds more tracking parameters from various popular sites
- Minor bug fixes and updates
Thank you for choosing Clean Links. If you enjoy the app, leaving an App Store review is a great way to support us. We are committed to continually improving the app and to making it more useful for you. For support requests and feature suggestions, please feel free to ask in our Discord server, tweet at @CleanLinksApp or email us at support@cleanlinks.app
Version 1.0.20
The developer, Numen Technologies Limited, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
The developer indicated that this app supports the following accessibility features. Learn More
