Shorten a YouTube link on Digily Link, switch on app linking, and visitors from Instagram or TikTok land in the YouTube app, signed in, instead of a browser tab. Setup steps, ideas and answers.
A YouTube address is long, full of characters nobody can read out, and it behaves badly in the one place creators share it most. Tap it inside Instagram or TikTok and it opens in their built-in browser, where the viewer is not signed in, the player is cramped, and subscribing means leaving to open the app anyway. A short link fixes the length. App linking fixes the rest.
What a YouTube short link gives you
A short link is a small address such as digily.link/newvideo that redirects to your video. On Digily Link it also counts clicks, shows where they came from and which devices were used, and can be edited later so the same address points at next week's video. You choose the slug on every plan, pick from 15 branded domains including digily.uk and short.bi, or use your own domain on the Starter and Pro plans. The short links page lists everything a short link can carry.
Why open the YouTube app rather than the browser
When a video plays inside the YouTube app, the viewer is signed in. Liking, subscribing, commenting and saving to a playlist are one tap each, the video joins their watch history, and YouTube's recommendations learn that they watched you. In an in-app browser none of that is true. The viewer sees a web player, a sign-in prompt and a banner asking them to open the app, and most of them tap back instead.
Digily Link's app linking recognises YouTube addresses and, on a phone with the app installed, sends the visitor straight into it. On a phone without the app, or on a desktop, the ordinary web page loads. Nothing to install and nothing for the viewer to do differently. If you want the background, read what deep linking is.
Create one in a minute
- Open the video on YouTube and tap Share, then Copy link. Both youtube.com/watch and youtu.be addresses work, as do Shorts and playlists. If you want the link to start at a particular moment, build it with the YouTube timestamp link generator first.
- In the Digily Link dashboard, create a short link and paste the address as the destination.
- Choose a domain and type a slug people can remember, such as /trailer or /ep12.
- In the link settings, switch on "auto open app on mobile" and save.
- Test the link from inside Instagram and TikTok on an iPhone and on an Android phone. It should open the YouTube app on the right video.
If you do not have an account yet, registration is free and the free plan includes 50 short links.
Where the link earns its keep
- Instagram and TikTok bios. Put the short link on your bio link page as the top button, or embed the video with the YouTube block so it plays on the page and the button opens the app.
- Stories and captions. A readable slug can be typed by someone who saw it on a screen for two seconds, which a raw YouTube address cannot.
- Posters, flyers and stage screens. Turn the short link into a QR code with your colours and logo. The QR code generator exports PNG and SVG for print, and the code keeps working when you change the destination.
- Newsletters and podcasts. One short link per episode makes the click count in your statistics meaningful, because you know which mention produced it.
- Preview images. If you need the video's thumbnail for a post or a QR poster, the YouTube thumbnail downloader fetches it in every size YouTube offers.
Reading the numbers
Every click on the short link is recorded with the referrer, country, city, device and operating system, without a tracking cookie on the visitor's phone. Two things are worth watching. The referrer report tells you whether Instagram, TikTok or your newsletter sends more viewers. The device report tells you how many arrived on a desktop, where the app cannot open and the web page is what they see.
Make a separate short link for each place you share the video. The same video behind /ig, /tt and /mail costs nothing extra and turns one number into three you can act on.
Links for a whole channel, not only one video
Most creators end up with three kinds of short link. An evergreen link to the channel page, which goes in every profile, on merch and at the end of every video, and never changes. A link per video, made on upload day and used in stories, captions and the newsletter for that week. And a link per playlist or series, useful when a video mentions "the full course" or "part one". Give them consistent slugs, for example /yt for the channel, /yt-ep12 for an episode and /yt-course for the playlist, and the statistics stay readable months later. All three open in the YouTube app on a phone when app linking is on, and all three can be printed as QR codes that keep working when a destination moves.
Frequently asked questions
Does it work with Shorts, playlists and channel links?
Yes. Any public YouTube address can be the destination. Shorts and playlists open in the app on the right screen; a channel link opens the channel page.
Will the view count?
The video plays in the YouTube app or the YouTube website either way, so it is counted by YouTube as normal. What changes is that app viewers are signed in, which is what makes subscribing and liking easy.
Can I change the video later?
Yes. Edit the destination and the short link, and any QR code printed from it, points at the new video immediately. The old clicks stay in the statistics.
What happens on a phone without the YouTube app?
The normal YouTube web page opens in the browser. The visitor loses nothing; they simply do not get the app.
Can I use my own domain?
On the Starter and Pro plans you can connect a domain or subdomain, so the link reads go.yourchannel.co.uk/trailer. The custom domain documentation explains the DNS records.
Final checks
- The destination is the video's share link, not a search or results page.
- "Auto open app on mobile" is on.
- The slug is short, lower case and easy to say aloud.
- You tested from inside Instagram or TikTok on both iOS and Android.
- Each channel you share on has its own short link, so the statistics tell you something.
