Have you ever stumbled upon an article or viral video that you just had to share? Sure, you could post it to Facebook or Twitter, but between the selfies, status updates and random tweets, it could be hard to discover interesting stories and to guarantee the article you shared will be seen by all your friends on these cluttered timelines.
You may instead decide to just email the cool thing you found on the Internet to ensure the person you want to see it gets the URL. However, your email inbox may become bombarded with random messages from friends telling you to check this out while you are trying to sort out important work messages.
A New York-based startup is making sharing URLs easier with the launch of its social network app that is made just for sharing links.
The app, called Lynx, allows users to conveniently see, share and save links to articles from across the web.
"Lynx basically replaces emailing links," Lynx CEO and founder Paul Canetti says. "So you find something on the Internet, you want to share it with friends or family. Instead of normally emailing the URL, you Lynx."
Available as an app for iOS 8.0 or later, as well as for desktops, Lynx is a visual inbox for links. "You end up with an inbox, but it's only articles and videos and stuff from the Internet," Canetti says. No word on if an Android version is planned.
It's a one-stop shop for seeing all kinds of things floating around the Internet, whether it's a cat video or news from current events, entertainment, fashion, health, science or technology. The URLs are displayed in a fun, visually compelling package that shows the lead image that resembles an Instagram photo along with it's headline.
The app works by simply tapping a friend's face and sending them a must-see story. Users can like the story by clicking on the heart icon, and share the article with a friend on the social network or to other social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, LinkedIn or even email it.
"At the end of the day, you have all this stuff that everyone sent you sort of waiting for you in one place instead of lost in your email inbox somewhere," says Canetti.
Once you find a link to something worth checking out, like the reboot of Full House, users just have to swipe right and select a friend, and that URL will appear in that friend's Lynx. "The idea is you can very, very quickly and easily share links back and forth between friends," Canetti says. "And you can actually do this from any app or any website — even on your computer."
Finally we have a place where all stories we want to read are virtually filed together instead of alternating between various social networks.
The app, which launched on Tuesday, is available for free for iOS and the web at lynxthat.com.
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Photo: TechTimes | YouTube
