A YouTube link shortener that opens the app
Short crl.bio links for descriptions, pinned comments and community posts — links to your videos open directly in the YouTube app on mobile, and every click is tracked per link.
How it works
Paste your destination
Anything you'd put in a description: an affiliate product, your merch, another video, your channel page. Affiliate parameters you've configured are injected automatically on the way in.
Get a clean crl.bio link
Short enough for a pinned comment, readable enough to say out loud on camera, and editable later — you can change the destination without touching the video.
Track clicks per placement
Country, device and referrer for every click. One link per video (or per slot: description vs pinned comment) tells you exactly where your traffic comes from.
Descriptions, pinned comments, community posts
On YouTube your links live in three places: the description (folded behind “...more”), the pinned comment, and community posts. Each spot behaves differently, and a long raw URL performs badly in all of them — it looks like spam, it wraps across lines, and it tells you nothing about which spot actually gets clicked.
The fix is boring and effective: a short, readable link per placement. Because a crl.bio link takes seconds to make and each one carries its own click counter, you can afford one link for the description and a separate one for the pinned comment — and let the numbers settle the “where should links go” debate for your channel. We collected the patterns that work in YouTube description links that convert.
If your links are Amazon links, there is a second payoff: CreatorLink injects your Associates tag automatically, so a description assembled in a hurry can’t ship an untagged link. See the Amazon affiliate link shortener for how that works.
Open the video in the app, not the mobile browser
When you link to YouTube content — a related video, your channel, a playlist — from anywhere outside YouTube (an Instagram bio, a newsletter, a podcast’s show notes), mobile clicks normally land on m.youtube.com in a browser tab: logged out, no subscriptions, no watch history, a “sign in” wall between the viewer and the like button.
A crl.bio link pointed at a YouTube URL does better. On mobile, the redirect detects the platform and launches the native app via youtube:// on iOS or vnd.youtube:// on Android, carrying the exact video (watch?v=VIDEO_ID). The viewer lands in the app they are already signed into — one tap from subscribing instead of five. If the app isn’t installed, the link falls back to the web page after a short timeout, so nothing ever breaks.
App opening is on by default and you can toggle it per platform in your preferences. The mechanics — URI schemes, fallbacks, and why in-app browsers complicate things — are covered in deep links: open the app instead of the browser.
Know which video actually sends the clicks
Traffic from the YouTube mobile app often arrives at your destination with no useful referrer — in most analytics tools it shows up as “direct”, indistinguishable from someone typing the URL. You cannot fix that on the receiving end; you fix it at the link.
Give each video its own short link and attribution stops being guesswork: the click count on the link is the video’s contribution, regardless of what the referrer header says. CreatorLink’s dashboard adds country, device and referrer per click, so you can see that a three-year-old tutorial still drives most of your affiliate traffic — and update its links accordingly, without editing the video.
Frequently asked questions
What happens if the viewer doesn't have the YouTube app?
The redirect waits a short timeout for the app to take over; if the page is still visible, it falls back to the normal web URL. On desktop the deep link is never attempted — clicks go straight to the browser. Either way the click lands, and either way it is counted in your analytics.
Do youtu.be links work?
Yes. CreatorLink detects youtube.com, youtu.be and m.youtube.com, extracts the video ID from either format, and builds the deep link as watch?v=VIDEO_ID behind the youtube:// scheme on iOS or vnd.youtube:// on Android.
Are short links allowed in YouTube descriptions?
Yes — YouTube allows external links in descriptions, comments and community posts. What you stay responsible for is the usual affiliate hygiene: disclose affiliate links and don’t mislead viewers about where a link goes. A crl.bio link is a redirect, not a cloak — anyone can expand it and see the destination.
What does it cost?
One credit creates one link; you start with 10 free credits and no card is required. Clicks, analytics, QR codes and destination changes are free, and credits never expire — there is no subscription.
Other platform tools
Amazon Affiliate Link Shortener
Shorten Amazon links without losing your Associates tag — auto-tagging, click analytics, and app deep links.
TikTok Link Shortener
Send viewers to TikTok content through the native app instead of the in-app browser, and track every click.
Instagram Link Shortener
Clean, trackable short links for your Instagram bio and stories that open profiles and posts in the app.
Spotify Link Shortener
Share tracks, playlists and podcasts with links that open the Spotify app directly, with click analytics.
Also free, no signup: UTM Builder and Link Inspector and Affiliate Link Checker.
Make every description link accountable
One short link per video, automatic affiliate tagging, and app-opening deep links — set up in less time than writing the description.