Questions, answered.

A deep link opens a specific place inside a mobile app, such as a profile, a video or a product, instead of a web page in a browser. A regular link takes you to a website. A deep link takes you into the app.

A deep link shortener gives you one short link that decides what a tap opens. Where an ordinary link shortener only makes the address shorter, a deep link shortener, like ZRO, opens the right app on iPhone and Android, and the website when there is no app.

A normal short link still ends on a web page, in whatever browser is open. Inside Instagram or TikTok, that is a signed-out in-app browser. A deep link recognises that browser, steps out of it, and opens the destination’s own app. It also reports whether the app opened, which a click count cannot.

No. You link to other people’s apps, such as YouTube, Instagram or Spotify, and ZRO already knows how to open them. There is no SDK to install and no code to write.

Paste the Instagram or YouTube address into ZRO and use the short link it gives you. Anyone who taps it on a phone, including from inside another app’s browser, lands in the app. There is a step-by-step guide for each of the 12 apps ZRO opens.

Instagram and TikTok open every link in their own in-app browser, which is signed out and usually does not hand over to another app. A link that does not recognise that browser stays stuck in it. A ZRO deep link does recognise it, and steps out.

ZRO is a deep link shortener. You paste a URL, such as a YouTube video, a Spotify playlist or a product page, and get a short ZRO link. When someone taps it, ZRO works out what phone they are on and which app they tapped from, and opens the right app.

Your dashboard then shows where every tap came from, where it went and how many people opened the app.

When you tap a link inside Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X, LinkedIn and similar apps, the link does not open in your normal browser. It opens in a small browser built into that app. That browser is usually signed out of everything, cannot use saved cards or passwords, and often cannot hand a link over to another app.

For a creator, that means someone who wanted to watch your video, buy your product or follow your account lands on a logged-out page, and many of them give up. ZRO steps out of that browser and opens the real app.

ZRO recognises the phone and the in-app browser from the request itself. It then tries the way that app is built to be opened. On an iPhone that is the app’s own link, and from inside an in-app browser it can also hand the page to Safari. On Android it uses the app’s package.

If the app does not take over, ZRO moves to the next step. If nothing works, the visitor lands on the website. A visitor can always tap Open to retry, or Continue in browser to skip the app.

YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Spotify, Amazon, X, Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Telegram, Snapchat and Twitch. ZRO knows the link formats of these apps, including profiles, posts, reels, tracks, playlists and channels, and opens each in the right place.

Some pages inside an app have no direct link, for example certain Instagram pages. Those open on the web instead.

They work too. A ZRO link to any website opens that website, and the tap is counted. On an iPhone, when the tap comes from an in-app browser, ZRO still moves it into Safari. On Android, it opens in the default browser.

The visitor lands on the website version instead, never on an error page. The tap is recorded as “App not installed”, so you can see how many people missed the app experience.

On iPhone and Android, ZRO opens the app. On a computer there is no app to open, so the visitor goes straight to the website and the tap is still recorded.

No. There is nothing to install, no sign-up and no code to add to your site. They tap your link and the right thing happens.

Sign in, open Links on your dashboard, paste a URL and create. You can pick a short name, such as summer-drop, or leave it blank and we pick one. Short names are 3 to 32 characters: letters, numbers, hyphens and underscores.

Anywhere that takes a URL: your Instagram or TikTok bio, stories, post captions, replies, direct messages, emails and newsletters. The same link works for every platform and every phone.

Not yet. A link keeps pointing at the URL you gave it. To send people somewhere new, make a new link.

No. A link keeps working after you cancel or move to a smaller plan. A plan only limits how many links you can make and how much history you see, never whether existing links work.

A card is one page for your bio at zro.to/yourhandle. It shows your name, a short bio (up to 160 characters) and up to 20 rows. Each row is one of your ZRO links with a label of up to 60 characters, so a tap on a card opens the app too.

Taps that come from your card are labelled “Card” in your analytics, so you can compare it with the rest of your traffic.

Cards on the Free plan end with a small “Made with ZRO” link. Pro and Forever remove it.

Handles are 3 to 30 characters: lowercase letters, numbers and underscores. A few names are held back for ZRO itself, such as dashboard, pricing and faq. Handles are not case sensitive.

Traffic is the number of human taps on your links. Handoff is the share of taps from inside an in-app browser that got out of it. Yield is the share of taps on phones that ended with the app open. Reach is the number of unique visitors.

Each one shows how it moved against the previous period of the same length. Yield is the figure to watch: it is the whole point of ZRO.

Median is the typical time from the tap to an outcome. Loss is the share of taps that never resolved, for example when someone closed the page early. In-app is the share of taps that arrived inside a social app’s browser.

After ZRO tries to open the app, the page notices when the visitor leaves it and records which step took them out. That is a strong signal, but it is a signal, not a guarantee, so treat Yield as a very good estimate rather than a head count.

In this order: the in-app browser it arrived in, such as Instagram or TikTok; the utm_source on your link; the website it came from; otherwise Direct. Taps from your profile card are labelled Card.

No. Link-preview fetchers and crawlers, the things that load a link to draw a preview in a chat, are filtered out of Traffic and counted separately as previews. Your numbers are people.

Each visitor is a salted one-way hash of their network address and device. The same device tapping many times counts once. Someone on two devices counts twice, and ZRO never learns who anyone is.

Yes. Tap almost anything on the dashboard, such as a source, an outcome, a country, a device, an hour or a campaign, and every number on the page filters to match. The view lives in the page address, so you can share it or come back to it.

Taps show up within seconds. The dashboard keeps itself up to date while you have it open.

Link-preview bots are not counted, so opening a link in a chat to test it may not show up the way a real phone tap does. Check the period at the top of the dashboard and any filters. Your plan sets how far back history goes. If a new link has had no real taps yet, there is nothing to show.

Free gives you 10 links and 7 days of history, with everything else included: opening 12 apps directly, in-app browser detection, the full dashboard and a profile card. It is not a trial and does not expire, and you never need a card.

Pro is $5 a month: unlimited links and 3 months of history. Forever is $10 a month: unlimited links and all of your history. Prices are in US dollars.

History is how far back your dashboard looks. With a 3 month plan, you can see taps from the last 3 months. With all history, you can always see everything from your first tap.

No. Forever is a monthly plan at $10 that keeps all of your history for as long as you stay subscribed. The name is about your data, which never ages out, not about paying once.

By card, through Stripe. Your card details go straight to Stripe and never touch our servers. Open Pricing, pick a plan and Stripe’s secure checkout does the rest.

Yes. Open Account and choose Cancel plan. Your plan stays on until the end of the month you have already paid for, then you move to Free.

Yes, from Account. Stripe charges or credits the difference for the rest of the month. Your card and invoices are on the same page.

You move to Free. Every link you made keeps working and keeps redirecting. If you have more than 10 links you keep them all, but you cannot add more until you are under the limit or subscribe again. Your dashboard follows the Free window of 7 days.

Both are on the Account page. Changing your email sends a confirmation link to the new address, and nothing changes until you open it. Deleting your account removes your links, taps and profile card for good, and cancels any subscription first. ZRO has no password, so there is none to change.

Your plan stays on while Stripe retries the card. Update the card from Account (Card and invoices) and everything carries on. If the payment cannot be collected in the end, the account moves to Free.

The time; a rough location (country, region and city, from the network); the type of device, system and browser; the phone’s screen size, time zone and connection type; the app it came from; the language; any UTM tags on your link; and the outcome. We do not record names, emails or accounts of the people who tap.

No. A visitor’s address is used only to make an anonymous, salted hash that lets us count unique visitors. The address itself is not saved with the tap.

No. The page a visitor passes through sets no cookies. The only cookies ZRO sets are the ones that keep you, the creator, signed in.

Only you. Your links, taps and settings are readable only by your own account. The one public thing is your profile card, if you make one.

There are no passwords. Use one of the providers shown on the sign-in page, or enter your email and we send you a one-time link. Signing in for the first time creates your account, so there is nothing separate to register.

Check your spam folder and wait a minute. Links work once and expire, so ask for a fresh one if yours has been opened or is old. For safety, you can ask for a few links in ten minutes, then you need to wait a little.

Yes. Use whichever you like. If both use the same email address, they open the same account.

Usually the app is not installed, or the page inside the app has no direct link, so ZRO sent the visitor to the website. You will see those taps as “App not installed” or “Website” in your outcomes. A visitor can always tap Open on the page to try again.

The short name is probably mistyped. Open Links on your dashboard and copy the link again.

Open Help on your dashboard and send us a message. It reaches us with your account details, so you do not need to explain who you are.