Microsoft Research is working on a way to save links inside mobile apps

A newly revealed Microsoft Research project, uLink, is working on a way for smartphone owners to quickly save and bookmark links inside mobile apps.

While it's easy to copy and past URL on web pages, it's not nearly as simple to do the same with links in mobile apps, such as ones made for shopping, travel or ticket. The uLink project from Microsoft Research (via MSPU) is developing a much easier way to save those mobile app links to access later:

.uLink is a novel deep linking mechanism that addresses these problems. uLink brings the equivalent of web URLs to mobile apps. With uLink, users can bookmark links to app pages, and even search previously-seen app pages with content of interest.

The video shows how uLink could work on a mobile phone. A user accesses a hotel reservation app on his smartphone and then books a hotel on that app. He then shakes the smartphone, which, via the power of uLink, saves the link to that booked hotel page on his Bookmarks app. If a person forgets to save a mobile app link, then realizes he needs to access it, uLink can be set up to let him search through all the mobile app links he has used that day to find the link he needs to save.

It's important to note that this project is being developed by Microsoft Reseach. Many such efforts end up not being released to the public, or they are merged with existing software projects as new features.

John Callaham