Quick Links to DMs

README.md

So many messaging apps!! It's hard to keep track of who I talk to where!

I message Brian on Signal, Sean on Discord, and Steve by sms.

I just want to type their name and BAM immediately be in the correct app.

This takes two steps:

1. Coming up with the "weird links" to open the right app to the right person (I use a spreadsheet)
2. Making those "weird links" easy to open (like with Apple Shortcuts)

Credits: Casey Watts and Sean Perkins came up with this approach together :)

apple-shortcuts.md

Apple Shortcuts

Apple Shortcuts is a great way to make these quick and easy!

These shortcuts work on both desktop (cmd+ space) and on mobile/iPhone (the swipe down search)

Making These Shortcuts

And there's a way to do it using Shortcuts!

1. Create a Shortcut
2. Create an "Open URLs" action (under Web)
3. Put in the magic deep link (see the next md file for instructions for that.

deep-link-references.md

You'll need to use special URLs to open the mobile apps or desktop apps for these messaging services. Instead of https:// these start with something like discord:// or slack://. These aren't always well-documented, but once they're set up they work pretty well!

These weird links have a lot of names, it's not super consistent. Sometimes these are called "deep links" or "intentions" or "direct links" or "app links". They use a different "protocol" (the "https://" part) for the app (and the computer/phone keeps track of which protocols map to which apps). Sometimes these are called "URL schemas". The sub-paths (like /user/USERID) are sometimes called "routes".

URL Schemas

Here is a collection of the ones I've used. If you find any more of these, feel free to comment below!

Apple Messages / Text Messages

• Example sms:1231231234
• Example sms:+1231231234?&body=lol
• Example messages:// (what would the rest be?)
• Reference: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4787905/sms-url-on-android

Signal

• Example: sgnl://signal.me/#p/+11231231234 (note: including the country code like +1)
• Reference: https://community.signalusers.org/t/add-custom-url-scheme-signal-or-sgnl-for-share-or-call-buttons-on-websites/2362/87

Telegram

• Example: tg://resolve?phone=1231231234 (note: on desktop, app must be running already or you may see "user not found")
• Reference: https://corefork.telegram.org/api/links

Slack

• Example slack://channel?team={TEAM_ID}&id={CHANNEL_ID} (you can find the ids by opening it in the web browser)

Discord

• Example discord://-/channels/@me/956219760813703188
• Reference: https://gist.github.com/Awoocado/8877e637afcdd848990cbc3f6737d4d3

Teams

• Reference: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/platform/concepts/build-and-test/deep-links#linking-to-the-scheduling-dialog

Facebook Messenger

Facebook Messenger is the worst lol - very inconsistent

• Example http://m.me/USERID (web only?)
• Example fb-messenger-public://user/USERID (mobile only)
• Example messenger:// (desktop app only - what would the rest be?)
• Reference: https://viarami.com/programming/messenger-url-schemes/#Facebook_Messenger
• Reference: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/31777075/deep-linking-to-facebook-messenger

Whatsapp

• Example whatsapp://send?phone=1231231234 (untested)
• Reference: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/35995775/whatsapp-deep-link-to-a-specific-mobile-number

Spreadsheet

I manage these weird links using a spreadsheet - here's an example one: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11a6ATrSzPSizdlp6KYLS96zatVaV7upMvoqlo0DRcqM/edit#gid=0

If you utilize alfred instead of spotlight, you can use this shortcut workflow to access shortcuts: https://github.com/alfredapp/shortcuts-workflow#readme