LinkRudder
Choose the app for each link. See what changes before it opens.
LinkRudder lets you choose which app opens each web link, and shows what will change in a link before it opens. Your rules stay on your phone. There is no account, no analytics, no advertising and no crash reporting. The app holds the internet permission for exactly one thing: the Resolve short link button, and only after you press it.
LinkRudder's manifest requests one permission that Android shows in the Play listing: INTERNET. It does not request QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES, ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE, notifications, location, contacts, storage, accessibility or usage access. You can confirm this in the Play listing's permission list or by inspecting the APK.
The app's code makes a network request in one place only: the short-link resolver, which runs after you press Resolve short link and confirm the dialog that names the server it will contact. Opening, choosing, cleaning and unwrapping links all happen on the phone, without the network. Nothing runs in the background, and the clean-up list is never updated over the internet.
Short links (for example a link shortener) only reveal their destination when their server is asked. When you press the button and confirm:
HEAD first, and if the server refuses, with a GET limited to one byte. It never reads page content.LinkRudder.https servers. A plain http link is not contacted.Only the short link you choose to resolve is sent to that link's own server. In Google Play's Data safety section this appears as Web browsing history: collected, optional (only when you press Resolve short link), for app functionality, not shared, encrypted in transit (https only), not stored by LinkRudder.
This is the complete list.
| Permission | Why | Without it | Withdraw |
|---|---|---|---|
Internet (INTERNET) |
Only for the Resolve short link button, after you press it. | Short links could not be resolved; everything else works the same. | Install-time; not revocable. Simply do not press the button. |
| Default browser (system role, optional) | If you choose it, Android sends the web links you tap in most apps to LinkRudder. | You can still use LinkRudder from the Share menu or with "Open copied link". | Settings › Apps › Default apps › Browser app |
The <queries> entry in the manifest lets LinkRudder see only the apps that open web links (browsers and apps with links for particular sites), so it can list them. It cannot see your other apps, and it never reads your app usage.
| What | Where |
|---|---|
| Your rules: site name, exact site or subdomains, optional path pattern, the chosen app (package name, its label and a fingerprint of its signing certificate), clean-up on or off | App preferences |
| What happens for links without a rule (ask, or a chosen browser) | App preferences |
| Clean-up entries you switched off | App preferences |
| Pinned apps and their order | App preferences |
| Home-screen shortcuts you made: the link, the app, and the site name used as the shortcut label | App preferences |
| History, only if you switch it on: time, site name, what happened and the app, kept for the number of days you choose (1–30) | App preferences |
| Theme, language, the "start with the cleaned link" setting | App preferences |
The signing-certificate fingerprint lets the app notice when a chosen app was replaced by one signed by someone else; the rule then asks instead of opening.
Full links in history, page content, browsing statistics, usage counts, device identifiers, crash dumps.
Android cloud backup and device-to-device transfer are switched off for this app, so your rules are not copied into a Google backup. To move them, use Backup › Save to a file, then Load from a file on the other phone. The file is plain JSON. It holds your rules, the default choice and the clean-up switches, and no history or links.
The Send feedback screen writes a message and hands it to your own email app, with your phone model, Android version, app version and app language added at the end. LinkRudder does not send it itself; you see the message in your email app before it goes to contact@basilbase.com.
LinkRudder is not directed at children and collects no data from anyone.
Everything stays on your phone until you delete it. Privacy › Delete everything removes rules, history, pinned apps and shortcuts. Turning history off deletes the history at once. Uninstalling LinkRudder removes all of its data. If LinkRudder is your default browser, choose another one in the system settings; the app shows a button for this.
If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it and the new text replaces this page. Material changes are also described in the app's release notes.