GoodLinks for macOS and iOS now syncs new bookmarks in the background without making you open the app

Goodlinks Ipad Iphone Mac (Image credit: Ngoc Luu)

What you need to know

Bookmarking app GoodLinks has been updated to version 1.1.1.
The update comes to iOS, macOS, and iPadOS.
The big change means new bookmarks sync in the background without the app needing to be opened.

GoodLinks is my go-to app for bookmarking and the fact it's available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac as a single app is just the icing on the cake. Today the app received a big update overnight and while it isn't big in the number of changes, it's bigger than big in the way it fixes one of the biggest irritations it caused. Now, new bookmarks sync in the background.

That might not sound such a huge deal on the face of it, but it really is. Before this update, anyone who added a new bookmark via the Share Sheet on any device had to then open the GoodLinks app to have that bookmark sync to iCloud. That was a real pain in the rear for those of us who like to bookmark things on our iPhones and then read them on our iPads. Or, if you're bookmarking things before writing them up on a popular Apple website, you might want to open them on your Mac.

But the new bookmark wouldn't be there because you hadn't opened the GoodLinks app. And it was infuriating. Now, it isn't. And all – well, not all – is right with the world.

The full list of changes reads thus:

Added support for URL scheme.
Added support for Tweet URLs.
Links saved via share extension will now be synced immediately without having to open the app.
Fixed sync issues.

This update is available for free to all existing GoodLinks users. For everyone else, this is probably the best $4.99 you'll spend this week.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.