When a link is the right answer
- The recipient is reading in a browser — a ticket, a wiki, a public thread — where an attachment is an extra click.
- The image is large and the channel has a size limit.
- You are sending the same screenshot to several people and do not want five copies floating around.
- You want the ability to have it disappear later.
When it is the wrong answer: anything that has to survive as a permanent record. An expiring link inside a document that will be read next year is a broken image with extra steps. Attach the file.
What to check before you upload anything
- Redact first, always. Blur or cover happens on your Mac; upload happens after. Doing it the other way round means the unredacted image existed on someone else's server, however briefly. See how to blur sensitive information.
- Know who can open it. Most short-link services make the URL the only credential: anyone with the link can view it. Treat the link itself as the secret.
- Know how long it lives. Indefinite hosting sounds convenient until you remember what is in your screenshots folder.
- Check the edges. The menu bar, a notification banner, a browser tab title. These are the things that leak, not the thing you meant to screenshot.
The URL is the credential. If a link would be embarrassing in a public channel, it is embarrassing in a private one that gets forwarded.
How sharing works in Shotcake
Share links in Shotcake are deliberately minimal, because a screenshot tool that quietly becomes a file host is a different product with different obligations:
- Anonymous. No account, no name, no email attached to the upload. There is nothing to sign up for.
- Opt-in per image. Nothing is uploaded unless you use the share action on that specific capture. Everything else — capture, annotation, text recognition, export — stays on your Mac.
- Deleted after 7 days. Automatic and permanent, not a soft delete. The link stops working and the file is gone.
- Link-only access. Anyone holding the URL can open it while it lives, which is exactly why the expiry is short.
The seven-day window is a design decision rather than a limitation: it keeps the service free of accounts, quotas and storage bills, and it means a link you pasted into a chat two years ago is not still serving your screenshot to whoever finds it. If you need the image permanently, export the file.
The full detail is in the privacy policy.