Link controls: password protection, expiry dates and click caps explained

A normal short link is permanent and public: anyone with it can open it, forever. That is fine for a product page, but plenty of links are not meant to work that way. A limited drop, a private document, a time-boxed offer, all of them want a link that can be told when to stop. That is what link controls are for.

A password puts a gate in front of the destination, so only people who know it get through. It suits a client proposal, a paid resource or anything you are sharing with a specific group rather than the whole internet. The link can travel freely; the password decides who actually arrives.

An expiry date makes a link stop working after a chosen moment. It is built for anything that should not outlive its occasion: an early-bird offer, an event registration, a Story link you do not want circulating a month later. When the date passes, the link closes on its own, so nobody lands on a stale page.

A click cap closes a link after a set number of taps. Use it when supply is limited: the first hundred buyers, a capped invite, a flash offer that should end when the stock does. Instead of watching the link and pulling it manually, you set the ceiling once and let it enforce itself.

Password protection, expiry dates and click caps are Premium link controls, set per link when you create or edit it. There is a fuller tour of them alongside the rest of the toolkit on the features page, and the plans that include them are on the pricing page.