Share your image as an ornament, so someone close sees it on their screen
Hang your own picture in HangLine, then press Share. You get a link. Send it to whoever you want and they open it on any phone or computer, where your picture is swinging on its thread and they can grab it and throw it about. The link is public while it is up, so send it the way you would send a photo to a group chat. Free, on Mac, Windows and Linux.
Most of what we send each other disappears. A photo goes into a chat, gets a heart, and is gone by Thursday. The Share button came out of wanting the opposite of that: a way to put a picture somewhere it stays and moves and is still there on Sunday. So now you can share your image as an ornament, and the person you send it to gets something that behaves like an object rather than another thing to scroll past.
What it actually is
HangLine hangs one small thing from a thread pinned to the top of your screen. Usually that is an ornament from the app. It can also be any picture you give it, which is where this gets good, because the picture can be your mother, your daughter, the dog, the four of you at the beach in 2019.
Press Share and HangLine turns that hang into a page of its own at a short address like hanglineapp.com/h/a1b2c3d4e5. Everything about how it hangs travels with it: the thread you chose, how heavy it swings, how much wind is in it. Open the link anywhere and it is the same hang, running the same physics the desktop app runs.
How to share your image as an ornament
- Hang the picture first. Settings, then Ornaments, then Yours. Load a PNG, a JPG, an SVG or an animated GIF. A PNG with a transparent background looks best, because the thread ties into the picture rather than into a white box around it.
- Get it hanging the way you like. Thread, motion and size all travel with the share, so what you set now is what your friend sees.
- Press Share. It sits under Ornament, in the row with Ding, Gust and Shake.
- Look at the preview. HangLine draws the picture that will appear in the message, right there on your computer, and shows it to you before anything is uploaded. It also tells you in plain words whether your own picture is about to be uploaded or not.
- Press Create the link. The link appears and is copied to your clipboard. Paste it into WhatsApp, iMessage, Slack, an email, wherever.
You need to be signed in, which is free and the same account the app already uses.
What the other person gets
This is worth being precise about, because it is not quite what people assume.
They get a link. Before they even tap it, the message shows a wide preview picture of your ornament hanging on its thread. HangLine drew that picture on your computer at the moment you shared, which is the only way it can be there: messaging apps and social networks do not run a page to build a preview, they read what arrives with the link, so the picture has to exist before the link is sent.
When they tap it, a page opens with your picture swinging on a thread. They can grab it, drag it and fling it, on a phone with a finger or on a computer with a mouse. Underneath there is a line saying someone made this with HangLine, and a button to get it.
It is a page, not a delivery. The link does not reach onto their desktop by itself. If they want your picture hanging on their own screen all day the way it hangs on yours, they install HangLine, which is free, and hang the same picture. That is a small ask for someone close to you, and it is the real point of the whole thing.
What gets uploaded, and what does not
Sharing is the one moment HangLine sends a picture of yours anywhere, so here is the whole of it.
Uploaded when you press Share
- The picture you hung, if it is yours. A built in ornament is already in the app, so nothing of yours goes with it.
- The preview card the app just drew for you.
- Eleven values describing how it hangs: which ornament, its name, thread, motion, size, thread length, gravity, wind, springiness, damping, and whether the art is a picture or a GIF.
Never uploaded
- Your tasks, your task titles, your reminders.
- The file name or the folder the picture came from.
- Any other setting, and anything at all about your computer.
- Who made the share. The page never says.
The link is public while it stands. There is no password on it. Anyone you send it to, and anyone they forward it to, can open it. The app says exactly this on the sheet before it uploads anything. Treat it the way you treat sending a photo to a group chat, and it is fine.
Keep the link in mind
A share stays up once you have made it. There is no expiry on it and no password, so the sensible rule is the one you already use for photos: happy for it to be forwarded, fine to share. Not happy, do not share it.
If you ever want a link removed, email support@hanglineapp.com with the link in it and we will take it down.
One thing it cannot do yet
A 3D object cannot be shared. If you have hung a .glb file, the Share button will tell you so and ask you to hang a flat picture instead. The reason is the preview: the card that goes into the message is a flat image, and there is no honest way to make one from an object that is supposed to turn.
Questions people ask
Does it work if they are on a phone?
Yes. The page is built for a phone as much as a computer, and the ornament is draggable with a finger. HangLine itself is a desktop app, so the app part is Mac, Windows and Linux.
Can I share more than one?
As many as you like. Each one is its own link and its own page, and they all sit in Shared hangs so you can take down the ones you are finished with.
If I change my ornament later, does the link change?
No. A share is a snapshot of how things looked when you pressed the button. Change your ornament tomorrow and the link you sent still shows what you sent.
Does the person opening it know it is mine?
Only if you told them. The page carries the hang and nothing else. No name, no email, no account.
What picture works best?
A PNG with the background already cut away, of one clear subject. A face, a pet, a logo. The thread ties into the top of whatever you give it, so a picture with a lot of empty space above the subject hangs oddly.
Looking for something to hang? We wrote about keeping a disti bomma on your desktop, which works the same way with a picture of your own.