In followup on iOS 17 Hot Tips #1, I recently discovered an even easier way to embed a link in text. Read on…

Copy Link

To begin, copy a link that you want to embed. For example, to copy the link of the page you’re viewing in Safari, tap Share and choose Copy. Or, to copy a visible hyperlinked URL or embedded link on an email, webpage, etc., long-press the link and choose Copy Link.

Select Text

Go to the text in which you want to embed the link and select the snippet.

Do you know how to select text? There are a few ways to start:

  1. Tap the cursor and choose Select from the menu; then, drag a handle to expand the selection
  2. Double-tap on a word to select it; then, drag a handle to expand the selection
  3. Double-tap and hold your finger on a word; then, drag your finger across the text you want to select
  4. If you have an external keyboard connected, you can use the same text selection shortcuts as on Mac

Paste

Finally, simply Paste by selecting this command from the menu (or using the keyboard shortcut). If the menu is missing, you can tap the selected text to make it reappear.

I love how elegantly Apple has implemented this feature, even simpler than doing so on Mac. However, as of iOS 17.4.1, using this method to embed a link in Notes does not produce the desired result.

I’ve sent the following feedback to Apple, requesting a fix so the behavior is more consistent:

In iOS 17, you’ve made it easier to embed links in text. However, you’ve implemented a shortcut to this that behaves inconsistently.

After copying a URL, in some apps such as Mail, I can select text and choose the Paste command to embed the link in the text. However, in Notes, the URL or the original text with embedded link is pasted in place of the selected snippet.

Please make this operate more consistently and allow Notes to embed the copied link in the selected text, just like Mail and other apps.

How does this feature enhance your productivity?