Ask HN: Bi-directional links between any two apps, what do you think?

by zhangruinan on 7/7/2022, 6:27:22 AM with 4 comments
The idea of bi-directional links started to get popular beginning in 2019. Products such as RoamResearch, Obsidian, Logseq, and Notion applied this feature to link internal pages. I was thinking: wouldn't it be great if bi-directional links could be used across apps (say: Slack and Notion). Instead of switching apps (causing loss of focus), people can navigate through apps with links in the order of their workflow. I am putting my effort into implementing this feature on my upcoming product; what do you all think?

  • by zhangruinan on 7/7/2022, 10:34:51 AM

    Bi-directional links establish a two-way connection between pages. This enables you to browse in either direction: follow a link to its destination, but then also browse backlinks, which are all the pages that link to the current page.

    In practice, if you copy the link of a Slack thread to the Notion document, there is only a one-way link from Notion to Slack. If the link also enables you to navigate from Slack to Notion, it is a bi-directional link.

  • by keikobadthebad on 7/7/2022, 7:02:04 AM

    I think you should clearly explain what a 'bidirectional link' is and looks like in this context if you're hoping for feedback. I never heard of any of those products.

    List of links to referring pages on each page? Something else?

  • by brudgers on 7/7/2022, 3:15:07 PM

    I think you should ask your users, rather than asking HN.

    If you don't have users, then bidirectional links are not a feature users want so find some users first.

    Good luck.