Tested · October 27, 2026
What’s behind the link in her bio?
Updated · reviewed by a human
Most link-in-bio pages show everyone the same list of links. A few, built for creators who sell paid content, show the platforms’ own link checkers an empty page while sending real visitors on, and push you out of the app into your phone’s browser. We tested eight services.
Of the eight we tested, two, Bouncy and SLT, gave the link checkers used by Meta (Instagram, Facebook, Threads), X and TikTok an empty answer while showing people and Google the real links. A third, Linkboo, gave every automated visitor, Google included, an empty page. All three also move visitors out of Instagram’s and TikTok’s in-app browsers. Linktree, Linkme, Hoo.be, AllMyLinks and Beacons showed their links to everyone. In September, a Fanvue team member recommended SLT to a creator asking which link tool to use.
| Service | What the platforms’ link checkers see | Moves you out of the app? |
|---|---|---|
| Bouncy (bouncy.ai) | Nothing (Meta, X, TikTok); Google sees the links | Yes |
| SLT (slt.bio) | Nothing (Meta, X, TikTok); Google sees the links | Yes (automatic) |
| Linkboo (link.boo) | No links (any crawler, Google included) | Yes (paid plan) |
| Linktree | The same links | No |
| Linkme | The same links | No |
| Hoo.be | The same links | Can, for some links |
| AllMyLinks | The same links | No |
| Beacons | The same links (some crawlers refused) | No |
Hide their links from the platforms’ link checkers
These gave the link checkers used by Meta (Instagram, Facebook, Threads), X and TikTok an empty answer, while showing people and Google the real links. Both also move visitors out of the apps.
- Bouncy (bouncy.ai). A Bouncy link in a bio can forward people to a different page, such as the creator's page on another link service. For two Bouncy redirect links we tested, Meta's link checker and crawler, X's crawler and TikTok's crawler got an empty page titled "Bouncy.ai" with no destination, while a normal browser and Google's crawler were sent on. On a full Bouncy link page, the social links were visible to everyone, but its main button led to another Bouncy page that was also empty for those crawlers. Bouncy's page code, in a file named bouncy-meta-escape.js, detects Instagram, Facebook, Threads and TikTok's in-app browsers and hands visitors to Safari or Chrome; where it can't, it shows a "press and hold" screen. The code also refers to separate "18+ gate" pages. Bouncy also runs separate link domains that its help center lists under "Designed for adult content creators". In its own words: “If a Meta user clicks the link, they’re redirected to the Bouncy.ai homepage instead.” (Bouncy help center, describing its "Non-Meta Platforms" mode); “Bypasses adult content warnings for non-Meta platforms” (same article); “they see your Bouncy domain, not the final destination” (Bouncy help center glossary, under "Link Cloaking"); “Smart link redirection by Bouncy.ai - The ultimate deeplink management platform” (description on Bouncy’s link pages).Our test, October 27, 2026 · 3 public pages · bouncy.ai
- SLT (slt.bio). An SLT page never writes its links into the page itself; the page asks SLT for them after it loads. That request returned the links to a normal browser and to Google's crawler, and returned nothing ("no content") to Meta's link checker and crawler, X's crawler and TikTok's crawler. Taps go through SLT's own click address. The page code detects Instagram, Threads, Facebook, WhatsApp, TikTok and Snapchat's in-app browsers and moves visitors to their phone's browser, including through Instagram's own "open in external browser" link. In its own words: “Stop giving Meta a reason to ban you” (slt.bio home page); “Your destination stays hidden” (slt.bio home page); “Gets fans out of Meta's in-app browser” (slt.bio home page).Recommended by Fanvue staff: on September 28, 2026, in Fanvue’s creator Discord, a Fanvue team member answered a creator’s question about which link-in-bio tool to use: “We would recommend slt.bio at the moment ideally.” (Fanvue creator Discord, September 28, 2026 (screenshot on record))Price: From £4.99 a month (read October 27, 2026).Our test, October 27, 2026 · 2 public pages · slt.bio
Hide their links from every automated visitor
This one showed people the full page and every crawler we tried, Google’s included, an empty one. Its paid plan also moves visitors out of the apps.
- Linkboo (link.boo). People got the full page. Every crawler we tried, Google's included, got a page with the creator's name and a title like "Instagram, Snapchat & 4 more", but an empty body with no links. Its paid plan moves fans out of Instagram's and TikTok's in-app browsers and offers "shielded links". In its own words: “Apps like Instagram and TikTok keep your fans in. Boo walks them out.” (link.boo home page); “link pages for creators whose fans pay them” (link.boo home page title).Price: Free plan; Pro $20 a month billed yearly, or $25 monthly (read October 27, 2026).Our test, October 27, 2026 · 2 public pages · link.boo
Show everyone the same links
These showed the same links to people and to the platforms’ link checkers. A few refused some crawlers outright, which is ordinary bot blocking.
- Linktree. Every visitor we tried, including all five crawlers, got the same page with the same links. The page code recognises Instagram, TikTok and other apps by name; we found no code that moves visitors out of them. Our test, October 27, 2026 · 2 public pages · linktr.ee
- Linkme. Every visitor we tried got the same page with the same links. Our test, October 27, 2026 · 2 public pages · link.me
- Hoo.be. Every visitor we tried got the same page with the same links. The page code can open links in Safari or straight in the Amazon app when you're inside Instagram or TikTok; it hides nothing from the link checkers. Our test, October 27, 2026 · 2 public pages · hoo.be
- AllMyLinks. Meta's checker and crawler, X's crawler and Google's crawler got the same page with the same links. TikTok's crawler was refused outright (an error page), which is ordinary bot blocking rather than a different page. Our test, October 27, 2026 · 2 public pages · allmylinks.com
- Beacons. Meta's link checker and X's crawler got the same page with the same links. Meta's general crawler, TikTok's crawler and our visitor using Google's crawler name were refused outright (an error page). That looks like ordinary bot blocking, not a different page. Our test, October 27, 2026 · 2 public pages · beacons.ai
What Meta’s rules say
Meta, which runs Instagram, Facebook and Threads, writes these rules into its spam policy. We don’t decide whether any service breaks them; Meta does. We put them here so you can read the rule next to what we observed.
- Cloaking. “Cloaking is any attempt to circumvent our content policies by intentionally presenting different off-platform content, such as URLs or applications, to our integrity systems versus what is shown to users.”
- Misleading links. “Content containing a link that promises one type of content but delivers something substantially different.”
- Deceptive redirect behavior. “automatically redirects users to a substantially different domain without any user action”
Source: Meta Transparency Center, Spam policy · read October 27, 2026
Before you tap, or pay
- Watch the address bar after you tap. If the page asks you to “press and hold” or to open it in your browser, the link page is moving you out of the app, not Instagram.
- A link that leads to another link page, then another, is hiding its final destination on purpose. Look at where you end up before you sign in or pay.
- Pay a creator only through a link her verified profile shows, and check her name on VerifiedHer first: search the registry.
- Platform rules for AI content, impersonation and verification are on our platform rule records.
Quick answers
Why would a link page hide its links from Instagram?
Instagram, Facebook, Threads, X and TikTok check the links people post. Two services we tested, Bouncy and SLT, gave those checkers an empty answer while showing people and Google the real destination. SLT says on its home page: "Stop giving Meta a reason to ban you." The checker sees nothing to object to; the fan is sent on.
Why does a link take me out of Instagram?
Some link pages detect Instagram’s and TikTok’s built-in browsers and push you into Safari or Chrome, sometimes with a "press and hold" screen. Linkboo pitches it this way: "Apps like Instagram and TikTok keep your fans in. Boo walks them out." In your phone’s browser you’re usually already signed in to paid sites, and the app can no longer see where you went.
Does using one of these services mean a creator is fake?
No. Link pages are legal and widely used by real creators. This page is about what the services do, tested by us; it makes no claim about any creator who uses them.
Which link services did VerifiedHer test?
Eight, on October 27, 2026: Linktree, Linkme, Hoo.be, AllMyLinks, Beacons, Linkboo (link.boo), Bouncy (bouncy.ai) and SLT (slt.bio).
How we tested
On October 27, 2026 we opened one to three public pages on each service, the kind creators put in their Instagram and TikTok bios, and requested each page seven times: as a desktop browser, as Instagram's in-app browser on an iPhone, and under the names of Meta's link checker (facebookexternalhit), Meta's crawler (meta-externalagent), X's crawler (Twitterbot), TikTok's crawler (Bytespider) and Google's crawler (Googlebot). We compared which links each one was shown, followed redirects, and read the page code for anything that moves visitors out of an app.
- We used the crawlers' names, not their networks. A service can also check where a request comes from, so the real crawlers may be treated differently from our test.
- A refusal (an error page) means the visitor was blocked, not shown a different set of links. We report refusals separately.
- We tested what the pages do. We did not test whether any platform restricts or penalises accounts that use them.
- The pages we tested belong to creators. We don't name them; the findings are about the services.
This page records how public link pages behaved on the date shown. It makes no claim about any creator who uses these services, and VerifiedHer is not affiliated with any of them. Corrections: corrections & removals →