There’s a lot to admire about the LinkedIn iOS app. But there’s also an egregious flaw, and I’m not convinced it’s accidental.
When you read a link someone has shared on LinkedIn, and you want to share it yourself, you’re out of luck. The only way you seem to be able to share from the LinkedIn app is on LinkedIn.
Which is how other apps like Twitter and Facebook handle things, too, but LinkedIn takes it a step further: you can’t open the link in Safari, an option those other apps offer pretty prominently.
What’s worse (unless I’m missing something, and I’ve tried this six ways from Sunday) you can’t even copy the link to the clipboard. If that’s more than just an oversight, it’s presumably to keep users and the links they share firmly within the LinkedIn corral.
Well, good luck with that. I can’t speak for the rest of their user base, but this dramatically lowers the app’s usefulness—and, by extension, LinkedIn’s appeal—to me. When I find something great, I like to share it widely, and often that means outside LinkedIn’s pinstriped walls.
Which is where I imagine I’ll be spending more of my time if this doesn’t change. Not because I’m storming off in a huff—but I like to spend my time where I get the most value. And come to think of it, that’s a principle shared by a lot of LinkedIn’s core users.
If there’s something in the interface I’ve missed, please let me know. I don’t want to think an app for a network I’ve found so useful would be this petty.
