Google's URL shortener service is ending — what you need to know

Link shortening has been a necessary tool as the internet has expanded over the years, but Google is looking to kill off its version of shortened links. Adding another body to the Google Graveyard, The Register reports that Google will shut down the Google URL shortener service in 2025.

Initially launched in 2009, the Google URL shortener was the tech giant's attempt to corral lengthy links by feeding them into the shortener and producing tinier ones that started https://goog.gl/*.

If you're not familiar with Google's version of a URL shortener, you more than likely have come across bit.ly or TinyURL. These tools generally cut longer links in half or by three-fourths to a more manageable link that you can email or text quickly.

Google shut down its URL shortener in 2018 and transitioned over to Firebase Dynamic Links (FDL). FDLs are supposed to be smart URLs. However, FDL is also supposed to be shuttering in 2025 , according to a note on Google's Firebase site.

At the time, Google did say that "all existing links will continue to redirect to the intended destination."

Google is not keeping its promise, as in August 2025, the links are dying .

Google doesn't explain why the service is shutting down completely other than they probably don't want to maintain it. Here's what they said in their blog post:

"In 2018, we announced the deprecation and transition of Google URL Shortener to Firebase Dynamic Links because of the changes we’ve seen in how people find content on the internet, and the number of new popular URL shortening services that emerged in that time. This meant that we no longer accepted new URLs to shorten but that we would continue serving existing URLs."

It'll be a slow decay. Anything that happens to use the goog.gl shortener will get an interstitial page warning that the link will disappear. However, links will return a 404 response once the shutdown officially happens.

More from Tom's Guide

• Google Messages is about to fix one of its biggest issues — what you need to know
• Google Pixel 9 Pro official design just revealed by Google — here's your first look
• Google Maps just got new design changes — here's what you need to know