Most people searching for temporary file sharing actually want easy sharing. Here's why permanent links with zero setup might be the better answer.
You need to share a file with someone. Maybe it's an HTML prototype, a Markdown doc, or a quick mockup. You don't want to set up a server. You don't want to deal with a deployment pipeline. You just want a link you can drop in a chat.
So you search for "temporary file sharing" and find tools like WeTransfer, Tiiny.host's free tier, or Firefox Send. They all work roughly the same way: upload a file, get a link, and that link dies after some period (24 hours, 7 days, one download).
That sounds reasonable. But in practice, expiring links cause more friction than they save.
Broken links in message history. You share a link in Slack on Monday. Your colleague opens it on Wednesday. The link is dead. Now you need to re-upload and re-share. If it was in an email thread with five people, you get to do this for everyone.
Re-uploading the same file. Updated your prototype? You can't just update the existing link. You upload again, get a new URL, and send it out again. Anyone who bookmarked the old one is out of luck.
No version history. With temporary links, each upload is isolated. There's no way to compare what you shared last week with what you're sharing now.
False sense of security. Most people reach for temporary sharing because it feels more private. But anyone with the link can download and save the file before it expires. The expiration doesn't protect the content; it just makes the link unreliable.
There are legitimate cases. If you're sharing sensitive documents (contracts, credentials, medical records), you might want a link that self-destructs. Tools built specifically for secure sharing, with encryption and access controls, are the right choice there.
But that's not what most people searching for "temporary file sharing" actually need. Most of the time, the real need is easy sharing, not temporary sharing.
What if you could upload a file and get a permanent link in seconds? No sign-up forms, no configuration, no expiration countdown.
That's what Handoff does. Upload an HTML page, a Markdown document, or an image, and you get a shareable URL that stays live. If you need to update the file, upload a new version to the same URL. Your link doesn't break, and anyone who has it sees the latest version.
Here's how it works:
That's it. No expiration timers, no re-uploading, no broken links in your Slack history.
The appeal of temporary sharing tools is their simplicity: upload and go. Handoff keeps that simplicity but removes the artificial deadline. Your files get permanent, versioned URLs with zero server setup.
If you've been searching for temporary file sharing, consider whether you actually need the file to disappear, or whether you just need the sharing to be effortless.