An app for Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision Pro
BasicClips.
A tidy little home for everything you would otherwise lose in a tab. Clip a link, a photo, a file or a passing thought, and BasicClips works out what it is, dresses it up with the details that matter, and files it where you will actually find it again.
Free, with a tip jar. No accounts, no subscriptions, and nothing is tracked.
Capture
Paste, drop, share or ⌥⌘V
From the menu bar on your Mac, the share sheet on everything else, or a Shortcut.
Understands
35 kinds of clip
Recipes, repos, papers, listings, maps, podcasts, posts. It fetches the details for you.
Organize
Folders, tags & a Logbook
Nested folders with icons and colours, tags, favourites, and a stamp for the things you are done with.
Everywhere
Mac, iPhone, iPad, Vision Pro
One library on every device you own, kept in step by iCloud.
Clip it from anywhere.
The whole point is speed. Paste, save, carry on. Everything else is optional.
01 · MAC
A menu bar that is always one click away
BasicClips sits in your Mac's menu bar, waiting. Drop a link on it and it saves instantly. Click it and paste anything: a link, a paragraph, a screenshot, a file. While you type a note, it is already fetching the preview. Press ⌥⌘V from any app and the popover is there, wherever you are.
02 · IPHONE, IPAD & VISION PRO
Share sheet, two taps, done
Found something in Safari, Mastodon or Maps? Share it to BasicClips. A title and a note for the quick case, folder and tags tucked behind "Add details" for when you feel organized. A gentle haptic tells you it landed.
03 · SHORTCUTS, SIRI & SPOTLIGHT
Clip without opening the app at all
Save Clip, Open Clip, Favorite, Log, Tag and Move to Folder all show up in Shortcuts, so a link can go from a text message into the right folder on its own. Siri answers from a card without launching the app, and every clip is in Spotlight the moment you need it.
It knows what you clipped.
A link is never just a link. BasicClips looks at where it points, fetches the facts that matter, and shows them front and centre. A repo arrives with its stars and license. A paper comes with its authors. A restaurant brings its rating. A listing knows its price. A map pin remembers exactly where it was.
It speaks YouTube, Reddit, Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads, Instagram, TikTok, Twitch, Hacker News, Stack Overflow, Wikipedia, Substack, Pinterest, Apple and Google Maps, GitHub, arXiv, Eventbrite, Luma, Meetup, Greenhouse, Lever and plenty more. When a page refuses to hand over a preview, BasicClips renders the page itself and takes a snapshot. And when a site insists you are a robot, you can prove otherwise in one tap, right inside the app.
When it earns its keep.
Some of the moments where a clipboard is not enough and a bookmark is too little.
TRIP
Planning the Lisbon trip
The hotel, three restaurants, a tram museum and a map pin for the pastel de nata place, all in one folder. The map clips keep their coordinates, the restaurants keep their ratings, and the whole thing is on your iPhone the moment you land.
HOME
Hunting for an apartment
Every listing you clip arrives with its price, bedrooms and neighbourhood already filled in. Tag the ones with a balcony, favourite the two you can picture living in, and send the rest to the Logbook when they are gone.
WORK
The job hunt
Postings from Greenhouse, Lever and Ashby come with the company, location and salary pulled out for you. One folder, one tag per stage, and a note on each about who you talked to.
STUDY
Reading for a project
Papers from arXiv and DOI links bring their authors and journal along. Articles keep their source. When you have read something, stamp it into the Logbook: it is out of the way, but still searchable the day you need to cite it.
DINNER
What is for dinner
That ramen video from TikTok, the recipe your aunt posted, the restaurant a friend mentioned. Clip them from the share sheet on your phone, then open the folder on the iPad propped up in the kitchen.
LATER
Watch, listen and read later
Movies, TV, books, podcasts and albums each get their own look, so the queue is a shelf rather than a list of blue text. Pin the one for tonight. The Calendar view shows what you clipped and when.
Tidy by nature.
Clips sort themselves into categories the moment they land. The rest is up to you, and it is a pleasure.
FOLDERS & TAGS
Folders inside folders, tags across everything
Give each folder an icon and one of thirteen colours, nest them as deep as the project needs, and tag clips so they can live in more than one place at once. Favourites, pinned clips, an Unsorted tray and a Notepad for the thoughts that are not links yet.
THE LOGBOOK
Done with it, but not gone
Read the article, booked the hotel, bought the lamp? Stamp the clip into the Logbook. It leaves your library but stays searchable, so "that place we almost booked" is one search away months later. The trash works the same way, and letting go counts as curation too.
⌘K opens Quick Open: type a few characters and jump to any folder, tag or clip. ⌘N starts a new clip. Double-click a clip to open its link, or just select it to read the details.
Make it yours.
Twenty-five themes in four collections, each with a light and a dark side. This page is wearing Basic Blue, the default.
Basic BlueDefault
Linen PaperDefault
TerracottaFW26
SageFW26
TangerineFW26
BlueHello
Miami ViceSpecial Edition
TerminalSpecial Edition
- Light, dark or automatic. Every theme has both sides.
- Two app icons. Classic, or Retro for the nostalgic.
- Colour packs for folders and tags: Hello, Retro, Zen Saturated and Calm.
- Density from S to XL, colourful library icons, and which sidebar groups you see.
- Whimsy. A toggle for the playful source artifacts in the detail view. On by default, naturally.
- Little things. The New Clip button's corner and colour, swipe actions, haptics, and whether the menu bar icon shows at all.
A little whimsy.
Clipping is a habit, so BasicClips keeps score. Streaks, lifetime totals, and levels with names that take themselves exactly as seriously as they should.
MAC
From Desk Jockey to The Mac Itself
IPHONE
From Pocket Clipper to The Phone Itself
IPAD
From Canvas Curator to The iPad Itself
VISION PRO
From First Glance to Spatial Librarian
There are ladders for every category, for tagging, for the Logbook ("Inbox Zeroist", "Stamped & Sealed") and even for deleting ("Void Whisperer", "Tabula Rasa"). Reset the count any time; your clips are never touched.
Everywhere you are.
One library, four shapes. iCloud keeps every device in step, and your library stays yours: export it as JSON or as a bookmarks file any browser can read.
Mac
The menu bar popover, the global hotkey, drag and drop onto the Dock icon or the popover, Spotlight, and a full window with sidebar, cards and a detail column.
iPhone
The share sheet is the front door. Swipe actions, a floating New Clip button you can move to the corner you prefer, and haptics that confirm the save.
iPad
The big-screen library: sidebar, grid and detail side by side, keyboard shortcuts with a Magic Keyboard, and a comfortable place to actually go through what you saved.
Apple Vision Pro
Your library as a window in the room, and the share sheet from anything you are looking at. The same clips, the same folders, floating wherever you put them.
Privacy
Your clips are yours
BasicClips has no account to create and no server of its own. Your library lives on your devices and in your iCloud, and the app's privacy manifest says it plainly: nothing collected, nothing tracked. The only thing it ever asks for is a tip, and only if you feel like it.
Start clipping.
Free on the App Store for Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision Pro. Made by one person, with a tip jar instead of a subscription.