TinyURL offers an API which allows applications to automatically create short URLs.

Some examples of limited text boxes are IRC channel topics, email signatures, microblogs (such as Twitter, which notably limited all posts to 140 characters at first, and later 280 characters), certain printed newspapers (such as .net magazine or even Nature), and email clients that impose line breaks on messages at a certain length.

Starting in 2008, TinyURL allowed users to create custom, more meaningful aliases.

People posting on X (formerly Twitter) often made extensive use of shortened URLs to keep their tweets within the service-imposed 140-character limit.

The TinyURL method of allocating shorter web addresses has inspired an exploration activity known as TinyURL-whacking.