Guest vs Signed-in Online Pastes: Which Share Mode to Use

Airclippy has two kinds of clock: guest expiry (one hour) and signed-in expiry (1 day, 7 days, or 1 month). Choosing wrong is how a Wi-Fi password sits online for a month, or how a snippet you needed tomorrow is already gone.

This guide compares the options so you can pick on purpose.

The Options in One List

• Same Network, 1 hour: visible on your connection, then deleted. Works without an account.
• Global, 1 hour: the link works from anywhere, then deleted. Still a guest option.
• Signed-in 1 day / 7 days / 1 month: the same link lasts longer. You must be signed in to choose these.
• Burn after read: overlay on a timed share; the first view can delete it.
• Encrypted: overlay that hides the text until a password is entered.

A longer clock is not extra privacy. Anyone with the URL can still open a non-encrypted note. Time and audience are different settings: Same Network vs Global is who, expiry is how long.

Why guests are capped at one hour

Anonymous 1-hour shares keep the site useful without turning it into free long-term hosting. If a stranger could create long-lived notes all day, the clipboard would fill with spam and forgotten secrets. Sign-in raises the cost of abuse and gives you a way to find and delete your own lasting notes.

If you only needed to move a URL across the room, do not create an account. Paste, share, copy, done. The hour is a feature.

When one hour is correct

Use a 1-hour share when the other person is available now or soon:

• Codes, addresses, and meeting URLs
• A stack trace during a call
• Work material that should not become a long-lived URL
• Personal notes on a shared or hotel network

Temporary is the default because most clipboard jobs are short. Expiry is what keeps leftover notes from sitting around. If you are not sure, keep the guest 1-hour default. You can always paste again.

When a longer signed-in expiry is correct

Sign in and pick more than one hour when the recipient might not open the link immediately:

• 1 day: they are in another timezone or will check after work
• 7 days: a contractor starts next week
• 1 month: a template you will reuse during a project

If the note is secret and must last a month, a clipboard is the wrong product. Use a document with access control or a password manager. Longer expiry on a website is still a website.

Burn-after-read

Burn-after-read is for a one-time drop: a recovery code, a door PIN, a password you will rotate anyway. The first successful view should end the share.

How to decide in five seconds

• Need it for the next meeting? 1 hour, no account.
• Need it tomorrow? Sign in and pick 1 day.
• Need it next month and it is not secret? Sign in and pick 1 month.
• Need it next month and it is secret? Use a real document, not a clipboard.
• Need it once? 1 hour plus burn-after-read.

Deleting a lasting share

If you created it while signed in, delete it from the share UI when you still have the session. Do not publish secrets and plan to “unsend” them. Caches, screenshots, and the recipient’s local copy survive deletion.

Expiry is not a promise that nobody copied the text. It is a promise that Airclippy will stop hosting it. If a journalist, an employer, or a stranger already opened the link, treat the content as out. Rotate secrets.

Same Network vs Global still matters more than 1 day vs 7 days for most people. A 7-day Same Network share is useless if the recipient is on cellular. A 1-hour Global link is enough if they are watching the chat. Pick visibility first, then the shortest clock that still reaches them.

The Short Version

Guests get one hour. Signed-in users can keep a share for 1 day, 7 days, or 1 month. Pick the shortest clock that still works. A longer link is still as public as the people who have it.