From email attachments to images you want to share on Twitter, files can still be frustrating to share. There’s dozens of file sharing apps, ranging from semi-shady sites covered in ads to popular desktop tools like Cloud.app that let you upload files and share them with a stylish landing page. Either way, most require you to create an account first, and almost all take several steps to share files.
Castle.so is one of the newer web apps for sharing files, and its reduced the process to two steps: drag a file to your browser, and share the link to your new Castle.so share page. That’s it. It’s a great implementation of HTML5 file support, and takes a couple steps out of sharing files.
Simple Sharing, for Your Browser
If you want to simply a task, the best way is to remove some of the steps. Castle.so’s developers, Chris and Luigi, took that idea to the extreme, making a web app that you can use without ever clicking anything in it. Castle.so is yet another app for sharing files, but this time, it’s easier to use than most other similar tools and has a nicely designed interface as well. Whenever you need to share a file with anyone, just browse to castle.so, drag and drop your file into the grey castle on the lower half of the page. Unlike many file sharing web apps, you won’t have to sign up for an account or have Adobe Flash Player installed to upload files.
Do note: you can only upload one file at a time.
Drag and drop your file into your browser, and share it moments later
Your file will automatically start uploading, without you doing anything else. You can track the upload progress on the page, or can see it from the top of your browser tab as the upload progress will replace your page title. That way, you can go back to doing whatever you need, and still see when your file is ready to share.
Watch your upload progress
Moments later, your browser will open the download page for your file. Castle.so’s download pages are nicely designed, with a very obvious download arrow you can click to save the file to your computer. You can also see the file’s size and some quick stats about it. These are publicly shared with everyone with your file’s link, but if you don’t want viewers to see the stats by default, just remove the +s from the end of the URL.
Castle.so makes downloading files easy and obvious
If you’ve been looking for a nicer way to share pictures on Twitter and other networks, Castle.so is a great option. Image download pages show a full preview of the image by default in a stylized preview page, and viewers can still download the full original file from the top Download link. Most pictures look great in Castle.so, but since it adds a drop-shadow under image previews, PNG files with transparency may turn out looking somewhat odd in the preview page.
Castle.so displays images beautifully
Sharing your newly upload file is easy, too. You can just copy the link from your address bar and share it with anyone, just as you’d expect. Or, if you want to share your link via email or on popular social sites, you can do so in one click with the ShareThis powered social buttons. The email form is especially nice, as this lets you quickly send a file to a colleague without leaving the page.
Share your files directly
Getting the Key to Your Own Castle
For the most part, when you’ve got a throw-away file you want to share without worry, just dragging-and-dropping files and sharing them with Castle.so is the easiest option. If you’d rather manage your files, though, to see centralized statistics and delete older files you don’t need to share still, then you’ll need a free Castle.so account. Just signup with your email and password, and you’ll be automatically logged in without needing to do anything else.
Signing up for an account only takes a moment
Once you’ve got an account, you can see a My files page with all of your uploaded files and some quick statistics about them. Hover over a file, and a Delete tab will pop out on the left so you can remove files you no longer want to share. A full account gives you one other benefit, too: you can upload files as large as up to 256Mb for free, whereas the free account only lets you share up to 32Mb files. There’s also one disadvantage, though: each account can only store 50 files, and there’s no premium, unlimited plans available yet.
Manage your files in Castle.so
Conclusion
Sharing files doesn’t have to be difficult. Email still works fine for sending small files, and many of us love using tools like Cloud.App and Droplr on our Macs and PCs. When you need that same simplicity in your browser, Castle.so might be the app you’ve been looking for. It’s not perfect, but it’s easily one of the simplest browser-only file sharing tools available today. Give it a try, and let us know what’s your favorite way to share files without leaving your browser.