When you save something from the web in Hive, the link is saved with it.
It's a small thing, and most of Hive depends on it. A picture shows what something looks like. The page it came from says who made it, what it's called, whether it can still be bought, and what was written next to it.
A screenshot keeps the first and drops the second. It's also the fastest way to keep anything on a phone, so saving to Hive has to take about as long.
Save Now, Sort Later
References tend to appear when there's no time to file them. A tool that asks for a folder and four tags at that moment will lose to the screenshot.
Hive has two ways to save, and you can switch between them whenever you like. Auto Save stores the item right away, with its link. Add Details opens a sheet first, where you can choose the folder, add tags and a star, and write a note.
Auto Save suits the times you're collecting quickly. Add Details suits the times you already know what the reference is for and want to write it down while you remember.
A short note pays off later, because search in Hive matches notes as well as names. A supplier's name or a material is usually enough to find an item a year on.
Where You Can Save From
On iPhone and iPad, tap Share in Safari, Instagram, Pinterest, Xiaohongshu, Douyin, or any other app with a Share button, and choose Hive. Safari also has a Hive extension, which saves what's on the page without leaving it. It's installed with Hive, and Safari keeps every extension off until you allow it, so turn it on once under Settings › Apps › Safari › Extensions.
On the Mac, Hive has extensions for Safari and Chrome. With the Chrome extension you can drag media into its panel, save the page's address, or capture part of the page.
Files that are already on the device come in from Photos and Files, or by drag and drop. Shortcuts can automate an import if you do the same one often.
Import Center takes several links at once. Hive can also pick up a link you've just copied, but clipboard import stays off until you turn it on in Settings › Import. An app shouldn't read the clipboard unless you've asked it to.
When Saving Takes Longer
Hive fetches the media from a post over the network, so saving a link needs a connection. If a post has several images, they arrive together. A long import carries on in the background while you keep browsing.
Sometimes a platform doesn't hand over the media, or a short link doesn't resolve. Opening the post in a browser and importing the address from the address bar usually works.
Duplicate Check compares images as they're imported, so the same picture doesn't enter the library twice. It's off by default, because the comparison takes noticeable processing power and can slow a large import.
What Stays With the Item
Each item in Hive can carry its source link, a note, tags, a star rating, comments, and the folder it belongs to.
The link is kept for you. The note is yours to write, and it's the right place for anything on the page you'll want later, such as the product name, the photographer's credit, or the reason the image caught your eye.
More Than Pictures
A project's references rarely share one format. Images, videos, audio, PDFs, links, and bookmarks all live in the same Hive library, so a supplier's PDF can sit next to the photograph it describes. Each kind of file opens inside Hive with its own controls, such as a reader for PDFs and frame-by-frame scrubbing for video.
Why It Matters Later
Weeks after saving, the page may have changed and the conversation around it will have moved on. The picture alone won't say where it came from.
With the link and a note attached, a reference found on a phone can still be explained on the day it goes into finished work. That's the reason Hive saves the way it does.