Notion Ships Bi-directional Linking

Soooo....let's talk about the newest Notion feature!

Disclaimer: This is mostly a repost of a blog post I shared on optemization.com

Bi-directional what?

Here’s my breakdown and take on this awesome new feature. Two weeks ago, we got a pretty lit little teaser when backlinks started showing up in Notion pages and for #productivity nerds like myself this is basically equivalent to Christmas

But if you’re unfamiliar, a bi-directionally linked page, as explained by Maggie Appleton “has social awareness - it knows about other pages or ‘nodes’ that point to it, and can make them visible to people. This means we get a two-way conversation flowing between our web locations.” This is the opposite of mono-directional linking or “one-way pointers we follow in a linear sequence.”

Previously in Notion, you could tag pages int two ways:

1. @
2. Link to page block

However, both of those ways created a one way ticket from a page to another. In other words, if you referenced a page called “Ted Mosby” or less obvious “Slapsgiving” or even more obscure “Red Dragon” because during the episode “The Pineapple Incident”, that’s the red mixed shot that Carl the bartender whips for Ted....on say a page about “How I Met Your Mother”, you wouldn’t be able to create and act on any of those relationships outside of creating a few databases, making those pages records and building relations — now you can!

Here’s How

Type [[ in text blocks, titles, text properties to:

1. link to an existing page
2. create a new page

Once created the pages will be linked together and viola! (inked pages show up as “backlinks” at the top)

Pages can be created:

1. on the local page
2. in other pages and databases

Note that

• permissions apply, so others can’t see your private pages
• but public pages can be accessed, double-check your Notion websites for backlinks you don’t want to share!

Power Moves

• You can create templated pages with bi-directional linking. See here.
• You can bi-directionally linked pages in new windows by pressing cmd/ctrl + enter

Here's a demo: https://www.loom.com/share/74d6a8c74e5c41a1a8afbefb123d4832

The Good / The Bad

Good

• referencing pages inline is useful
• creating new pages is faster
• creating new templated database records is awesome

Bad

• the backlink location
  is fixed

• linking to the right page is low

• the backing backlink design is (personally) aesthetically displeasing

My Review

The existence of this feature is AWESOME!

I’m now moving my writing from obsidian.md back to Notion due to this. that said, Notion continues to build for width of features as opposed to depth, so this iteration is very limited. There are no powerful blocks and refs like in roamresearch.com.

If you’re a power Roam user, don’t even consider switching because:

1. This feature does not come close to Roam
2. You probably bought a lifetime license
3. You like Conor and his hair

If, on the other hand, you have not committed to any bi-directional software and you’re considering giving Notion a whirl, now is the time!

What do y’all think?