diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index d4a378e..6ebd0d7 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
     "astring": "^1.8.6",
     "autoprefixer": "^10.4.14",
     "codemirror": "^6.0.1",
+    "fflate": "^0.8.0",
     "lru-cache": "^10.0.1",
     "marked": "^7.0.3",
     "postcss": "^8.4.27",
diff --git a/src/main.ts b/src/main.ts
index 15a552c..9e58c11 100644
--- a/src/main.ts
+++ b/src/main.ts
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ import {
   template_universes,
 } from "./AppSettings";
 import { tryEvaluate } from "./Evaluator";
+import { gzipSync, decompressSync, strFromU8 } from 'fflate';
 
 // Importing showdown and setting up the markdown converter
 import showdown from "showdown";
@@ -526,13 +527,13 @@ export class Editor {
       this.settings.font_size = parseInt(new_value);
     });
 
-    this.share_button.addEventListener("click", () => {
+    this.share_button.addEventListener("click", async () => {
       // trigger a manual save
       this.currentFile().candidate = app.view.state.doc.toString();
       this.currentFile().committed = app.view.state.doc.toString();
       this.settings.saveApplicationToLocalStorage(app.universes, app.settings);
       // encode as a blob!
-      this.share();
+      await this.share();
     });
 
     this.normal_mode_button.addEventListener("click", () => {
@@ -649,7 +650,8 @@ export class Editor {
       if (url !== null) {
         const universeParam = url.get("universe");
         if (universeParam !== null) {
-          new_universe = JSON.parse(atob(universeParam));
+          let data = Uint8Array.from(atob(universeParam), c => c.charCodeAt(0))
+          new_universe = JSON.parse(strFromU8(decompressSync(data)));
           const randomName: string = uniqueNamesGenerator({
 						  length: 2, separator: '_',
 							dictionaries: [colors, animals],
@@ -702,12 +704,24 @@ export class Editor {
 		existing_universes!.innerHTML = final_html;
 	}
 
-  share() {
-    const hashed_table = btoa(
-      JSON.stringify({
-        universe: this.settings.universes[this.selected_universe],
-      })
-    );
+  async share() {
+
+    async function bufferToBase64(buffer:Uint8Array) {
+      const base64url: string = await new Promise(r => {
+        const reader = new FileReader()
+        reader.onload = () => r(reader.result as string)
+        reader.readAsDataURL(new Blob([buffer]))
+      });
+      return base64url.slice(base64url.indexOf(',') + 1);
+    }
+
+    let data = JSON.stringify({
+      universe: this.settings.universes[this.selected_universe],
+    });
+    let encoded_data = gzipSync(new TextEncoder().encode(data));
+    // TODO make this async
+    // TODO maybe try with compression level 9
+    const hashed_table = await bufferToBase64(encoded_data);
     const url = new URL(window.location.href);
     url.searchParams.set("universe", hashed_table);
     window.history.replaceState({}, "", url.toString());
diff --git a/yarn.lock b/yarn.lock
index f2ec551..2a0bffb 100644
--- a/yarn.lock
+++ b/yarn.lock
@@ -767,6 +767,11 @@ fastq@^1.6.0:
   dependencies:
     reusify "^1.0.4"
 
+fflate@^0.8.0:
+  version "0.8.0"
+  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/fflate/-/fflate-0.8.0.tgz#f93ad1dcbe695a25ae378cf2386624969a7cda32"
+  integrity sha512-FAdS4qMuFjsJj6XHbBaZeXOgaypXp8iw/Tpyuq/w3XA41jjLHT8NPA+n7czH/DDhdncq0nAyDZmPeWXh2qmdIg==
+
 fill-range@^7.0.1:
   version "7.0.1"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/fill-range/-/fill-range-7.0.1.tgz#1919a6a7c75fe38b2c7c77e5198535da9acdda40"