In fact, if you use a magnet link, you don’t even need to download a torrent file to start downloading the content. Magnet links and torrent files go hand in hand, but they aren’t exactly the same thing. Related: What Is Caret Browsing and How to Enable It in Your Browser What Is a Magnet Link?įirst, we need to understand some basics. Note: you’ll need to have a torrent platform like Vuze, Utorrent, qBittorrent or Transmission to use magnet links. But what exactly are magnet links? How do you set them up and open them? And how do you change the program that they link to? We reveal all here. For a long time now magnet links have been a mainstay of all the major web browsers, making life a little easier for people downloading torrent files.