diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 6ce6f61..0915efb 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -84,6 +84,20 @@ test_mconn_crypt = executable('test-mconn-crypt', test_mconn_crypt_src,
                               install: false)
 test('mconn-crypt', test_mconn_crypt)
 
+test_mconn_utils_src = [
+  'test/mconn-utils-test.vala',
+  'src/mconnect/utils.vala',
+  'src/mconnect/logging.vala',
+]
+test_mconn_utils = executable('test-mconn-utils', test_mconn_utils_src,
+                              dependencies: [
+                                glib_dep, gobject_dep,
+                                gio_dep, gio_unix_dep,
+                                posix_dep,
+                              ],
+                              install: false)
+test('mconn-utils', test_mconn_utils)
+
 # other files
 applicationsdir = join_paths(get_option('datadir'),
                              'applications')
diff --git a/src/mconnect/utils.vala b/src/mconnect/utils.vala
index 20ce20b..f5d796b 100644
--- a/src/mconnect/utils.vala
+++ b/src/mconnect/utils.vala
@@ -149,4 +149,41 @@ using Posix;
 			});
 		return tls_conn;
 	}
+
+	/**
+	 * find_urls:
+	 *
+	 * Locate and extract URL like patterns in the text. URLs are assumed to
+	 * start with http or https.
+	 *
+	 * @text: input test
+	 * @return array of matches, if there were none then array if of length 0
+	 */
+	string[] find_urls(string text) {
+		try {
+		// regex taken from SO
+			Regex r = /https?:\/\/(www\.)?[-a-zA-Z0-9@:%._\+~#=]{2,256}\.[a-z]{2,6}\b([-a-zA-Z0-9@:%_\+.~#?&\/=]*)/;
+
+			MatchInfo mi;
+
+			string[] matches = {};
+
+			if (r.match(text, RegexMatchFlags.NOTEMPTY, out mi)) {
+				while (mi.matches()) {
+					if (mi.is_partial_match() == false) {
+						var m = mi.fetch(0);
+						debug("found match %s", m);
+						matches += m;
+					}
+					mi.next();
+				}
+			} else {
+				debug("no match");
+			}
+			return matches;
+		} catch (RegexError e) {
+			warning("failed to compile regex: %s", e.message);
+			return null;
+		}
+	}
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/test/mconn-utils-test.vala b/test/mconn-utils-test.vala
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0a1a2a6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/mconn-utils-test.vala
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+void test_find_urls_simple() {
+	var urls = Utils.find_urls("https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Man via DuckDuckGo for Android");
+
+	assert(urls != null);
+	assert(urls.length == 1);
+
+	assert(urls[0] == "https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Man");
+}
+
+void test_find_urls_extract() {
+	var urls = Utils.find_urls("Foo bar baz?\n\nhttp://foo.bar.com/123/345/abcd\n\nShared from my Google cards");
+
+	assert(urls != null);
+	assert(urls.length == 1);
+
+	assert(urls[0] == "http://foo.bar.com/123/345/abcd");
+}
+
+void test_find_urls_many() {
+	var urls = Utils.find_urls("https://foo.bar.com http://google.biz http://www.funny.io");
+
+	assert(urls != null);
+	assert(urls.length == 3);
+
+	assert(urls[0] == "https://foo.bar.com");
+	assert(urls[1] == "http://google.biz");
+	assert(urls[2] == "http://www.funny.io");
+}
+
+void test_find_urls_none() {
+	var urls = Utils.find_urls("baz bar \nbar.com foo ");
+
+	assert(urls != null);
+	assert(urls.length == 0);
+}
+
+
+public static void main(string[] args) {
+	Test.init(ref args);
+
+	Test.add_func("/mconn-utils/find-urls/simple", test_find_urls_simple);
+	Test.add_func("/mconn-utils/find-urls/extract", test_find_urls_extract);
+	Test.add_func("/mconn-utils/find-urls/many", test_find_urls_many);
+	Test.add_func("/mconn-utils/find-urls/none", test_find_urls_none);
+	Test.run();
+}
\ No newline at end of file