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When you share a link in a uChat conversation, Mallnline automatically generates a rich preview card below your message. This card shows the linked page's title, description, site name, and sometimes an image — giving everyone in the conversation a quick snapshot of the content without needing to click through.

How It Works

  1. You send a message containing a URL (like https://github.com)
  2. uChat detects the URL in your decrypted message text
  3. The platform fetches the page's metadata (title, description, image)
  4. A preview card appears below your message within seconds

The URL in your message is also automatically turned into a clickable link — tap or click it to open the page in a new tab.

TIP

You can include up to 3 URLs per message. Each one gets its own preview card displayed below the message text.

What Shows in a Preview Card

Preview cards can include:

  • Site name — The name of the website (e.g., "GitHub", "YouTube")
  • Title — The page title or headline
  • Description — A brief summary of the page content
  • Image — A thumbnail from the linked page (when available)

Not all websites provide all of these details. If a site only provides a title, you'll see a compact card with just the title and site name.

Privacy & Encryption

uChat conversations are end-to-end encrypted. Link previews are designed to respect this:

  • Your messages stay encrypted — The server never reads your message text. URL detection happens entirely in your browser after decryption.
  • Only the URL is shared — When a preview is requested, only the URL itself is sent to the server for metadata fetching. Your message content is never exposed.
  • Previews are cached — Once a URL is previewed, the result is cached for 24 hours so the same link doesn't need to be fetched again.

NOTE

The preview shows publicly available metadata from the linked page — the same information you'd see if you opened the link yourself. No private or authenticated content is ever scraped.

Link previews work with most public websites that include standard metadata (Open Graph tags). This includes:

  • News articles and blog posts
  • Social media profiles and posts
  • YouTube videos
  • GitHub repositories
  • Product pages
  • Documentation sites

Some links may not show a preview if the website doesn't include metadata, blocks automated requests, or requires authentication to view.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I disable link previews? Link previews are generated automatically when URLs are detected in messages. There is currently no option to disable them individually, but they don't affect your message content or encryption in any way.

Why doesn't my link show a preview? Some websites block metadata scraping, don't include standard Open Graph tags, or require login to view content. In these cases, the URL will still appear as a clickable link — just without the preview card.

Are link previews sent to other people in the conversation? The preview data is fetched independently by each participant's browser. When you see a preview card, it was fetched by your own session — not transmitted through the conversation.

Do link previews work with private or password-protected pages? No. The platform can only fetch metadata from publicly accessible pages. URLs that require authentication will show as plain clickable links without a preview card.

Is there a limit on how many previews I can generate? There's a fair-use limit of 10 preview fetches per minute per user. Under normal usage, you'll never hit this limit. If you do, previews will temporarily stop loading and resume after a short cooldown.

NOTE

For Developers: See uChat Link Previews for the full technical architecture including the OG scraping pipeline, SHA-256 caching, and Redis rate limiting.