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SEO Analyzer · AI Humanizer · App Icons Generator
Apple Messages rich link preview

iMessage Link Preview Checker

Paste a public URL to preview the rich link Apple Messages builds for it: the image, title and domain. The checker reads the same tags iMessage does and explains why a preview is missing or shows only a plain link.

Try: a GitHub repo · a page with no tags 10 checks left today

Preview

An approximation of each app’s layout. Apps change their designs and crop images differently.

What to fix

Refresh a cached preview

These results show your page as it is right now. An app that already saw the link may keep showing its older, cached preview until it fetches the page again:

  • Facebook & Messenger: open Meta’s Sharing Debugger, paste the URL and press Scrape Again.
  • LinkedIn: paste the URL into LinkedIn’s Post Inspector to fetch it again.
  • Telegram: send the URL to @WebpageBot in Telegram to update its stored preview.
  • WhatsApp, Discord, Slack & iMessage: there is no public refresh tool. Share the URL with a harmless query string added, such as ?v=2, so it counts as a new link.
  • X: start a new post with the link to see the current card; existing posts keep the card they were published with.

Tags found

Suggested tags

A complete set based on what we found. Replace any placeholder values, then paste it into the page’s <head>, or into your CMS or SEO plugin’s social settings.


          
        

      


            
    

  






  

    

      

        
How iMessage builds a link preview

        
        
iMessage works differently from most apps: the sender’s own iPhone, iPad or Mac fetches the page when the link is pasted, builds the preview, and sends it along with the message. The person receiving it does not fetch your page at all.

        
    
          
  • og:title — the bold title. Without it, the page’s <title> is used.
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  • og:image — the large image above the title.
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  • The site icon — apple-touch-icon or the favicon — shown beside the title when there is no image.
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  • The domain — shown in grey under the title.
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The description is not shown, so put the important words in the title. Because the fetch comes from a personal device, pages that show a cookie or consent wall first, or block unfamiliar clients, can produce a poor preview.
        

          
See which of these tags your page has, and what iMessage will show.

          Check a URL
        

      


      

        
Why your iMessage preview is missing or wrong

        

                    
The link was sent inside other text
Rich previews are most reliable when the URL is sent as its own message. A link in the middle of a sentence often stays as plain blue text.

                    
The message went as SMS
A green-bubble SMS message carries plain text, so there is no rich preview. Previews appear in iMessage conversations.

                    
Lockdown Mode is on
Lockdown Mode turns off link previews in Messages for the sender’s device, so links are sent as plain text.

                    
The sender’s device could not load the page
A slow page, a consent wall, a login, or a firewall that challenges unusual clients can leave the device with nothing to build a preview from.

                    
The page has no Open Graph image or title
Without og:image the preview shows the site icon at best. Without og:title it uses the page title. The issue list below names what is missing.

                  

      


      

        
How to refresh iMessage’s cached preview

        
        
A preview travels with the message that carried it, so messages already sent keep the preview they were sent with. There is nothing to clear on Apple’s side.

        
The device that sends the link may reuse a recent fetch of the same URL. To check a fix, send the URL with a harmless query string, such as ?v=2, so it is fetched again.
      


      

        
The best share image for iMessage

        
        
Use a 1200 × 630 px JPG or PNG for og:image and keep the file light; it is downloaded by the sender’s phone, often on mobile data. Also add a 180 × 180 px apple-touch-icon:


<link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/apple-touch-icon.png">

        
That icon is what appears beside the title for pages without a share image.
      


      

        
iMessage preview questions

        

                    

            

              
            

            

              
The most common reasons are that the link was sent inside other text, the message went as SMS, Lockdown Mode is on, or the sender’s device could not load the page. Sending the URL as its own iMessage fixes most cases.

            

          

                    

            

              
            

            

              
iMessage previews show the title and domain only. The description is not displayed, so the title has to carry the message.

            

          

                    

            

              
            

            

              
When the page has no og:image, iMessage shows the site icon, preferring an apple-touch-icon. A 180 × 180 px PNG works well.

            

          

                    

            

              
            

            

              
No. The preview is built once, on the sender’s device, and sent with the message. If you change the page later, messages already sent keep the old preview.

            

          

                    

            

              
            

            

              
It is a close approximation of the layout from the same tags. Apple adjusts the design between iOS and macOS versions and crops images differently on each device.

            

          

                  

      


      

        
Check the preview on other apps

        
Every app reads the same Open Graph tags but shows them differently. The checker above previews all of them at once; these pages explain each app’s own rules.

        

          WhatsApp
                    Discord
                    Slack
                    Telegram
                    iMessage
                    LinkedIn
                    Facebook
                    X (Twitter)
                  

        
Seeing the wrong image on every app? Our guide Link Preview Showing the Wrong Image? How to Clear the Cache on Every Platform covers the fixes in one place.

      


      

        
See your iMessage preview before you share the link

        
Check the tags, test the image, and fix the preview in minutes. Free, no signup.

        Check a URL