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WhatsApp Link Preview

Enter a URL to see exactly how WhatsApp will display it when sent as a message.

WhatsApp Preview

Test how your links appear in WhatsApp chats.

Example Contact

online

Enter a link on the left to see the WhatsApp preview bubble.

Type a message

How does WhatsApp generate previews?

Unlike social networks that crawl your site from their own servers, WhatsApp link previews are generated directly on the sender's device. The WhatsApp app makes a quick HTTP GET request to the URL, reads the HTML <head>, and looks for Open Graph tags.

WhatsApp Specific Quirks

  • Image Size Limit: The og:image must be less than 300KB. If it is larger, WhatsApp will often fail to display the image entirely and just show a generic grey box.
  • No JavaScript: WhatsApp's scraper does not execute JavaScript. If your site relies on client-side rendering (like a React SPA without SSR) to inject meta tags, WhatsApp will not see them.
  • Title Truncation: Titles are usually truncated after about 1-2 lines, while descriptions are heavily truncated or hidden on smaller mobile screens.

Debugging issues

If a preview isn't showing up, first verify your image is under 300KB. Then, ensure your server isn't blocking WhatsApp's user agent or timing out (WhatsApp gives up if the HTML takes too long to load). You can also send the link to yourself with a dummy query parameter (e.g., ?test=1) to force WhatsApp to re-fetch it instead of using a cached version on your phone.

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