How to Disable URL Link Previews in iMessage iOS11 (or iOS10, Mac OSX Sierra)

Question

Unable to send links between my developers via iMessage, as the "preview" feature of iMessage in iOS11 & iOS10 is making it hard to see the exact URL structure, because it is instead inserting a link preview. Is there any way to disable this? Driving us crazy!!

Nop, same here, it's really annoying. I cannot find any settings to avoid that. @New16, I think he is talking about iMessage in general, not iMessage extensions ;) — RomOne, Sep 27 '16 at 10:28
I wish there were a way to disable this for all incoming messages. I consider it a security risk. — duozmo, Feb 21 '17 at 19:14
@duozmo can you elaborate on what part of this you consider a security risk given that the link redirection and preview rendering is happening on apple's servers (vs on the client)? is it mainly the fact that someone could use it to determine if an arbitrary phone number is using imessage, about potential exploits, etc? — Taylor D. Edmiston, Mar 16 '22 at 19:22
Ah, didn't realize it was happening on the server. @TaylorD.Edmiston Not saying you're wrong, but do you have a source? — duozmo, May 14 '22 at 16:48
@duozmo Hmm, I may be. I can't find any public Apple docs that declare how they render previews aside from this one that discusses reachability wrt auth walls (not being able to pass the auth wall for previews). Unfortunately it doesn't mention client or server-side. My understanding was that they did something similar to what Gmail did to kill pixel trackers in emails by immediately loading the preview server-side and then caching it. Now I'm curious if that's actually correct. https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/technotes/tn2444/_index.html — Taylor D. Edmiston, May 30 '22 at 16:29
This article suggests that other messaging apps use server-side rendering for link previews, but that iMessage does not / cannot due to its end-to-end encryption. https://9to5mac.com/2020/10/26/researchers-demonstrate-how-link-previews-in-apps-can-expose-data-from-users/amp/ — Taylor D. Edmiston, May 30 '22 at 16:33
I wonder if link previews go through iCloud Private Relay when it's enabled. Sounds like there are certainly some open questions here. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212614 — Taylor D. Edmiston, May 30 '22 at 16:35

score 43 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 20 '17 at 21:18

43

Surround the URL with periods.

Example ".http://google.com."

iOS even removes the periods for you So it shows as "http://google.com" < no periods

answered Jan 20 '17 at 21:18

Bob

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Awesome trick! I love that, like you mentioned, iMessasge removes the periods and you get a clean url. Thanks!!! – victmo Aug 06 '17 at 17:40
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Works the same with just one period after the URL. The points are visible on the preview of the message (messages listing) but then when opening the message, the points are trimmed. – Valentin Jacquemin Sep 06 '17 at 08:58
This is the best solution. Thank you. Period in front and after solves the problem. What a simple and valuable hack. Graciassss! – Adam Bowie Jan 04 '18 at 19:58
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Front period was retained on iMessage for Mac Mojave. Trailing period was removed – joehanna Nov 04 '18 at 01:01
It seems like only the trailing dot is enough under iOS13 – Alexander Vasenin Jun 04 '20 at 20:30
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does anyone know if this "period hack" is a (documented) feature or a bug? – Taylor D. Edmiston Mar 16 '22 at 19:24

score 18 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 06 '16 at 07:46

18

Some of the other blogs I have read suggest that for the preview to work certain requirements must be met, if these are not met the preview will not be displayed (this should mean the full URL path is then visible):

The first requirement is the the link has to be either at the beginning of the text message, or at the end of the text message. If the hyperlink is placed in the middle of the text message, iOS 10 will not show a preview.
The second requirement for the new iPhone iOS 10 to render a hyperlink preview is that the hyperlink must start with http:// or https://.

answered Oct 06 '16 at 07:46

Ant The Hoff

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Wow, you first tip worked... as long as you surround the URL with text, the preview is not enabled. For example, if I wanted to send my dev the full link I could text: "test http://rushhourlocal.com/ test" and the preview would not work, even if the full URL is present. THANK YOU SO MUCH!! – Adam Bowie Dec 04 '16 at 05:45
i suspect that (1) is only true for non-whitespace characters. normal spaces definitely don't work, but i have not tested this more extensively as far as the more usual / invisible whitespace, etc type characters. – Taylor D. Edmiston Mar 16 '22 at 19:35

score 10 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 06 '18 at 09:35

With some experimenting it seems the rule is:

Repress preview if the URL appears in the middle of text
A dot can stand in for the text — and won’t show

These all hide the preview, and hide the dots:

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 13 '18 at 14:38

2

In iOS 12 and MacOS Mojave this can be done by just adding a dot (.) after the url (instead of both before and after mentioned in the accepted answer).

Example

http://google.com. becomes http://google.com in plain text

answered Dec 13 '18 at 14:38

Petzall

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score -7 · Answer 5 · answered May 26 '17 at 22:41

-7

Settings => Messages => MMS Messaging => OFF

answered May 26 '17 at 22:41

Junior Programmer

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Disabling iMessage does not answer the question of stopping previews within iMessage. This is just a snarky, unhelpful answer. – srm Jan 04 '18 at 00:37

score -12 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 15 '16 at 16:24

-12

Settings -> Notifications -> iMessage -> Show Previews. Turn that off.

answered Nov 15 '16 at 16:24

nate covington

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This removes the message preview from the homescreen while the phone is locked, it does not turn off the message preview feature https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5030327?tstart=0 – Justin Nov 21 '16 at 19:12

How to Disable URL Link Previews in iMessage iOS11 (or iOS10, Mac OSX Sierra)

6 Answers6