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

Asked 27/9, 2016 at 7:4 Answered 13/12, 2018 at 14:38

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!!

Ultraism answered 27/9, 2016 at 7:4 Comment(8)

Try overriding the MSMessageTemplateLayout. – Cantata 27/9, 2016 at 7:20

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 ;) – Cannon 27/9, 2016 at 10:28

I wish there were a way to disable this for all incoming messages. I consider it a security risk. – Staciestack 21/2, 2017 at 19:14

@Staciestack 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? – Pompeii 16/3, 2022 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? – Staciestack 14/5, 2022 at 16:48

@Staciestack 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. developer.apple.com/library/archive/technotes/tn2444/… – Pompeii 30/5, 2022 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. 9to5mac.com/2020/10/26/… – Pompeii 30/5, 2022 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. support.apple.com/en-us/HT212614 – Pompeii 30/5, 2022 at 16:35

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

Displume answered 20/1, 2017 at 21:18 Comment(6)

Awesome trick! I love that, like you mentioned, iMessasge removes the periods and you get a clean url. Thanks!!! – Saltigrade 6/8, 2017 at 17:40

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. – Carping 6/9, 2017 at 8:58

This is the best solution. Thank you. Period in front and after solves the problem. What a simple and valuable hack. Graciassss! – Ultraism 4/1, 2018 at 19:58

Front period was retained on iMessage for Mac Mojave. Trailing period was removed – Jarietta 4/11, 2018 at 1:1

It seems like only the trailing dot is enough under iOS13 – Gnosticism 4/6, 2020 at 20:30

does anyone know if this "period hack" is a (documented) feature or a bug? – Pompeii 16/3, 2022 at 19:24

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://.

Simdars answered 6/10, 2016 at 7:46 Comment(2)

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 rushhourlocal.com test" and the preview would not work, even if the full URL is present. THANK YOU SO MUCH!! – Ultraism 4/12, 2016 at 5:45

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. – Pompeii 16/3, 2022 at 19:35

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:

Cap answered 6/3, 2018 at 9:35 Comment(0)

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

Minacious answered 13/12, 2018 at 14:38 Comment(0)

-7

Settings => Messages => MMS Messaging => OFF

Omnivore answered 26/5, 2017 at 22:41 Comment(1)

Disabling iMessage does not answer the question of stopping previews within iMessage. This is just a snarky, unhelpful answer. – Stole 4/1, 2018 at 0:37

-12

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

Bracey answered 15/11, 2016 at 16:24 Comment(1)

This removes the message preview from the homescreen while the phone is locked, it does not turn off the message preview feature discussions.apple.com/thread/5030327?tstart=0 – Claim 21/11, 2016 at 19:12

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