iMessage on iOS 18 Previews Link Cards for Social Media Posts and More

[MacRumors]

In addition to text effects and scheduled messages, iOS 18 adds a small but helpful change to iMessage: link card previews for more types of content.

Screenshot: Aaron Perris​

When you paste a link for a social media post into the text field in the Messages app, the associated link card now appears before you send the message, whereas it previously only became visible after the message was sent.

It was already possible to see a link card preview before sending a message in some situations on iOS 17 and earlier, such as when sharing a website link directly from the Safari app or other browsers. The expansion of link card previews to more types of content, and to links pasted directly in the Messages app, is a nice improvement.

The first developer beta of iOS 18 is available now, and a public beta will follow in July. The update should be widely released in September.

Article Link: iMessage on iOS 18 Previews Link Cards for Social Media Posts and More

 

[brofkand]

iOS 18 really is Android 10 isn't it. Wow

 

[Frantisekj]

Holly s... lol Hell frozen. It seems to me like they would postpone some functionality so people could still dream about some features and get them in few years but rule off older phones.

 

[hagjohn]

Doesn't messages do something close to this already?

 

[sw1tcher]

When you paste a link for a social media post into the text field in the Messages app, the associated link card now appears before you send the message, whereas it previously only became visible after the message was sent.

Doesn't messages do something close to this already?

No.

Right now (testing this out on iOS 17), the associated link card is only visible after the message is sent.

In iOS 18, the associated link card is visible after you insert a link into the text field. No need to send message to see the link card.

There's a difference.

 

[Brien]

It'd be nice if you could also turn them off entirely...

 

[ProbablyDylan]

It'd be nice if you could also turn them off entirely...

You... don't want a preview of what you're sending?

 

[JapanApple]

Yeah better off turning it off there’s no need for this. Save a life turn off your social media

 

[Schnort]

"Link cards" are my least desired things when I'm sending a link in a text. I don't want to clutter it up, particularly if I'm sending multiple links in my message.

 

[svish]

Small change. But might be useful in certain cases.