Option to disable the link preview

[Akamaru]

Pls add an option to disable link previews.

[vuluc88]

pls make it SFW

[qadirsuh]

@vdmit where can I find the option you have sent screenshot above. I could't find it in Telegram Mac (Desktop) App.

[kode54]

Telegram Desktop (from desktop.telegram.org, or Mac App Store) is not equal to Telegram for Mac (from macos.telegram.org, or also the Mac App Store). One is a multi-platform app released for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and the other is written in Swift specifically for macOS.

You'll probably want to dupe this issue here if you want traction there:

https://github.com/overtake/TelegramSwift

[patoshii]

still no ability to disable url previews? kinda anonying. especially when NSFW images are rendered.

[Bacco]

It seems to me that the link preview is generated on the server, but requested on the client. A simple checkbox in settings appears to be the more sensate way to resolve the issue.

Clicking on the X can be enough to some scenarios, but in a conversation with heavy link exchange, it can become annoying quickly.

Also, recently I was testing an API with help from a friend, and needed to switch to another chat, because the links would be compromised by Telegram server, that would consume the API nonce before even the link reach the other party. The [x] wouldn't resolve the issue, because the damage already has been done.

I hope @auchri and other devs think a lot more in this scenarios and help us with a solution.

Regards Bacco

[qadirsuh]

BTW. if you are sending the link programmatically then its possible to remove/hide/disable link preview. as follows

disable_web_page_preview: true

javascript function to call sendMessage API.

function sendMessage(chatId, message, form) {

    var formMarkdown = {
        parse_mode: "Markdown",
        disable_web_page_preview: true
    };

    if (!form) {
        form = formMarkdown;
    } else {
        form.parse_mode = "Markdown";
        form.disable_web_page_preview = true;
    }

    telegramBot.sendMessage(chatId, message, form).then(function (response) {
        console.log("response", response);
    }).catch(function (err) {
        console.log("sendMessage err:", err);
    })
}

[stek29]

@qadirsuh that's bot api, btw. it's not used by apps.

[vsvasya]

Why is it closed? Please, fix it! Fighting with previews in every message I sent is very annoying.

[patoshii]

just make more of the same topic. if you want to get their attention.

[ItsOnlyMeNL]

Since 30 Apr 2015 this exists.. still not added. Add this option for the user to disable all link previews for send and receive.

[dtar2]

I don't understand why this has been ignored and closed. It's obviously an option that a lot of people want. There are 122 upvotes on the first post, and those are just people who are technically inclined enough to use github. This really should be reopened and addressed.

[dhowe]

A bit offensive to all the people who took the time to comment here (anyone else for signal?)

[andrew-phi]

I think tg owners just don't give a duck about what people really want. They just make what THEY want. :-|

[nsa]

It is sad to see that this community(there are 51 people participating in this issue) is being ignored.

[Bacco]

For most people this is only a nuisance, but there are situations where we simply can't use Telegram to store some links (like password reset ones, confirmation of some operation), because the previewer will trigger the action even if the user doesn't want to click it yet.

[suborg]

Please make it possible to disable link preview. It can even destroy links that work by count.

[OhSoGood]

+1. It completely pollutes the display when you exchange several links.

[Vondelphia]

+1

p.s. - i wonder if unigram has this option, it probably does....

[jamsmd]

+1

[ttodua]

its now available ! use disable_web_page_preview parameter: https://core.telegram.org/bots/api#editmessagetext

[RememberTheAir]

@ttodua that has always been there. It's jus a flag clients use to send a message without the webpage preview. You can't change other people's messages using the API

[NikEyX]

How can it be 4 years and there is still no option for that?

In discord you surround a link with <> brackets in order to make it non-expandable. Why is this not done for Telegram yet? cmon!

[dhowe]

these guys don't care - just switch to signal

[ttodua]

@RememberTheAir ah, i misunderstood that. thanks (btw, please in your post, correct my username, it should be "ttodua"). thanks !

[dtar2]

I am quite baffled that this simple request has not been addressed 5 year later. The justification for ignoring it seems to a general philosophy that "settings are evil". That philosophy cannot be blindly applied as an excuse to ignore all feature requests that require settings. New settings should be provided selectively as needed, and this is a case where there is a clear need

As others have already noted earlier in this thread, this is a functional issue, not just a UI preference. One-time-use links simply cannot be sent via telegram because the server accesses the link. #3330 is not a solution to this problem, because it doesn't stop the link from being accessed.

There is also a UI aspect to this issue. Some users are not concerned about the link being accessed, they just don't want to see previews in their chats. That is also a valid user request, even though it is a preference. In this case, something like #3330 could help, but that approach also adds complexity in the chat UI. Users look at the chat UI all the time, and rarely look at the settings. So if the goal is to reduce overall complexity, then it seems better to address this in settings rather than having it in every single message that contains a link preview.

Lastly, there are comments earlier in this thread saying that link previews do not compromise privacy/security because they are generated by the server and not the client. I'm not sure that's true in all cases. If a link is a tracking link that uses a unique URL, then any access to that link is associated with the original recipient for whom the URL was created. Of course it's not wise to send such links if you don't want to be identified, but in practice, such a link could get copied unintentionally, or by a user who doesn't know what a tracking link is.

According to the philosophy page linked earlier ( https://tsf.telegram.org/manuals/feature_philosophy ), Telegram's top two attributes are speed and security. Reducing complexity is also supposed to be a high value. Automatically inserting link previews into messages impairs all three of those objectives in my opinion.

Please consider reopening this issue.

@auchri @stek29

[serjepatoff]

Please turn this BS feature off by default. It eats up precious screen space and hurts privacy.

[labs-dlugo]

Please offer an option to disable link preview.

[swt01]

I want to always send links without previews. I don't use emoji, stickers and keep our chats pretty organized with text-only. How long do I have to keep editing messages and click X on each link to not look like an ignorant?

[kode54]

And the problem is, links that don't require confirmation to acknowledge their limited accessibility. For instance, a link that can only be clicked once, and it acknowledges Telegram's scanner as that one click.

[retiolus]

Experts Warn of Privacy Risks Caused by Link Previews in Messaging Apps https://thehackernews.com/2020/10/mobile-messaging-apps.html

[testerik]

I don't know if anyone has already requested this feature: Please provide an option to disable the link preview.

(Telegram Desktop, Linux)

[benkinooby]

Please provide an option to en-/disable link preview by default for links. The preview rarely adds anything of value, clutters the chat and is a privacy risk.

[l0rb]

I want to always send links without previews. How long do I have to keep waiting for the preview to load and clicking X on each link?

[ghost]

What the heck?! This has been ignored since 2015?!

[dsvyrjm]

Is that so hard? I'm tired to manually remove link preview every time

[benkinooby]

Hi @auchri

I hope you don't mind me mentioning your name to get your attention. This issue was set "closed" by you in April 2017 and had not been attended to since then. Please reopen this ticket, since it's still gaining interest, comments and reactions.

Kind regards & Thank you in advance.

[RememberTheAir]

This is the intended behavior and it's unlikely to change because of the reactions to this github issue. I suggest to open a ticket on https://bugs.telegram.org about this request. As long as the discussion stays here and as long as other Telegram apps don't offer the same option or adopt the described behavior, there's little hope to see such a feature being implemented on tdesktop. Although we recently had some improvements for link previews that other clients still don't support

[benkinooby]

For reference a related issues: Title: The link preview appears even if it was disabled https://bugs.telegram.org/c/2528

As long as the discussion stays here and as long as other Telegram apps don't offer the same option or adopt a different behavior, there's little hope to see such a feature being implemented on tdesktop.

This is valuable input, because it motivates the team's decision to close this bug. That may not make it (i.e. auto-downloading of a link preview) acceptable, but at least understandable and may have prevented some of the less productive, rather emotional comments on this issue, which where certainly sparked in part by a lack of communication.

Hopefully, your comment will lead to an improvement of the issue at hand and the communication surrounding it.

[OscarL]

The more appropriate issue in "bugs.telegram.org" that I could find was this one:

https://bugs.telegram.org/c/3195

I've added a comment there, linking back to this issue.

Let us hope some day we can have that darn opt out checkbox!

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue has been automatically locked since there has not been any recent activity after it was closed. Please open a new issue for related bugs.