cohost! - "how iMessage detects Mastodon"

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Style Pass

2023-03-29 22:30:06

if you've updated to iOS 16.4 or macOS 13.3, you may have noticed that iMessage is able to have non-awful link previews for Mastodon posts.

this matches the behavior iMessage has for Twitter URLs, but unfortunately this doesn't apply by default to other links. while the display of standard opengraph links has improved somewhat, it's still bad.

SPOILER: it is straight up just looking for a <link /> tag. adding one with the right shape, even if the href is a complete lie, is enough for iMessage to switch to the new style (it doesn't follow the URL, it's still using the opengraph tags for its preview).

obviously adding the tag with incorrect data at the link is bad etiquette, so you don't just want to add the tag and call it a day. i mean you can, but you shouldn't. it's rude.