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

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.

iOS 18 Link Card in Message Preview Feature 1Screenshot: 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.

Related Roundups: iOS 18, iPadOS 18
Related Forums: iOS 18, iPadOS 18

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Top Rated Comments

brofkand Avatar
8 months ago
iOS 18 really is Android 10 isn't it. Wow
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sw1tcher Avatar
8 months ago

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.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Brien Avatar
8 months ago
It'd be nice if you could also turn them off entirely...
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)