URL previews!

[ara4n]

Figma link: https://www.figma.com/file/tnv1s5KUVK38Byt54gs7GM/%5BTimeline%5D-URL-previews?node-id=8%3A122

[ara4n]

Display inline previews for URLs in timeline (for parity with riot-web), using the API as per https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/blob/develop/docs/url_previews.md#api

[aaronraimist]

Could be considered a dup of #826 but since this one has the thumbs up, probably just close that one (and #1893)

[jacotec]

Is there any movement in the implementation of the URL previews to get par to Riot Web and Riot Android?

[Zjemm]

yes url previews for IOS would make it a lot nicer

[gigajosh]

Is there a way to see what Sprint the team is currently on and what milestones are included?

[jacotec]

+1, I'm waiting for that over a year, telling my users it'll come. I don't know where's the problem to just implement it ...

[jacotec]

Another half of a year passed ... and nothing happened ☹️

[hundehausen]

still waiting for this feature

[wyrdthud]

My users are also waiting eagerly for this feature.

[submarine89]

With Signal inviting extra scrutiny, and being a centralized product, the whining I get from my fellow chatters I've asked to convert to Element centers around the lack of URL previews. This request has been around for a while and is just a parity request. So, for now, I am also eagerly awaiting this feature.

[pixlwave]

For iOS 13 and higher we can look at using https://developer.apple.com/documentation/linkpresentation for the system to manage these previews, with a fall back to a custom implementation for anyone running 11 & 12.

[ShadowJonathan]

developer.apple.com/documentation/linkpresentation

Wouldn't this break parity with the other Element clients? Not (only) in the way of presentation, but also with generation? As synapse has it's own quirks when displaying links, and the iOS method will share none of that.

[pixlwave]

There is some customisation to how it appears and it's possible to provide it with custom data from Synapse if necessary. But if it ultimately doesn't fit, it won't have been much work and the fall back will be there anyway 🙂

[aaronraimist]

I like the idea of using the system API from a visual standpoint but does using that API mean the preview would be fetched locally on device rather than by the server? That would be a privacy issue.

[ShadowJonathan]

I expect Apple to keep user privacy in mind, they'd probably do this feature by bouncing these requests through their servers, or do something alike to that (or cache the results). So I think privacy is not the issue here, if i'm not mistaken.

[aaronraimist]

@ShadowJonathan possibly on iOS 15 with iCloud Private Relay but iOS 14 definitely fetches the previews that are shown in the Messages app directly from your phone (just tested)

[submarine89]

How are other apps providing a preview and maintaining privacy?

[pixlwave]

does using that API mean the preview would be fetched locally on device rather than by the server

It can be done either way. We can get the data ourselves and provide it to the view, or can give the view the URL and let it handle this on device. In both instances I believe the data is taken from opengraph tags in the page.

How are other apps providing a preview and maintaining privacy?

Currently they call /_matrix/media/r0/preview_url?url=http://wherever.com on the homeserver. This is discouraged when in encrypted rooms, as it leaks message contents to the server in plain text. Element-web lets the user enable that on a room by room basis.

[niquewoodhouse]

I took a look at Android and copied all their content elements (title, body, image, domain) just in a different order.

[franc2s]

The URL previews dont work on urls that are written to a room by a bot (in my case the rss bot). I do get preloads for manually input urls. So, it doesnt work all of the time. I am on ios 15.1.1.

[ShadowJonathan]

@franc2s could you maybe tap such a message, "More", "View Source", and then copy that into a new issue?

[franc2s]

Hi @ShadowJonathan

On the Element version 1.9.3 (Linux). URLs preload (same as on the latest Android client for Android 7).
{
"content": {
"body": "Road.cc RSS Feed: Van Rysel Merino Arm Warmers 900 ( https://road.cc/content/review/van-rysel-merino-arm-warmers-900-288325 )",
"format": "org.matrix.custom.html",
"formatted_body": "Road.cc RSS Feed:
<a href="https://road.cc/content/review/van-rysel-merino-arm-warmers-900-288325\">Van Rysel Merino Arm Warmers 900",
"msgtype": "m.notice"
},
"origin_server_ts": 1638549169403,
"sender": "@neb_rssbot=40XXXX=3amatrix.org:matrix.org",
"type": "m.room.message",
"unsigned": {
"age": 2650723
},
"event_id": "$ArU0sZzcI_XVGjli_a1aA4fnDnZ5BWwzNiMuPvuwj-8",
"room_id": "!XXXX:matrix.org"
}

On IOS 15.1.1, here the urls dont preload.
{
"sender" : "@neb_rssbot=40XXXX=3amatrix.org:matrix.org",
"content" : {
"body" : "Road.cc RSS Feed: Van Rysel Merino Arm Warmers 900 ( https://road.cc/content/review/van-rysel-merino-arm-warmers-900-288325 )",
"formatted_body" : "Road.cc RSS Feed</strong>:
<a href="https://road.cc/content/review/van-rysel-merino-arm-warmers-900-288325">Van Rysel Merino Arm Warmers 900</strong></a>",
"msgtype" : "m.notice",
"format" : "org.matrix.custom.html"
},
"origin_server_ts" : 1638549169403,
"room_id" : "!XXXX:matrix.org",
"event_id" : "$ArU0sZzcI_XVGjli_a1aA4fnDnZ5BWwzNiMuPvuwj-8",
"unsigned" : {
"age" : 46706
},
"type" : "m.room.message"
}

Thanks.

[ShadowJonathan]

@franc2s could you please put that in a new issue?