WhatsApp Link Preview Not Working? Here's How to Fix It

WhatsApp showing the wrong image, title, or no preview at all? Learn why WhatsApp link previews break and how to fix missing og:image, cache, and HTTPS issues fast.

Why WhatsApp link previews break

WhatsApp fetches Open Graph metadata when a link is pasted into a chat. If your og:title, og:description, or og:image tags are missing or malformed, WhatsApp displays just the bare URL — no card, no image, no context.

WhatsApp is stricter than most platforms: it requires HTTPS, static HTML tags, and publicly accessible images. JavaScript-rendered metadata is silently ignored.

Quick fix checklist

  1. Add the required OG tags: your page must have og:title, og:description, and og:image in the static HTML <head>.
  2. Use HTTPS everywhere: WhatsApp refuses to fetch previews from HTTP URLs. Your page URL and image URL must both be HTTPS.
  3. Use an absolute image URL: https://yourdomain.com/og.jpg — not /og.jpg.
  4. Meet WhatsApp image specs: minimum 300×200 px, recommended 1200×630 px. JPEG or PNG. File size under 5 MB.
  5. Verify the image is publicly accessible: open the image URL in an incognito tab. If it redirects to a login screen or returns 403, WhatsApp cannot load it.
  6. Render tags in static HTML: WhatsApp's crawler does not execute JavaScript. If your framework renders OG tags via React state or useEffect, the crawler sees nothing.
  7. Check your robots.txt: make sure you are not blocking all crawlers. WhatsApp's user agent is WhatsApp/2.x — blocking User-agent: * kills previews.
  8. Wait for cache expiry or resend the link: WhatsApp caches previews per device. If you updated the tags, the recipient may need to clear chat or receive the link freshly typed (not forwarded) to see the new preview.

Preview shows on desktop but not mobile (or vice versa)

WhatsApp Web and the mobile app sometimes display previews differently due to client-side caching. To confirm whether the metadata itself is correct, paste the URL into OG Fixer — it fetches from a server and mirrors what the WhatsApp crawler sees.

Common WhatsApp-specific gotchas

  • Mixed content: if your page is HTTPS but the og:image URL is HTTP, WhatsApp drops the preview image entirely.
  • URL shorteners: shortened links sometimes bypass preview fetching. Use the canonical full URL where possible.
  • Image served as attachment: some servers return images with Content-Disposition: attachment, which prevents WhatsApp from rendering the preview. Ensure your image endpoint returns Content-Disposition: inline.
  • No og:image:type tag: adding og:image:type (e.g., image/jpeg) and og:image:width / og:image:height helps WhatsApp render faster and avoids dimension-detection failures.

Not sure which tag is causing the WhatsApp preview to break? Paste your URL into OG Fixer to scan all metadata, see the exact preview, and generate a replacement OG image if needed.

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