Share links and set preview preferences

It's easy to share web content like articles, pages and other links in Slack. When you share a link, you'll see a preview of the content just below your message. If you don't want to see link previews, you can turn them off.

Share links

To share a link in Slack, copy and paste the URL into the message field and send. Most links will automatically expand to show a preview of the web page. Here's an example from the desktop app:

Tip: You can create hyperlinks in your messages to give links a cleaner look. To learn more, visit Format your messages.

When previews don’t display

Here are some reasons why your link might not expand to show a preview:

• The link contains no preview data. If the web page doesn't include the necessary embedded data, the preview won't expand.
• You linked to a private page or file. For example, you won't see a preview of password-protected YouTube or Vimeo videos.
• It was recently posted by another member of your workspace. No attachment will expand if that link was shared in the same conversation within the past hour.
• It links to audio or video hosted by a service that we haven't added to our allowlist. We're working to approve more services in future.
• http:// was not included. Try adding http:// and your link should expand.
• Your message contains more than five links. If more than five links are included, they won't expand.

Tip: Your web administrator can also run your link through our URL debugging tool to confirm what preview metadata is being pulled. 

Remove a link preview 

1. From your desktop, hover over the link preview.
2. Click the  that appears on the left side of the link.

Note: The option to remove link previews is not available on the Slack mobile apps.

Turn off link previews 

If you’d prefer not to see previews for shared links, you can adjust your preferences:

1. Click your profile picture in the sidebar.
   
2. Select Preferences from the menu.
3. Choose Messages & media from the list.
4. Below Inline media & links, untick the boxes next to Show images and files from linked websites and Show text previews of linked websites.

Note: For some apps and integrations, link previews won't be disabled when the options above are unticked.