Introducing rich preview for forum links

[Abhinav]

Hello everyone,

We are very happy to announce that we've made significant improvements with Rich Previews.

Unfurl URLs serve their purpose very nicely while linking external sites, but when it comes to forum links, they often fall short. They don't look appealing and often miss the context especially when linking to specific replies where it picks the information only from the first post. Rich Preview will make it 100x better when linking to forum posts.

What are Rich Previews? ​

When linking to forum threads or posts, instead of a generic unfurl URL, you'll now see a direct preview of the exact post, almost like a screenshot. This preview includes all crucial details such as author name, post date, thread title, reactions received, number of replies, and more. Additionally, it even displays images if they're included in the linked post.

They allow you to get a quick overview of the linked post without leaving the current page and enhance the overall forum browsing experience.

How does it work?​

There is nothing special that needs to be done on the users’ end, simply paste the link to a forum thread or post, and the Rich Preview will be generated automatically. Unfurl URLs for external sites will be available as usual.