Dark Social Link Preview Tester

Why is My Website Image Not Showing on WhatsApp? (2026 Guide)

When someone pastes your link into WhatsApp, the app fetches your page's Open Graph (OG) meta tags to build the preview card. If your og:image tag is missing, too small, or blocked by your server, WhatsApp shows a plain text link " or nothing at all.

The most common fix: add these three lines inside your <head> tag:

<meta property="og:title" content="Your Page Title" />
<meta property="og:description" content="One sentence description." />
<meta property="og:image" content="https://yoursite.com/og-image.jpg" />

Open Graph Image Size Requirements (2026)

Different platforms have different minimum and recommended image sizes. Using the wrong size causes cropping, blurry previews, or cards that simply don't appear.

Platform	Minimum Size	Recommended	Aspect Ratio
WhatsApp	200-200 px	1200-630 px	1.91:1
Discord	Any	1280-640 px	2:1
Slack	200-200 px	1200-630 px	1.91:1
Telegram	Any	1200-630 px	1.91:1
iMessage	300-200 px	1200-630 px	1.91:1
Twitter / X	144-144 px	1200-628 px	1.91:1

The "Dark Social" Problem

Dark social refers to web traffic from private messaging channels like WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, and iMessage. Unlike Twitter or Facebook shares, dark social traffic appears as direct in your analytics " even though someone explicitly shared your link.

Studies estimate that 70"80% of all online sharing happens on dark social channels. Yet most site owners only optimize their OG tags for Facebook and Twitter, leaving a massive gap. A well-optimized link preview on WhatsApp can drive enormous referral traffic that is completely invisible to traditional social analytics.

WhatsApp fetches OG tags using the WhatsApp/2.x User-Agent " some servers block generic bots but allow this.
Discord generates its embeds server-side and caches them aggressively. After fixing your OG tags, share the link in a bot-accessible channel to bust the cache.
Slack's "unfurling" bot will not fetch links from private or restricted domains.
iMessage previews are generated by Apple's servers, not the recipient's device " so HTTPS is required.

How to Fix Open Graph Issues on WhatsApp

WhatsApp is the most popular dark social channel with over 2 billion daily active users. Here's a step-by-step checklist to ensure your links look great:

Add all required OG tags: og:title, og:description, og:image, and og:url.
Use an image of at least 1200-630px: WhatsApp shows a rectangular thumbnail. Images smaller than 300-200px won't display at all.
Ensure HTTPS: HTTP image URLs are blocked by WhatsApp.
No redirect on the image URL: WhatsApp's bot doesn't follow redirects for images.
Set correct MIME types: Your server must serve JPEG/PNG images with the correct Content-Type header.
Clear WhatsApp's cache: WhatsApp caches previews. Delete the message and re-send after fixing your tags.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an OG image?

The OG (Open Graph) image is the preview image shown when your link is shared on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, and Slack.

What's the ideal OG image size?

1200×630 pixels is the recommended size. It works across all platforms without cropping.

How do I set OG tags?

Add , , and tags in your HTML .