[bug] In web link preview show actual image instead of cookie notice or general mapillary description

[enteq]

If you post a link anywhere, for example in a chat application or forum, that application creates a website preview, usually consisting of an image and a short textual description. Currently all mapillary links to images are shown as a stupid cookie notice like this in signal:

And a general mapillary description like this in forum.mapillary.com: (from Unusual sightings in Mapillary photos - #147 by filipc )

Expected behavior: use the actual image that is linked to as the preview image (or some rectified version of that, e.g. for 360°), and as text include the name of the actual place from the reverse geocoder. (of course including a short general description what mapillary is would be totally fine.

[enteq]

Also, this seems to be possible in some cases already. However, it does not work for me, probably due to a broken mapillary forum configuration:

When I open the image separately, I get this:

(Note this is on a clean firefox profile without adblockers, and with the firefox advanced tracking protection disabled.)

[enteq]

Still broken in Signal:

[boris]

@nikola - could you take a look?

[nikola]

Thanks for reporting! We’ll look into Signal link preview support for Mapillary URLs. Do you experience the same issue with links to other Meta sites?

[enteq]

Same problem with WhatsApp:

Other non-Meta services:

• Telegram will not create a preview at all.
• Same Problem with Element Android on Matrix, (unencrypted only, encrypted do not have a preview)

[enteq]

ah, you mean to other Meta services.
Instagram seems to properly show the linked image:

Facebook I tried, but it’s so unusable without a login that I wasn’t able to get a proper Link to a photo.

[nikola]

We’ve now fixed linked preview for Mapillary links in messaging apps like Signal and WhatsApp. Let us know if you encounter any more issues like this, thanks!

[enteq]

Slightly better. At least it doesn’t show the cookie notice anymore. However it is still not very helpful, as it only shows the mapillary logo and name. I would have hoped for a solution like in Instagram, i.e. show a preview of the actual linked photo, and maybe even in the text add a location name from reverse geocoding.
Is there anything planned in that direction?

[nikola]

Thanks for testing! It does appear that the image link preview doesn’t seem to work in Signal but it should work in WhatsApp based on some testing. We’ll check if there’s something special about Signal that’s preventing it from loading the image in the preview.

[enteq]

I can confirm it works in whatsapp, telegram, and element (Matrix).
As far as I know Signal has the client generate the preview, different to the others, maybe this is part of the reason?