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Hey everyone,

after being annoyed by the usual “solutions” to share a “rich snippet” (Meta data and if possible also the meta image) of an URL in Delta Chat with e.g. “Webpage bot” I found a little but practicable workaround for Android users.

Would be great if this kind of feature (local generation of the meta data snippet) would be implemented in the native apps (Desktop and Mobile) someday.

To share a “rich URL” you just need to install Markdownr from F-Droid. This app generates a Markdown-compatible snippet from an URL and shares it afterwards.

Workflow

  • Open Markdownr once and open the settings with the three dot menu in the upper right corner. SELECT Include URL in content and Include Excerpt and DESELECT Include Body

Now you are ready to share “rich URLs” easily.

  • Copy the URL you want to share to the clipboard and/or share it with Androids native sharing functionality
  • Optional: Remove unnecessary / annoying tracking parameters with Léon / URLCheck
  • Share (the cleaned URL) with Markdownr
  • Now the app automatically creates a Markdown-compatible snippet and opens the share menu again:

  • Now choose e.g. ArcaneChat / Delta Chat to share the rich text

Conclusion

Unfortunately there’s no image included (yet). But I think this could be a good Proof-of-concept for a still-to-implement native functionality in the desktop and the mobile apps. And with only one additional step you can help others to gain more information from a shared URL without the need of additional bots.

What do you think about this? Feel free to share your thoughts :folded_hands:

PS: 100% written by human, not by “AI”.