---
title: "Link previews"
description: "What the preview card shows when you paste a Markdrop link into Slack, WhatsApp, LinkedIn or X, and what it never shows."
canonical_url: https://docs.markdrop.in/documents/link-previews
last_updated: 2026-10-30
site: "Markdrop Docs"
index: https://docs.markdrop.in/llms.txt
---

# Link previews

When you paste a Markdrop link into Slack, Teams, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, X or iMessage, the app shows a preview card. Markdrop draws that card for each document, and it shows only what a stranger opening the link could already see.

## What the card shows

For a document anyone with the link can open, the card has:

- the title, or the document's opening heading, or else its address;
- the first lines of the text, as plain text;
- a reading time, like "4 min read";
- the address, like `markdrop.in/q3-plan`.

For a file, the card shows the title (or the file name), its type and size. A video that anyone with the link can open also shows its poster frame.

The page's own title and description, which some apps show instead of the card, follow the same rules.

## What it never shows

Anything a stranger couldn't open gets a card with no content: no title, no text, nothing from the document except the address the link already shows. The card says only what kind of lock it has, such as "Private document" or "Password-protected document". That covers documents that are:

- set to **Only people added** or to a workspace team;
- protected by a password;
- in a workspace where visitors must sign in;
- end-to-end encrypted.

An encrypted document's title and text are ciphertext to Markdrop, so its card reads "Encrypted document" and nothing more. A link to a document that doesn't exist, or has expired, gets a plain Markdrop card that doesn't say whether it ever existed.

> **Note: Previews already posted**
>
> Chat apps store a card when the link is first posted. If you add a password or make a document private afterwards, Markdrop asks for a fresh card on future pastes, but a card already sitting in a conversation is kept by that app. Markdrop can't recall it.

## Cards on your own domain

A document filed in a workspace wears that workspace's brand on its card, its site name and accent colour, wherever the link is pasted. A workspace can also hide the Markdrop name from its cards. See [Brand your workspace](https://docs.markdrop.in/workspaces/branding).

For a document strangers can't open, the workspace's branding shows only when the link is on the workspace's own domain, like `docs.acme.com/…`. On a `markdrop.in` link, even the workspace's name would be more than a stranger could learn, so it's left off.

## Previews count as shares

Each time an app fetches a card, Markdrop notes which app asked: Slack, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Facebook, Telegram, X, Discord, Teams, Google Chat, or another. It counts as a share signal in your analytics, never as a view, and repeat fetches from the same app within 10 minutes count once. See [What gets counted](https://docs.markdrop.in/analytics/what-gets-counted).

## Change what the card says

Edit the document's title, or its opening heading and first lines. Apps refetch cards on their own schedule, so a new paste can take a few minutes to show the change, and old pastes keep their old card.

## Related

- [Who can open what](https://docs.markdrop.in/sharing/who-can-open)
- [End-to-end encryption](https://docs.markdrop.in/sharing/end-to-end-encryption)
- [Passwords and expiry](https://docs.markdrop.in/documents/passwords-and-expiry)