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Show HN: Metacheck – preview how any link appears on social media and chat apps

Hey HN, I’ve been an indie hacker for a while, but I haven’t had much success with my past projects. Recently, I came across Marc Lou’s advice about building free tools just for fun, so I decided to give it a shot. I built Metacheck, a simple tool that lets you preview how any link will appear on Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Whatsapp, Telegram, and other platforms. No API keys, no setup—just paste a link and see the preview. Why I built this I often ran into issues where social platforms displayed broken or unexpected link previews. Debugging Open Graph meta tags was annoying, so I made a tool to make it easier. How it works Fetches metadata from any URL Parses Open Graph & Twitter Card tags Shows real-time previews of how the link will look when shared Try it out: https://metacheck.appstate.co/ https://metacheck.appstate.co/

vawogbemi 2y ago
can i see the code?
- talljohnson1234 2y ago
  Sure, will make it open source soon.
pogue 2y ago
This is very cool! Would it be possible to add Bluesky link cards? It passes through this domain to extract the link card and can be very hit and miss on how they show up. https://cardyb.bsky.app/v1/extract?url= https://cardyb.bsky.app/v1/extract?url= https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Abluesky-social%2Fatproto%20link%20card&type=code https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Abluesky-social%2Fatproto%...
- giantrobot 2y ago
  Blue sky's card domain is cute and clever. I miss clever "machine" (may be a HA cluster) names.
gigatree 2y ago
Probably want to have https appended automatically
- talljohnson1234 2y ago
  Would push a fix for this, apologies for the inconvenience.
  - talljohnson1234 2y ago
    a fix has been pushed for this, you can try it now. I Deeply appreciate the feedback.
colesantiago 2y ago
Is this open source? I'm assuming it is since I see a GitHub logo on it, although it isn't working...
- talljohnson1234 2y ago
  Sorry, it was just an oversight. I will append the URL in the next deployment.
- talljohnson1234 2y ago
  Here is the repo link https://github.com/oyeolamilekan/metacheck https://github.com/oyeolamilekan/metacheck
pizzly 2y ago
This is very good. One thing though Telegram (at least the linux version) does not support transparency and makes the transparency red. However, Metacheck shows it as transparent. Having all this on one page is a massive time saver.
imcritic 2y ago
An error occurred in the Server Components render. The specific message is omitted in production builds to avoid leaking sensitive details. A digest property is included on this error instance which may provide additional details about the nature of the error.
- talljohnson1234 2y ago
  Will look into this issue and push a fix.
  - imcritic 2y ago
    Seems to work today. Nice service, thank you for it!
vivzkestrel 2y ago
An error occurred in the Server Components render. The specific message is omitted in production builds to avoid leaking sensitive details. A digest property is included on this error instance which may provide additional details about the nature of the error.
gazook89 2y ago
I like it, and one additional thing (because isn’t there always): It’d be nice if this could be offline to use with local development.
swagatkonchada 2y ago
it doesn't recognise a url without the scheme? come on!
- talljohnson1234 2y ago
  Will push a fix for this, sorry about that.
WD-42 2y ago
Here’s a version of the same idea but runs locally, so you can test without deploying. https://apps.gnome.org/SharePreview/ https://apps.gnome.org/SharePreview/ OP, maybe next step is to try a local version?
brianfryer 2y ago
10/10; thank you so much!
- talljohnson1234 2y ago
  Thanks for the feedback.
01HNNWZ0MV43FF 2y ago
Ah I'd been using https://www.opengraph.xyz/ https://www.opengraph.xyz/
toteroni 2y ago
This is awesome! I can’t believe this never occurred to me- my wife texts me links to her UX all the time to see how her changes look before the changes go to prod.
bryanhogan 2y ago
Can anyone tell me why WhatsApp seems so random whether it display the social preview image and text or not? E.g. for my own website https://bryanhogan.com/ https://bryanhogan.com/ it shows up in the tool but not in actual chats.
- mh- 2y ago
  I've noticed this just as a casual user of WhatsApp, when pasting links into a conversation. I'm not sure what triggers it either, but I can say that it sometimes works for (e.g.) one tweet and not another.
- esafak 2y ago
  Maybe it times out depending on the load.
- leonhard 2y ago
  I just tried your URL on my WhatsApp and it shows up exactly as in the preview from the tool. My experience is is has to be the full URL with https:// https:// and it only shows the first link, and it sometimes gets confused when you have multiple links in a message and shuffle them around/delete some of them.
ulrischa 2y ago
A good idea bit the visualisation ist wrong. I.e. the preview image will not be shown correctly
- 2big2fail_47 2y ago
  yeah it doesn’t work if you try it with https://youtube.com https://youtube.com i really like the idea though
  - talljohnson1234 2y ago
    Would investigate why it wasn't working and push out a fix. thanks for trying it out.
rahimnathwani 2y ago
You might get more users if you had shareable URLs, e.g. https://metacheck.appstate.co/site/news.ycombinator.com https://metacheck.appstate.co/site/news.ycombinator.com
- djhn 2y ago
  That is such a great growth hack. As in, it’s both a useful feature AND a growth mechanism.
- talljohnson1234 2y ago
  This is now possible chief, kindly try it out.
flas9sd 2y ago
well done.. made me enable my static-sitegens opengraph plugin, add images, rewrite summaries, thanks! Mastodon preview? :)
- talljohnson1234 2y ago
  Coming soon hopefully, this Saturday.
- talljohnson1234 2y ago
  Done, this has been deployed.
marcellus23 2y ago
Should add support for Apple platforms (i.e. LPLinkView used in Notes/Messages/Mail etc.)
- talljohnson1234 2y ago
  Dully noted, will push this in the next update.
uneekname 2y ago
Well done! I was recently looking around for something like this and didn't love the options. Bookmarked Metacheck :)
- talljohnson1234 2y ago
  Thanks, really means alot.
dbg31415 2y ago
Another good site for previewing metadata. https://socialsharepreview.com/ https://socialsharepreview.com/
mediumsmart 2y ago
Very good. I use metatags.io at the moment. Local version would be great.
- talljohnson1234 2y ago
  Local version is coming soon.
vladkens 2y ago
Great idea! Quick and easy link previewing is super useful.
- talljohnson1234 2y ago
  Thanks for the feedback, really means alot.
kridsdale1 2y ago
This doesn’t work for google maps links. It shows an icon and not the open graph images associated with a shared location. Try this for instance: https://maps.app.goo.gl/jfj2vTjeZDTYSGMv9?g_st=com.google.maps.preview.copy https://maps.app.goo.gl/jfj2vTjeZDTYSGMv9?g_st=com.google.ma...
eddiejaoude 2y ago
Awesome! Love these previews tools! Super useful. I am creating a free tool to preview the whole social post.

vawogbemi 2y ago

can i see the code?

talljohnson1234 2y ago
Sure, will make it open source soon.

pogue 2y ago

This is very cool! Would it be possible to add Bluesky link cards? It passes through this domain to extract the link card and can be very hit and miss on how they show up. https://cardyb.bsky.app/v1/extract?url= https://cardyb.bsky.app/v1/extract?url= https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Abluesky-social%2Fatproto%20link%20card&type=code https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Abluesky-social%2Fatproto%...

giantrobot 2y ago
Blue sky's card domain is cute and clever. I miss clever "machine" (may be a HA cluster) names.

gigatree 2y ago

Probably want to have https appended automatically

talljohnson1234 2y ago
Would push a fix for this, apologies for the inconvenience.
- talljohnson1234 2y ago
  a fix has been pushed for this, you can try it now. I Deeply appreciate the feedback.

colesantiago 2y ago

Is this open source? I'm assuming it is since I see a GitHub logo on it, although it isn't working...

talljohnson1234 2y ago
Sorry, it was just an oversight. I will append the URL in the next deployment.
talljohnson1234 2y ago
Here is the repo link https://github.com/oyeolamilekan/metacheck https://github.com/oyeolamilekan/metacheck

pizzly 2y ago

This is very good. One thing though Telegram (at least the linux version) does not support transparency and makes the transparency red. However, Metacheck shows it as transparent. Having all this on one page is a massive time saver.

imcritic 2y ago

An error occurred in the Server Components render. The specific message is omitted in production builds to avoid leaking sensitive details. A digest property is included on this error instance which may provide additional details about the nature of the error.

talljohnson1234 2y ago
Will look into this issue and push a fix.
- imcritic 2y ago
  Seems to work today. Nice service, thank you for it!

vivzkestrel 2y ago

gazook89 2y ago

I like it, and one additional thing (because isn’t there always): It’d be nice if this could be offline to use with local development.

swagatkonchada 2y ago

it doesn't recognise a url without the scheme? come on!

talljohnson1234 2y ago
Will push a fix for this, sorry about that.

WD-42 2y ago

Here’s a version of the same idea but runs locally, so you can test without deploying. https://apps.gnome.org/SharePreview/ https://apps.gnome.org/SharePreview/ OP, maybe next step is to try a local version?

brianfryer 2y ago

10/10; thank you so much!

talljohnson1234 2y ago
Thanks for the feedback.

01HNNWZ0MV43FF 2y ago

Ah I'd been using https://www.opengraph.xyz/ https://www.opengraph.xyz/

toteroni 2y ago

This is awesome! I can’t believe this never occurred to me- my wife texts me links to her UX all the time to see how her changes look before the changes go to prod.

bryanhogan 2y ago

Can anyone tell me why WhatsApp seems so random whether it display the social preview image and text or not? E.g. for my own website https://bryanhogan.com/ https://bryanhogan.com/ it shows up in the tool but not in actual chats.

mh- 2y ago
I've noticed this just as a casual user of WhatsApp, when pasting links into a conversation. I'm not sure what triggers it either, but I can say that it sometimes works for (e.g.) one tweet and not another.
esafak 2y ago
Maybe it times out depending on the load.
leonhard 2y ago
I just tried your URL on my WhatsApp and it shows up exactly as in the preview from the tool. My experience is is has to be the full URL with https:// https:// and it only shows the first link, and it sometimes gets confused when you have multiple links in a message and shuffle them around/delete some of them.

ulrischa 2y ago

A good idea bit the visualisation ist wrong. I.e. the preview image will not be shown correctly

2big2fail_47 2y ago
yeah it doesn’t work if you try it with https://youtube.com https://youtube.com i really like the idea though
- talljohnson1234 2y ago
  Would investigate why it wasn't working and push out a fix. thanks for trying it out.

rahimnathwani 2y ago

You might get more users if you had shareable URLs, e.g. https://metacheck.appstate.co/site/news.ycombinator.com https://metacheck.appstate.co/site/news.ycombinator.com

djhn 2y ago
That is such a great growth hack. As in, it’s both a useful feature AND a growth mechanism.
talljohnson1234 2y ago
This is now possible chief, kindly try it out.

flas9sd 2y ago

well done.. made me enable my static-sitegens opengraph plugin, add images, rewrite summaries, thanks! Mastodon preview? :)

talljohnson1234 2y ago
Coming soon hopefully, this Saturday.
talljohnson1234 2y ago
Done, this has been deployed.

marcellus23 2y ago

Should add support for Apple platforms (i.e. LPLinkView used in Notes/Messages/Mail etc.)

talljohnson1234 2y ago
Dully noted, will push this in the next update.

uneekname 2y ago

Well done! I was recently looking around for something like this and didn't love the options. Bookmarked Metacheck :)

talljohnson1234 2y ago
Thanks, really means alot.

dbg31415 2y ago

Another good site for previewing metadata. https://socialsharepreview.com/ https://socialsharepreview.com/

mediumsmart 2y ago

Very good. I use metatags.io at the moment. Local version would be great.

talljohnson1234 2y ago
Local version is coming soon.

vladkens 2y ago

Great idea! Quick and easy link previewing is super useful.

talljohnson1234 2y ago
Thanks for the feedback, really means alot.

kridsdale1 2y ago

This doesn’t work for google maps links. It shows an icon and not the open graph images associated with a shared location. Try this for instance: https://maps.app.goo.gl/jfj2vTjeZDTYSGMv9?g_st=com.google.maps.preview.copy https://maps.app.goo.gl/jfj2vTjeZDTYSGMv9?g_st=com.google.ma...

eddiejaoude 2y ago

Awesome! Love these previews tools! Super useful. I am creating a free tool to preview the whole social post.