Hyperlinks are portals that move us across the internet in a single click. But when the destination is unclear, hesitation creeps in. A link preview removes that uncertainty, showing what’s on the other side, why it’s relevant, and whether the click is worth the time.

Every hour, billions of links are shared across feeds and messages, making hyperlinks the internet’s largest engagement surface. Each one is a moment of decision. Link previews shape that choice by turning raw URLs into media: on-brand visuals, contextual headlines, and metadata that signal credibility at a glance.

But previews cut both ways. When a link preview is broken, misleading, off-brand, or slow to load, it doesn’t just fail, it signals risk. Like a portal flickering with the wrong destination, it creates doubt about where the click will lead. In those moments, a bad preview can perform worse than no preview at all, because users actively avoid links that feel unreliable or irrelevant.

That difference—between confidence and doubt—is what determines whether a link spreads or stops. It’s also what made “going viral” possible in the first place. In a world where trust is scarce and attention is fleeting, link previews aren’t decoration, they’re infrastructure. When they load instantly, render reliably, adapt to context and audience, and stay easy to share, they turn hesitation into confidence and clicks into momentum.