Open Graph Tags for Signal

Which meta tags Signal reads and how it builds link previews

Supported Open Graph tags

Signal reads the bare minimum:

Tag Purpose
og:title Preview title
og:description Preview description text
og:image Preview image

That’s it. No og:video, og:audio, og:url, or og:site_name. No inline media playback, no canonical URL resolution, no site name display.

The og:image URL must be absolute HTTPS

Relative paths and HTTP URLs are both ignored:

<!-- Correct -->
<meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/images/preview.jpg">

<!-- Won't work: relative URL -->
<meta property="og:image" content="/images/preview.jpg">

<!-- Won't work: HTTP instead of HTTPS -->
<meta property="og:image" content="http://example.com/images/preview.jpg">

Fallback behavior

Missing og:title falls back to <title>. Missing og:description may fall back to <meta name="description">, though this varies by Signal version. If no title exists at all, Signal may show just the domain name.

Without og:image, you get a text-only preview.

No Twitter Card support

Signal ignores Twitter Card tags entirely (twitter:title, twitter:description, twitter:image). If your site only has Twitter Card tags, Signal won’t pick them up. Always include standard OG tags.

Recommended minimal setup

These three tags are both the minimum and effectively the maximum. Nothing else improves Signal previews:

<meta property="og:title" content="Your Page Title">
<meta property="og:description" content="A brief description of the page content.">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/images/preview.jpg">