The Snap URL Preview Service

Snapchat fetches pages using the Snap URL Preview Service. The user agent is refreshingly transparent – it includes a link to Snap’s robots documentation right in the string:

Snap URL Preview Service; bot; snapchat; https://developers.snap.com/robots

No JavaScript execution

The Snap URL Preview Service does not execute JavaScript. OG tags must be in the initial HTML. If your site renders meta tags client-side, Snapchat won’t see them.

Response requirements

The crawler expects 200 OK with text/html. Redirects are followed. Pages behind auth or IP restrictions won’t generate previews.

robots.txt behavior

The crawler respects robots.txt. Use the user agent Snap URL Preview Service in your rules. Snap’s documentation at developers.snap.com/robots covers their crawling behavior.

Checking if the crawler can reach your page

curl -A "Snap URL Preview Service; bot; snapchat; https://developers.snap.com/robots" \

     https://example.com/your-page

If your <meta> tags are in the response, Snapchat will generate a preview.