Resetting the link preview in messengers and social media

What is a link preview?

When you post a link to your survey in a messenger or social network, the platform automatically generates what's called a link preview. It usually shows the title, a description and a preview image of your survey page.

The preview is controlled by the Open Graph information embedded in the HTML code, and it's cached the first time the link is posted.

Why is the preview no longer correct?

If you make changes after first sharing your survey — for example to the title, image or description — many platforms will still show the old preview when you share it again. The reason: the platform keeps drawing on the cached preview.

To have the current version displayed, you need to "ask" the platform to clear the cache. Many services offer special tools for this — so-called debuggers or refresh tools.

Refreshing the preview: Facebook

Facebook offers an official tool for refreshing the link preview:

1. Open the Facebook Sharing Debugger.
2. Paste in the full link to your survey.
3. Click "Debug".
4. Then click "Scrape Again" to fetch the current version.

The new preview will now be shown the next time you share the link.

Refreshing the preview: LinkedIn

LinkedIn also offers a preview tool:

1. Open the Post Inspector.
2. Paste in your survey URL.
3. Click "Inspect".

LinkedIn will then reload the page and refresh the cache for the preview.

Refreshing the preview: X (Twitter)

X (formerly Twitter) doesn't offer an official tool for refreshing the preview, but it's often enough to share the page again once the meta data (Open Graph) has been set correctly.

You can also use the Card Validator to check the current preview. Enter your survey URL there and click "Preview card".

Refreshing the preview: WhatsApp

WhatsApp caches link previews server-side. There's no direct way to refresh them.

Refreshing the preview: Slack

Slack also stores previews in a cache. Here's how you can clear it:

1. Open Slack.
2. Enter the following command:
   /curl https://yourlink.com/umfrage
   (replacing https://yourlink.com/umfrage with your link)
3. Or change the URL slightly with a parameter such as ?refresh=1.

Refreshing the preview: Telegram

Telegram usually refreshes link previews the first time a link is shared. But if something on the survey page changes afterwards (e.g. the title or image), the preview isn't updated automatically.

In such cases, you can use the Telegram bot @Webpagebot to reset the preview cache:

1. Open Telegram and start a chat with the bot @Webpagebot.
2. Send it the command /updatepreview.
3. Then paste in up to 10 links whose previews you want to refresh.

Or delete the old message and post the link again — sometimes this also loads the current preview.

Refreshing the preview: Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams stores link previews server-side. There's no direct way to clear the cache. There are, however, two proven workarounds:

1. Modify the URL slightly: Append a parameter to the link, e.g. ?v=2 or &refresh=true. Example:
   https://yourlink.com/umfrage?v=2
2. Post the link in a new message: Instead of editing or copying the old message, post the link in a new comment or channel message.