How to Turn Off Link Previews in Slack, for You or Everyone

To turn off link previews in Slack for yourself, click your profile picture, choose Preferences, then Messages & media. Under Inline media & links, uncheck Show images and files from linked websites and Show text previews of linked websites. Previews then stop showing on your screen, while everyone else still sees them. To remove the preview from one message you sent, hover over the preview and click the x. On a phone, long press the link and tap Remove Link Preview.

Owners and admins can also block previews from one website for the whole workspace, and apps can send links with no preview at all. Slack's own RSS app does not: every item it posted in our Slack RSS feed test came with a preview card. Every option is below, with the reasons a preview sometimes does not show. If images disappeared without you changing anything, see Slack images not showing.

To draft links and formatting before you post, use the Markdown to Slack converter.

Four ways to stop Slack link previews

Turn off link previews for yourself

These are the steps as we followed them in Slack for web on 5 October 2026:

• Click your profile picture in the sidebar.
• Select Preferences.
• Click Messages & media.
• Below Inline media & links, uncheck Show images and files from linked websites and Show text previews of linked websites.


The section has four boxes. Three were ticked by default in our workspace: Show images and files uploaded to Slack, Show images and files from linked websites and Show text previews of linked websites. Even if they're larger than 20MB was not. The second box controls image and video previews, the third controls the title and description card. Uncheck one or both. The change is only for you; your coworkers keep seeing previews. Slack notes that previews for some third-party app links, such as work objects from connected apps, are not turned off by these boxes.

Remove a link preview from one message

On desktop, hover over the preview under your message and click Remove preview (the x on its left). Slack asks "Remove preview?"; click Remove. On iPhone or Android, long press the link in the message and tap Remove Link Preview.

We did this on 5 October on a message that linked one of our own pages. After Remove, the API returned the message with no attachments, and Slack had rewritten the stored text so the URL sits in angle brackets: Link preview test: <https://slack.green/en/tools/slack-emoji-maker>. The link stays clickable; only the card is gone, for everyone in the conversation.

To send a link that never shows a preview:

• • Remove it right after sending. Post, then click the x on the preview.
• • Put the URL in inline code. Wrap it in one backtick on each side. Slack shows it as code and does not expand it. The reader has to copy it, so use this for links people should not click by accident. Steps are in how to make a code block in Slack.
• • Post it a second time within an hour. Slack does not expand a link shared in the same conversation within the past hour.

Block previews from a website for the whole workspace

Workspace owners and admins can stop one website's previews for everyone, from the same Remove preview? dialog:

Hover over a preview from that website and click Remove preview.

Check Also block previews from this website in the future.

Pick a Restriction level. For a link to slack.green/en/tools/slack-emoji-maker, Slack offered three: Block all previews from slack.green, Block previews from this specific link and Block previews from links under slack.green/en/tools.

The button changes from Remove to Remove and Block. Click it.

We stopped at step 3 and did not block the site. Slack's help center says only owners and admins can block a website this way.

To see or undo blocks on Free, Pro and Business+ plans, click Admin in the sidebar, choose Workspace settings, open the Attachments tab, and look under Blocked previews. Click the x next to a site to allow its previews again. On Enterprise plans the same list is under your organization name, Tools & settings, Workspace settings. Previews for connected apps like Jira or Google Drive are set separately under Work object previews.

There is no switch to turn off website previews for one channel only.

Send bot and webhook messages without previews

When an app, a script or an incoming webhook posts a link, set two fields to false:

{
  "channel": "C0123456789",
  "text": "Release notes: https://example.com/changelog",
  "unfurl_links": false,
  "unfurl_media": false
}

unfurl_links controls text previews of web pages, and unfurl_media controls image and video previews. They work in chat.postMessage and in incoming webhooks. The two flags do not split cleanly: in our 1 October 2026 test, unfurl_links: false also removed image and YouTube previews. Every combination is in Slack unfurl_links and unfurl_media, tested. For a GitHub Actions workflow, add the same fields to the payload; see how to send a Slack message from GitHub Actions.

Why a Slack link preview does not show

Slack's help center lists these reasons a link does not expand:

• The page has no preview data. The site does not include the embedded tags Slack reads.

• The page is private. For example, password-protected YouTube or Vimeo videos.

• The same link was shared in the same conversation within the past hour.

• The link points to audio or video from a service Slack has not allowed.

• The link has no http:// at the start. Add it and try again.

• The message has more than five links. None of them expand.

Two more causes are on your side: your own Inline media & links boxes are unchecked, or an admin blocked that website. If you run the website, Slack's unfurl debugger at api.slack.com/tools/unfurl-debugger shows what Slack reads from the page, and our og:image not showing in Slack test found that a debugger run also refreshes the cached card. Canvases build the same cards only when you choose Card after pasting a link; in our 29 October 2026 test a public Vimeo link still gave "Unable to create preview." there, as Slack canvas embeds, tested shows.

To turn words into a link instead of pasting a bare URL, see how to add a hyperlink in Slack.

FAQ

Can I remove a link preview for everyone? Yes, on a message you sent: hover over the preview and click the x.

How do I send a link in Slack without a preview? Remove the preview after sending, or wrap the URL in inline code.

Can I turn off link previews in one channel? No. Previews are set per person or blocked per website by an admin.

How do I disable GitHub link previews in Slack? The same way as for any site. To hide them for yourself, uncheck both Inline media & links boxes. To remove one, click the x on it. To stop them for everyone, an owner or admin clicks the x on a github.com preview, checks Also block previews from this website and picks the github.com restriction level, as in the dialog above.