disabling show previews/thumbnails for images shouldn't occupy the same space

[ara4n]

'I disabled Show previews/thumbnails for images but even if the image isn't loaded it still use the same space' says @dannycolin

[turt2live]

Yes, this is to prevent jumps and was the design at the time.

[n1-klas]

I think in public chats it could make sense to only have small image previews and clicking on them opens the image in a popup (to prevent a jumping timeline).

Use Cases:

1. I would like images to use less space in busy rooms
2. Some users might be concerned about shocking/NSFW Images in public chats which is why they turn off displaying image thumbnails. In this case users might prefer a small blurred version of an image so they can gauge whether they want to see the image or not

I'm not sure if 2. can be implemented in a data saving way, which is another use case for turning off image previews and probably why it was implemented, but if it's possible I think it would be a very useful feature to have.

Please keep in mind that toggling image previews might be something users want to enable/disable per chat but this might be better suited for another issue (?)

Sorry if this is the wrong issue for my comment, was searching for similar suggestions and I guess this is the closest one I found to what I want to suggest.

[globau]

Have you considered using UI elements that set the user's expectations that the timeline will shift?

For example instead of the oversized placeholder box:

▶︎ Show Image (image.png - 1920 x 1080, 73 KB)

Clicking on the ▶︎ would change it to ▼ and display the image. This expander is a common UI widget and as it's happening as a consequence of direct user interaction shouldn't result in any unexpected shifts in the timeline.