Link previews are not generated consistently in latest MacOS desktop client

[deliriumcoc]

Using a supported version?

• I have searched searched open and closed issues for duplicates.
• I am using Signal-Desktop as provided by the Signal team, not a 3rd-party package.

Overall summary

This issue is very similar to this old closed issue:
#6270

Link previews from certain websites are very inconsistent. I especially notice issues pasting links from cnbc.com to Signal Desktop on Mac. It seems like for the past two months 95% of the time it tries to generate a preview and then fails to populate it. Many other websites work fine. I can post the same link on my phone and it works great. It seems to be something specific to the desktop client.

This used to be a problem a year ago. Then it was fixed. It has been fine for several months. And then about two months ago it broke again and has been inconsistent.

I always upgrade to latest Signal Desktop when it is released.

Steps to reproduce

1. Open a chat on MacOS signal desktop client
2. Paste a link from cnbc.com to chat (Example: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/22/new-covid-flirt-variants-spark-concerns-of-a-summer-spike.html)
3. Preview fails to populate

Expected result

Preview should generate for CNBC links

Actual result

No preview is generated

Screenshots

Signal version

7.9.0 production (Intel)

Operating system

MacOS 14.4.1

Version of Signal on your phone

7.11 (111)

Link to debug log

https://debuglogs.org/desktop/7.9.0/522c7ad8180cc19cd6d51313e7c70a2a4a608634e3050b4fc6f7dc6ee886d5a4.gz

[ayumi-signal]

Hello, sorry this is happening for you. I can confirm that CNBC links don't seem to generate previews. Debugging a little, it seems like the CNBC server just doesn't return content when the app makes the request. We can look into workarounds, but it suggests a remote server issue.

[deliriumcoc]

It’s worth mentioning that CNBC link previews seem to work 100% of the time from Signal on my iPhone. This issue only happens on Desktop. So whatever the server is doing, it works fine with Signal mobile.

[deliriumcoc]

@ayumi-signal Any update on this issue? Is it something the Signal team is looking at? It definitely seems like a desktop-only issue as I mentioned which is very curious. The iOS app does NOT have this issue.

[jamiebuilds-signal]

This is what we are getting back for that URL when we fetch it. It has an empty body, no title, no real content at all, from this response there's nothing we can really show.

I'm not exactly sure what this website is doing to give two different responses here, but there's nothing going wrong in the way we are fetching it, it's an issue with this website. So I'm going to close this issue.

[deliriumcoc]

@jamiebuilds-signal Again, I think this is a real issue and I really wish you wouldn't just close this and write it off. CNBC worked fine for YEARS against the desktop client. Then it stopped working for a few months. Then it started working again. Now it's been broken for a few months. For this entire stretch of time the iOS Signal client works fine at generating previews of CNBC links. So clearly whatever CNBC returns to the iOS client is sufficient. It seems like there is some kind of difference between the desktop version and the iOS version.

[deliriumcoc]

@jamiebuilds-signal An additional point I'd like to make here. This behavior has been off and on as mentioned over the past year. The desktop client at different points this past year would sometimes work and sometimes it wouldn't. As in there were times when I could link CNBC and the preview would show. Sometimes it wouldn't. The other ticket I mentioned in the OP I believes mentions some of this behavior. Sometimes you could post the link in desktop, it wouldn't show but you could delete the link, add a space, and repaste the link and it would work. It has just been flaky. The ios app version was rock solid throughout. There is some different behavior in the desktop client. There is a bug somewhere that needs to be found. Somehow it must be requesting the content differently from the mobile app. And as mentioned it has been intermittent at times in the past year. Sometimes intermittent in a single session. I even have seen instances where killing the desktop app and reloading it fixed it for a while. As a software developer myself it feels like there is an issue here.

[deliriumcoc]

@jamiebuilds-signal @ayumi-signal

I noticed something worthwhile potentially for this issue. I'm hoping you guys will revisit. When I share a CNBC link on my iPhone to Signal it adds an additional __source to the URL. This seems to make a difference in the rendering of the preview. I tried using the same phone link on my DESKTOP Signal app and it works! That __source tag allows the Desktop Signal to render the preview. Do you have any idea if that __source is something that iOS Signal is adding? Or is this coming from the CNBC app perhaps?

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/18/ev-startup-fisker-files-for-bankruptcy-aims-to-sell-assets.html?__source=iosappshare%7Corg.whispersystems.signal.shareextension

[deliriumcoc]

@jamiebuilds-signal @ayumi-signal Another followup to my discovery from last week. Pasting a link with the additional "__source=iosappshare%7Corg.whispersystems.signal.shareextension" extension seems to temporarily fix my Signal Desktop client. It's almost like it cached something for future requests and now it is getting good responses from cnbc.com that have previews. There is definitely something to this. I still urge you guys to investigate what is going on here.