URL previews

[ara4n]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Classic Element has URL previews in the timeline. EX doesn't yet.

Describe the solution you'd like
Port over URL previews from EI to EXI. Also, give option to display them in E2EE rooms (for users who'd like them at the expense of privacy).

[pixlwave]

It would be really nice if we could implement URL previews like other apps do, by bundling them inside the event so that they could be enabled on E2EE rooms without compromising user privacy.

[pixlwave]

There's now an MSC for bundling them too 🎉
matrix-org/matrix-spec-proposals#4095

[ufgkirk]

+1 on this... the URL Previews were a very nice feature of Element and we have some group chats (like a Tech News one) on my Matrix server that I've left E2E disabled on specifically so we could have URL previews.

This is the only thing about Element X which I feel so far is a substantial downgrade from the original Element client.

For reference, I am attaching images of the URL previews on Element compared to the Element X experience in the same room... you can see how much the URL previews truly improve the experience.

I would love to see this supported in E2E encrypted channels.... but even just supporting it in normal channels the way the original Element does would be a huge step up I think.