Tyler HillsmanJan 25, 2023
I’m in the middle of building something that is just silly enough to be interesting and just useful enough to be releasable.
Joseph McLaughlinJan 25, 2023
Show threadTyler Hillsman

Ok, so.

Tweets look really good when you send them in Messages on iOS/macOS. Mastodon posts… don’t. So I built a little tool that makes them much nicer to look at:

https://mstdn.link

Add ?to={any Mastodon post URL} to the end of that domain and when you send it to a friend, you get the nice looking preview. Of course the page makes it easy to paste a URL in. And there’s a Shortcut to make it even easier on iOS or macOS.

mstdn.link - Share Mastodon posts better

Jan 25, 2023 at 9:37pmIvory for iOS
Show threadTyler HillsmanJan 25, 2023
Anyway, this exists at the intersection of silly and useful. Enjoy!
Show threadTyler HillsmanJan 26, 2023
I just added images to this thing. A thousand words better now. (It also may be a tad faster as well.)
Show threadTyler HillsmanFeb 16, 2023

Being sherlocked has never felt so good. 🙌🏼

https://mastodon.social/@timroesner/109876084020612662

Show threadTyler HillsmanFeb 16, 2023
An update to the landing page. On to the next thing to tinker with. 😊
Show threadTyler HillsmanMar 28, 2023

For those asking, I'm not planning on turning off https://mstdn.link in the foreseeable future.

If you missed it, iOS 16.4 was released yesterday with native support for Mastodon previews. Which is awesome and renders this little thing useless. But since I don't want to break a lot of links, it takes basically nothing to run, and some people like the blue background on the previews (😂), I'll leave it up. 🫡

mstdn.link - Share Mastodon posts better

Show threadTyler HillsmanMar 28, 2023
And if you're interested in the trick of pretending to be a Twitter URL for this very, very specific purpose, here's the code that runs https://mstdn.link. Did I mention it's in PHP? https://gist.github.com/thillsman/e0d755f114aef178d38e3d656385323d
mstdn.link - Share Mastodon posts better

Show threadDevinMar 28, 2023
@thillsman a hero amongst men
Show threadTyler HillsmanMar 28, 2023
@JustMeDevin
Show threadiOSLifeMar 28, 2023
@thillsman b-but are you going to open source your black magic? I’d like to try and make my own for Nitter links. :)
Show threadTyler HillsmanMar 28, 2023
@ioslife Good call. Here you go, hope you don't mind PHP. 😂 https://gist.github.com/thillsman/e0d755f114aef178d38e3d656385323d
mstdn.link logic

mstdn.link logic. GitHub Gist: instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

Gist
Show threadJaanus KaseFeb 17, 2023
@thillsman thank you for your work on this. It may actually have nudged or helped Apple in this direction. 👍
Show threadTyler HillsmanFeb 17, 2023
@jaanus Hey thanks! I hope it did, and I'm glad there's a better solution now! 😊
Show threadChris Wu 🪐Feb 16, 2023
@thillsman just came to check if you were posting about it! 😂
Show threadbrianFeb 16, 2023
@thillsman have loved your link service in the interim, was so seamless to use via shortcut
Show threadTyler HillsmanFeb 16, 2023
@carlyraebrian Hey thanks! I'm happy to have helped, and happier that there's native support now. 😊
Show threadChris Wu 🪐Jan 26, 2023
@thillsman holy smokes. That’s me! I’m famous! 🥳
Show threadTyler HillsmanJan 26, 2023
@MuseumShuffle Haha, your post was the perfect test case. 😊
Show threadAnthonyJan 26, 2023
@thillsman Definitely faster
Show threadTyler HillsmanJan 26, 2023
@anthonyvardiz Good! 🏎️
Show threadgameshack_ Jan 27, 2023
@thillsman suggestion: instead of the logo of the instance, show the profilepicture of the user.
Show threadTyler HillsmanJan 27, 2023
@gameshack_ I was looking into that yesterday. It may be doable.
Show threadgameshack_ Jan 27, 2023
@thillsman Started playing around with this based on your idea, so thanks for leading me down that rabbithole and giving me a fun afternoon activity today! :D
Show threadgameshack_ Jan 27, 2023
@thillsman Videoplayback similar to the youtube preview seems like an interesting one too.
Show threadJosh HoltzJan 25, 2023
@thillsman cc: @viticci
Show threadDevinJan 25, 2023
@thillsman Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything
Show threadTyler HillsmanJan 25, 2023
@JustMeDevin 😂
Show threadJordan MorganJan 25, 2023
@JustMeDevin @thillsman
Show threadChris Wu 🪐Jan 25, 2023
@jordanmorgan @JustMeDevin @thillsman How do I like a Toot more than once?
Show threadTyler HillsmanJan 25, 2023
@jordanmorgan @JustMeDevin I’m dead. 😂
Show threadklept0Jan 25, 2023
@thillsman I ❤️ you k thx
Show threadTyler HillsmanJan 25, 2023
@klept0
Show threadRoss KimesJan 25, 2023
@thillsman this is really cool and clever.
Show threadTyler HillsmanJan 25, 2023
@rosskimes Thanks! I’m glad it’s useful!
Show threadDerek P. CollinsJan 25, 2023
@thillsman I was literally complaining about this this morning! I’ll give this a shot! Thank you.
Show threadTyler HillsmanJan 25, 2023
@derekpcollins Haha, a pain point for tons of us!
Show threadDerek P. CollinsJan 25, 2023
@thillsman Just used it and it works as advertised — I’m sold! Thanks for making this!
Show threadTyler HillsmanJan 25, 2023
@derekpcollins Sure! 😊
Show threadAustin Zani Jan 25, 2023
@thillsman this is super helpful! Great work!
Show threadTyler HillsmanJan 25, 2023
@zaniad Thanks! I’m glad it’s useful!
Show threadsanguishJan 25, 2023
@thillsman @icecubesapp
Show threadJimmy Thomas Jan 25, 2023
@thillsman Oh, interesting. I just bought fossilize.it to replicate twitter publish functionality. Nice work!
Show threadDan KoberJan 25, 2023
@thillsman Brilliant.
Show threadTyler HillsmanJan 25, 2023
@lilkobi Haha, thanks!
Show threadTrevor BalenaJan 25, 2023
@thillsman That’s great! How does it do with images in the posts?
Show threadTyler HillsmanJan 25, 2023
@tbalena Haha, right now it just shows them as an attachment in text, but I’m going to keep looking into it to see if there’s an improvement I can make.
Show threadPhilip Mallegol-HansenJan 25, 2023
@thillsman That’s cool! It would be even cooler to open a PR against the Mastodon project adding appropriate link previews so it just works out of the box.
Show threadTyler HillsmanJan 25, 2023
@philip I thought about that too. The trick is that Messages is looking explicitly for a Twitter URL in a meta tag, so this fakes it. I doubt Mastodon proper would want to do that.
Show threadPhilip Mallegol-HansenJan 25, 2023

@thillsman I haven’t looked closely enough to say with any authority: iMessage renders various previews for other sites. Are they all faking being Twitter?

If yes, it’s a stupid hack, but one that seems worthwhile following. If no, however other sites render previews, should be doable for Mastodon as well?

Show threadNamanJan 26, 2023
@philip @thillsman For most websites iMessage will show open graph images. So if mastodon can render to an SVG image that *should* work.
Show threadJens AytonJan 26, 2023
@philip @thillsman I believe iMessage puts Twitter and Facebook boy scraper names in its user-agent, and some sites use this to render pages that iMessage will turn into better previews
Show threadChris Wu 🪐Jan 25, 2023
@thillsman Tyler this is amazing!!! I swear it was only 2-3 days ago I was complaining to one of my group chats that Mastodon links I share looked bad in iMessage.
Show threadTyler HillsmanJan 25, 2023
@MuseumShuffle Haha, we all have the same issues.
Show threadTorsteinJan 25, 2023
@thillsman @viticci something for @icecubesapp and @ivory to think about adding as a built in feature?
Show threadWestonJan 25, 2023
@thillsman I'm curious, would a longer-term fix need to be Apple doing custom Messages work? or does Mastodon need to rework its meta tags?
Show threadTyler HillsmanJan 25, 2023
@weston There’s something in Messages link previewing explicitly looking for a Twitter URL in a meta tag, so I’m afraid the ball is in Apple’s court.
Show threadGareth SimpsonJan 26, 2023

@thillsman @weston

Squarespace have figured out the secret sauce for this. If you message this to yourself, you’ll get a proper preview. They basically spam all the headers.

https://squarespace.com

It’s in their pages when you make a squarespace site too and works a treat.

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Show threadRod ChristiansenJan 25, 2023
@thillsman this is awesome!!! Badly needed.
Show threadTyler HillsmanJan 25, 2023
@rod Haha, I thought so too. 😊
Show threadPatrick RossJan 25, 2023
@thillsman love this! Great work!
Show threadTyler HillsmanJan 25, 2023
@patrickross Hey thanks!