Deep Link Tester: Check Your Link Preview and URL Preview Before You Share

Sarah @ ChottuLink

• 8 min read
Deep Link Tester: Check Your Link Preview and URL Preview Before You Share
Free Deep Link Tester Tool at Chottulink

Your app link looks different on every platform. Here's how to test it on LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Twitter, and more, for free.

Every time you share an app link on LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Slack, or Twitter, the platform generates a URL preview — that little card with an image, title, and description that appears below your post.

Here's what most teams don't realize: your link preview looks different on every platform, and you probably have no idea what your audience actually sees.

  • On LinkedIn, a broken link preview means your post gets scrolled past — and LinkedIn's algorithm penalizes low-engagement posts by showing them to fewer people.
  • On WhatsApp, a missing preview image means your shared link looks like spam.
  • On Twitter/X, a malformed Twitter Card means your link blends into the noise.

The result? Fewer clicks, lower conversions, and wasted marketing spend: all because nobody checked the link preview before hitting "Post."

A deep link tester is a tool that analyzes a URL and tells you exactly how it will behave across different devices and platforms. Unlike a basic link checker that only confirms a URL returns a 200 status code, a deep link tester validates the entire chain, from domain health to app configuration to social sharing metadata.

CheckWhy It Matters
Domain health (DNS, SSL, redirects)Broken SSL or redirect chains prevent links from opening in apps
iOS Universal Links (AASA file)Missing or misconfigured AASA = links open in browser, not your app
Android App Links (assetlinks.json)Invalid assetlinks = Android treats your link as a web-only URL
Link preview metadata (Open Graph, Twitter Cards)Controls what users see when you share your link on social media
URL preview renderingHow the preview card appears on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp

A proper deep link tester combines all of these into a single health score, so you know exactly where your link stands before you share it with the world.

Links with rich previews — a compelling image, a clear title, and a concise description — dramatically outperform bare URLs:

  • Buffer research found that posts with images receive 150% more engagement on Twitter compared to text-only posts.
  • Research shows that tweets with images get 150% more retweets and are 34% more likely to be retweeted than text-only tweets (source).
  • According to LinkedIn's engineering blog, posts with rich media previews see significantly higher click-through rates than posts with plain-text URLs.

In short: your link preview is the ad for your link. If it's broken, missing, or generic, you're essentially running an ad with no creative.

Good link preview (high CTR):

  • Custom branded image (1200×630px)
  • Clear, benefit-driven title (under 60 characters)
  • Compelling description that creates curiosity (under 160 characters)
  • Recognized domain name (builds trust)

Bad link preview (scroll-past):

  • No image (or a broken image placeholder)
  • Generic title auto-pulled from the page
  • Missing or truncated description
  • Unfamiliar or suspicious-looking domain

LinkedIn is where B2B marketers, SaaS founders, and app growth teams share product updates, launch announcements, and campaign links. A broken LinkedIn link preview can tank even the best content.

  1. Missing Open Graph tags — LinkedIn pulls og:title, og:description, and og:image from your page's HTML. If these tags are missing, LinkedIn guesses — and it usually guesses wrong.
  2. Cached previews — LinkedIn aggressively caches Open Graph metadata. If you fix a broken image or change a title, LinkedIn will keep showing the old preview until you manually clear the cache using LinkedIn's Post Inspector.
  3. Image size issues — LinkedIn recommends images at 1200×627px. Images smaller than 200×200px won't render in the preview at all.
  4. Redirect chains — If your URL redirects multiple times before landing on the final page, LinkedIn's crawler may fail to pick up the OG tags entirely.
  1. Paste your URL into ChottuLink's Deep Link Tester
  2. Check the Social Sharing section — the tool validates all Open Graph tags (og:title, og:description, og:image) and flags any that are missing or incorrectly configured
  3. Verify image dimensions — the tool checks if your preview image meets platform requirements
  4. Fix the issues — update your OG meta tags based on the detailed report
  5. Clear LinkedIn's cache — use LinkedIn Post Inspector to force LinkedIn to re-fetch the corrected metadata
Pro tip: Always test your link preview before posting on LinkedIn. A single post with a broken preview gets buried by the algorithm, and you can't edit the preview after publishing.

How to Check Your URL Preview on Other Platforms

Twitter/X

Twitter uses Twitter Card tags to render link previews. The most important tags are:

<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image">
<meta name="twitter:title" content="Your Title Here">
<meta name="twitter:description" content="Your description here">
<meta name="twitter:image" content="https://yourdomain.com/image.jpg">

If your Twitter Card tags are missing, Twitter falls back to Open Graph tags — but the rendering may not be optimal. Use the deep link tester to validate both sets of tags in one scan.

WhatsApp & Telegram

Both WhatsApp and Telegram pull from Open Graph tags to render link previews. The key difference: WhatsApp is particularly strict about og:image — if the image URL returns a 404 or is too slow to load, WhatsApp shows no preview at all.

Facebook

Facebook uses its own Sharing Debugger to crawl and cache Open Graph data. Like LinkedIn, Facebook caches previews aggressively, so you'll need to "scrape again" after making changes.

Slack & Discord

Both platforms render rich previews from Open Graph and Twitter Card metadata. Slack is especially useful for internal testing — paste a link in a DM to yourself before sharing it publicly.

If you're sharing mobile app links — links that should open a specific screen inside your iOS or Android app — the stakes are even higher. A broken app link doesn't just look bad in the preview; it drops users on your website, the wrong app store, or a dead end.

Before sharing any app link on social media, email, or messaging platforms, run through this:

  • [ ] Test with a deep link tester — verify domain health, AASA file, assetlinks.json, and social metadata using ChottuLink's Free Deep Link Tester
  • [ ] Check the link preview — does the preview card show the right image, title, and description?
  • [ ] Test on a real device — open the link on both iOS and Android to confirm it opens the app (not the browser)
  • [ ] Test the "not installed" flow — what happens when a user without the app clicks your link? Do they land on the correct app store?
  • [ ] Verify deferred deep linking — after installing from the link, does the user land on the right screen?
  • [ ] Preview on LinkedIn, WhatsApp, and Twitter — each platform renders previews differently; test all channels you plan to share on

When you share app links using a vendor's default domain (like yourapp.onelink.me or yourapp.page.link), users see an unfamiliar URL in the link preview. This lowers trust and click-through rates.

Using a custom branded domain (like link.yourapp.com) means:

  • Users recognize and trust the domain
  • Higher click-through rates on social platforms
  • Your brand is reinforced with every shared link
  • You're not locked into a vendor — if you switch deep linking providers, your links still work

ChottuLink supports custom branded domains on all paid plans, so your shared app links always show your brand, not a third-party domain.

ChottuLink's Deep Link Tester is a free tool that gives you a complete health report on any URL — no signup, no email, just paste and test.

What you get:

0–100 health score — instantly see how well-configured your link is

Domain health check — DNS resolution, SSL certificate, redirect chains

iOS Universal Links validation — AASA file, app ID, URL pattern matching

Android App Links validation — assetlinks.json, package name, certificate fingerprint

Link preview validation — Open Graph tags, Twitter Card tags, image dimensions

URL preview check — see exactly what LinkedIn, Twitter, and other platforms will display

Link behavior preview — what happens on iOS vs Android vs desktop when the app is installed or not

  1. Go to chottulink.com/tools/deep-link-tester
  2. Paste any URL
  3. Click "Test Link"
  4. Review the detailed health report
  5. Fix the flagged issues
  6. Test again until you hit 100%

It takes less than 30 seconds. And it can save you from sharing a broken link that costs you an entire campaign's worth of clicks.

MistakeImpactFix
Missing og:image tagNo preview image on LinkedIn, Facebook, WhatsAppAdd a <meta property="og:image"> tag pointing to a 1200×630px image
Image too smallPreview renders without image or with a tiny thumbnailUse images at least 1200×630px for social platforms
Missing og:titlePlatform auto-generates a title from the page (often wrong)Add an explicit <meta property="og:title"> tag
No Twitter Card tagsTwitter shows a plain link instead of a rich cardAdd twitter:card, twitter:title, twitter:description, twitter:image
Redirect chains on the URLCrawlers fail to fetch OG tags; app links breakServe content directly, minimize redirects
Using root domain for app linksUniversal Links fail when user is already on the same domain in SafariUse a dedicated subdomain like link.yourapp.com
Not clearing cache after fixesPlatform keeps showing old, broken previewUse LinkedIn Post Inspector or Facebook Debugger to force re-fetch

A broken link preview is the most visible problem — but it's often a symptom of deeper configuration issues. The deep link tester goes beyond surface-level checks to catch:

  • Missing AASA file → iOS Universal Links won't fire; users stay in the browser
  • Invalid assetlinks.json → Android won't open the app; users land on the web
  • Expired SSL certificates → Both iOS and Android reject the link entirely
  • Incorrect App IDs or package names → The link opens, but in the wrong app (or no app)

If you're using Firebase Dynamic Links, Branch, AppsFlyer, or Airbridge, the deep link tester identifies the provider and flags potential issues specific to that platform — including deprecation warnings for Firebase.

The tool shows you what happens in three scenarios:

  1. App installed on iOS — does the link open the app or the browser?
  2. App installed on Android — same check for Android
  3. App not installed — does the link redirect to the right app store?

Take Action: Test, Fix, Share

The formula is simple:

  1. Test your link — paste any URL and get a health score with detailed diagnostics
  2. Fix what's broken — the report tells you exactly what's wrong and how to fix it
  3. Verify the link preview — check that your Open Graph and Twitter Card tags render correctly on LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Facebook
  4. Share with confidence — knowing your link preview looks right and your app link actually works

Every link you share is a first impression. Make it count.

ChottuLink handles all the complexity — iOS, Android, web fallbacks, deferred deep linking, custom branded domains, and built-in analytics — so you can focus on growth instead of debugging broken links.

Get Started Free →

Further Reading

Stop guessing. Start testing. Your link preview is your first impression — make sure it's a good one.

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