Add option to fetch image from og:image when adding sharing content with a URL using Android share

[christophehenry]

Pitch

One thing Fedilab has and I'm missing in Tusky is that, when I share content with URL between apps, Fedilab fetches OG content, in particular the image at the URL pointed by og:image meta and title and description in og:title and og:description.

Motivation

Opengraph metas can be fetched by clients when a post contains a URL, but it is up to the client to display that info or not. When I post content, I often want to post the image with the content so that it catches the eye in the stream. Plus I sometimes want to include the description as well and it sometimes happen that the title has changed between when my RSS client has fetched the content and when I post it on Mastodon, and I want to be able to choose between those titles.

[Tak]

The instance already generates a preview card for urls shared in posts. The client doing it as well both increases the load on the server, is less private for the sharer (I guess in your case you don't mind, but other people might), and gives viewers less control over how/if they view preview cards in their timelines.

I'm not in favor of adding this feature.

[christophehenry]

The instance already generates a preview card

Not necessarily, no. That's my main issue. Mastodon generates the card only when you interact with the post (fav or reshare) and that's my main concern. I too often stumble upon Mastodon posts that just feature a link with the author relying onthe generated OG card to produce the content, I suppose. But the backend does not and I can't rely on every single client to do so. Actually I know some clients won't. Mastodon we client is one. Fedilab doesn't either, I believe.

less private for the sharer

That's why I propose it as an option. It can be entirely opt-in, I don't mind.