How does each platform read your link?
Every platform reads the same tags but renders them differently: Google uses your title, description and favicon, X prefers twitter: tags, and the chat apps use Open Graph with their own crops and caches. The differences that bite are cropping, text truncation and how long each one holds an old copy.
Platform by platform
| Platform | Reads | Image treatment | Cache |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google search | title tag, meta description, favicon, structured data | No share image. Favicon shown beside the result on mobile. | Re-crawled on its own schedule; request indexing in Search Console. |
| X | twitter: tags first, Open Graph as fallback | summary_large_image is roughly 2:1; summary crops to a square. | Holds a copy for days. Post the link again after a change. |
| Open Graph | Wide banner close to 1.91:1. | Long cache. Use the Post Inspector to refresh it. | |
| Open Graph | 1.91:1 banner; small square when the image is under 600px wide. | Long cache. Use the Sharing Debugger to scrape again. | |
| Slack | Open Graph, with oEmbed for some domains | Thumbnail beside the text, or a wide image when large enough. | About 30 minutes for most links. |
| Discord | Open Graph, plus theme-color for the card's left border | Wide image below the text. | Short cache, usually minutes. |
| Open Graph | Small square thumbnail in chat; skipped entirely when the file is large. | Cached per device. | |
| iMessage | Open Graph | Large rich link with the image filling the bubble. | Cached on device; a new conversation refetches. |
Text truncation
- Google: roughly 60 characters of title and 155 of description before it trims.
- X: a couple of lines of title, description often hidden entirely on the large card.
- LinkedIn and Facebook: around 100 characters of title, one line of description.
- Slack and Discord: generous, but the first line still carries the message.
These are observed behaviours, not published limits, and platforms change them without notice. Write your first six words so they stand alone.
Forcing a fresh scrape
- Facebook: Sharing Debugger, then Scrape Again.
- LinkedIn: Post Inspector.
- X: repost the link; there is no public purge tool since the validator was retired.
- Slack and Discord: wait out the short cache, or add a harmless query string such as ?v=2.
Sources
Keep going
Now check it on your own site.