Remove built-in YouTube link previews#138
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RankoR
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Jun 9, 2026
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@thomasbuilds it should be configurable in settings (off by default), not fully removed
I suggest adding a sub-screen - "Privacy" and add it there as a toggle, with a short description that enabling it may reduce privacy
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I don't see any reason to special-case this third-party website? |
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@thomasbuilds it might be extended to other services in the future, especially if we manage to make RCS work one day. Plus, it's a pre-existing and compact (in terms of LoC) feature that improves UX (for those who want to keep it turned on), there's no reason to remove it if it will be opt-in. But I agree that having it on by default (especially without the ability to turn it off) is a privacy issue. |
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The conversation screen special-cases YouTube links. When a message contains a
youtube.comoryoutu.beURL, it renders an inline preview whose thumbnail is auto-fetched fromhttps://img.youtube.comas soon as the conversation is viewed. This happens with no tap and for received messages too, so merely opening a conversation that contains a YouTube link discloses the viewer's IP address and read time to Google, with no opt-out. YouTube is the only special-cased host (there is no generic link-preview mechanism); the logic is a leftover from the legacy AOSPYouTubeUtil.This removes the feature so the app never fetches remote content from message content. Links stay fully tappable via the existing on-device
TextClassifierlink handling, which is unchanged.