Links and the in-app browser
Links in messages show previews, and on iPhone and Android they open in DonutChat’s in-app browser, where you can send a page or passage to a chat and highlight text to keep.
Link previews
Section titled “Link previews”When a message contains a link, DonutChat shows a preview:
- One link: a card with the page’s image, site name, title, a short description and the domain. Select the card to open the link.
- Video links from YouTube, Vimeo and TikTok: a video card with a play button.
- DonutChat invite links: an invite card with Join Chat, or Already Joined if you’re already in the chat.
- Two or more links: a compact list of the first two links. Select, for example, 3 more links to see them all and Show fewer links to collapse the list. Each row opens its own link.
If the sender hid the previews, nobody in the chat sees them.
The desktop app shows only the previews that were included when the message was sent, so some links appear without one. In the desktop app, longer lists of links collapse after two; click, for example, Show 3 more to expand the list and Show less to collapse it.
In the web app, some links may appear without a preview.
Hide link previews
Section titled “Hide link previews”On iPhone, Android and the web app, you can send a message without its link previews.
- Type or paste a link. Above the message box, DonutChat shows how many links the message has (for example, 1 link) and a preview of the first one when it’s available.
- To send without previews, select × (Hide all link previews). To bring them back, select Show link previews.
How links open
Section titled “How links open”| App | What happens when you open a link |
|---|---|
| iPhone and Android | If an app on your phone handles that exact link, such as the site’s own app, the link opens there. Otherwise it opens in the in-app browser. Links to X open in the X app or your phone’s browser, and DonutChat links, such as invite links, open in DonutChat. |
| Desktop | The link opens in your default browser. Only links that start with https:// are clickable in messages. |
| Web | The link opens in a new browser tab. |
On iPhone and Android, links you open from Chat info > Shared content > Links open in your phone’s browser instead of the in-app browser. Articles you open from Discover follow the same rules as links in messages.
Use the in-app browser
Section titled “Use the in-app browser”On iPhone and Android, the in-app browser shows the page title and has these buttons in its toolbar:
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Back, Forward | Move between the pages you’ve visited. |
| Reload | Load the page again. |
| Bookmark | Bookmark the page itself (rather than a passage) in Bookmarks. You’ll see “Page bookmarked”. |
| Share | Open Share to Chat to send the page to a chat or copy its link. |
| Open in Browser | Open the page in your phone’s browser. |
Saving a page you’ve already saved keeps a single bookmark for it. The Bookmark button doesn’t show whether you saved the page on an earlier visit.
If a page tries to open another app, DonutChat asks first. Tap Open App to continue, or Cancel to stay in the browser.
Send a page or passage to a chat
Section titled “Send a page or passage to a chat”- To send the whole page, tap Share in the toolbar. To send a passage, select text on the page, tap the + button that appears, then tap Send to Chat.
- In Share to Chat, find a chat in the list or with Search chats….
- Tap the chat. DonutChat sends right away, with no further confirmation, and shows “Sent to” with the chat’s name.
A page is sent as its title and link, and a passage is sent as a quote with the page’s link. To copy the page’s link instead, tap Copy link in Share to Chat.
Highlight text
Section titled “Highlight text”- Select text on a page and tap the + button that appears.
- Tap Bookmark. The passage is highlighted in yellow and saved to your bookmarks. You’ll see “Bookmark saved”.
To change a highlight, tap it on the page:
- Color: switch between Yellow, Green, Blue and Red.
- Share: send the highlighted text and the page’s link to a chat.
- Delete: remove the highlight. If it’s the last one on the page, choose Keep Bookmark to keep the page saved or Delete All to remove the page’s bookmark too.
When you reopen the page in the in-app browser, your highlights appear again, and opening a web bookmark with Open in Browser also scrolls to the highlight. If the page has changed a lot since you saved it, some highlights may not reappear.
Your highlights are listed in Bookmarks on every platform, but only iPhone and Android can add highlights or show them on the page.