Why the share preview shows old text or an old photo

Messenger, Zalo and others cache link previews. If you change a name, a date or the cover photo after sharing, the old preview card can keep showing.

This is not a fault in your invitation. The card itself updates much sooner than the preview does.

Before worrying, copy the link from the Share button and open it directly in a browser.

If the page shows your new content, the invitation is fine and only the chat preview is stale. If you do not see the change yet, wait a moment and reload the page.

The editor has a section just for the social share preview. This is the picture that appears beside the link in a chat bubble.

Pick a photo where your faces are clear and there is no small text. The preview is scaled down a lot, so fine print will not be readable.

The old preview is already baked into the message you sent, and it will not change by itself. Sending the same link again does not replace it: anyone who already has the link keeps the old picture, and in several apps a fresh message with the same link comes out with the same old frame.

What works is a link the app has never seen. Add ?s=2 to the end of your link and send that one instead, for example chungdoi.com/i/your-card?s=2. It opens exactly the same invitation, but it is a new address, so the app has to go and fetch the picture again. Paste it, wait until the picture appears above the message box, and only then tap send: sent too early, it goes out as a bare link again.

Add it once. If the new link still comes out without a picture, message our support chat rather than trying ?s=3 or ?s=4: a bigger number does nothing the first one did not.

WhatsApp keeps the preview on the sender's phone, tied to that exact link. Sending the same link again from that phone shows the same old frame, even to someone who has never received your invitation.

So sending it to a new person proves nothing on WhatsApp. The thing that has to be new is the link: add ?s=2 to the end of it and send that from your phone, not from WhatsApp Web.

If you sent the old link from another device and the picture appeared straight away, that is the same thing seen from the other side: that phone had nothing stored yet. It is not a second problem.

Every guest gets their own link, and to a chat app each personal link is a brand new address. The first time you send one, the app still has to go and fetch the picture, so the message can show just the bare link.

This is not the same as a stale preview: the app has no picture for that link yet, rather than an old one it is holding on to. In Messenger and Zalo, wait a moment, then send that same link again in a new message and the picture usually appears. Nothing is wrong with the invitation: tap the link and everything is there.

On WhatsApp that does not help, for the reason above. Add ?s=2 to the end of that personal link and send the new link from your phone.

The main invitation link is prepared before you share it for the first time, so it usually shows a picture straight away. Personal guest links are not prepared in advance, because every guest has a different link.

On a computer (messenger.com or facebook.com), Messenger often sends the link as plain text with no picture, title or description, while the same link sent from the Messenger app on a phone shows the full card. It can even differ by thread: a group chat shows the preview and a private chat does not.

This is how Messenger behaves on a computer, not a fault in your invitation. When it happens, the card and the picture are still correct; opening the link proves it.

The reliable way is to send from the Messenger app on your phone.

Finish the names, date, venue and cover photo before you share for the first time. The preview is built the first time the link goes out.

If you do need to edit after sending to a few people, go ahead. In Messenger and Zalo, only those who already received the link see the old preview, and anyone you send it to afterwards gets the new one. On WhatsApp your own phone still holds the old picture for that link, so send the ?s= link from the section above.