When sending a website link to a WhatsApp Channel using WAHA, the link preview is rendered incorrectly.
On Android, the preview image is displayed but it is very blurred / low quality.
On iPhone (iOS), the preview title and description are displayed correctly, but the image area is completely white.
The exact same URL, when manually pasted into the WhatsApp Channel using the official WhatsApp application, generates a perfect preview on both Android and iPhone.
This makes me think the problem is related to how WAHA generates or sends the link preview.
Version
{
"version": "2026.6.2",
"engine": "WEBJS",
"tier": "CORE"
}
Steps
Install WAHA WEBJS 2026.6.2 CORE on Raspberry Pi 4.
Run it in Docker using Portainer inside Home Assistant OS.
Connect a WhatsApp account.
Create a WhatsApp Channel.
Send a message containing only a website URL (or text + URL) using the sendText endpoint.
Open the channel on:
Android
iPhone
Expected behavior
The link preview should be identical to the one generated by the official WhatsApp application.
High-quality preview image.
Same preview on Android and iPhone.
No white image on iOS.
Actual behavior
Using WAHA:
Android: preview image is visible but blurred.
iPhone: preview title and description are visible, but the preview image is completely white.
Using the official WhatsApp application:
Android: preview is correct.
iPhone: preview is correct.
So the problem only occurs with messages sent by WAHA.
Requests - Responses
Request:
POST /api/sendText
Payload:
{
"chatId": "120363xxxxxxxxx@newsletter",
"session": "default",
"text": "New article:\n\nhttps://www.example.com/article",
"linkPreview": true,
"linkPreviewHighQuality": true
}
Response:
{
"id": "...",
"ack": 0
}
The message is delivered successfully.
Docker Logs
No errors are reported.
The message is sent successfully and the link preview is generated, but it is rendered differently depending on the client.
Additional context
Environment:
Raspberry Pi 4 (ARM64)
Home Assistant OS
Docker
Portainer
WAHA WEBJS 2026.6.2 CORE
The messages are sent automatically by a Python script that monitors an RSS feed.
The website has valid Open Graph metadata:
og:title
og:description
og:image
The og:image URL is publicly accessible.
I also tested using linkPreview and linkPreviewHighQuality, but the behavior is exactly the same.
The issue only affects messages sent through WAHA. If I manually paste the exact same URL into the WhatsApp Channel using the official WhatsApp client, the preview is displayed correctly on both Android and iPhone.
Question: Is this a known WEBJS limitation for WhatsApp Channels, or could WAHA be missing some metadata (for example thumbnail data, image dimensions, or another field) when generating link previews?
When sending a website link to a WhatsApp Channel using WAHA, the link preview is rendered incorrectly.
On Android, the preview image is displayed but it is very blurred / low quality.
On iPhone (iOS), the preview title and description are displayed correctly, but the image area is completely white.
The exact same URL, when manually pasted into the WhatsApp Channel using the official WhatsApp application, generates a perfect preview on both Android and iPhone.
This makes me think the problem is related to how WAHA generates or sends the link preview.
Version
{
"version": "2026.6.2",
"engine": "WEBJS",
"tier": "CORE"
}
Steps
Install WAHA WEBJS 2026.6.2 CORE on Raspberry Pi 4.
Run it in Docker using Portainer inside Home Assistant OS.
Connect a WhatsApp account.
Create a WhatsApp Channel.
Send a message containing only a website URL (or text + URL) using the sendText endpoint.
Open the channel on:
Android
iPhone
Expected behavior
The link preview should be identical to the one generated by the official WhatsApp application.
High-quality preview image.
Same preview on Android and iPhone.
No white image on iOS.
Actual behavior
Using WAHA:
Android: preview image is visible but blurred.
iPhone: preview title and description are visible, but the preview image is completely white.
Using the official WhatsApp application:
Android: preview is correct.
iPhone: preview is correct.
So the problem only occurs with messages sent by WAHA.
Requests - Responses
Request:
POST /api/sendText
Payload:
{
"chatId": "120363xxxxxxxxx@newsletter",
"session": "default",
"text": "New article:\n\nhttps://www.example.com/article",
"linkPreview": true,
"linkPreviewHighQuality": true
}
Response:
{
"id": "...",
"ack": 0
}
The message is delivered successfully.
Docker Logs
No errors are reported.
The message is sent successfully and the link preview is generated, but it is rendered differently depending on the client.
Additional context
Environment:
Raspberry Pi 4 (ARM64)
Home Assistant OS
Docker
Portainer
WAHA WEBJS 2026.6.2 CORE
The messages are sent automatically by a Python script that monitors an RSS feed.
The website has valid Open Graph metadata:
og:title
og:description
og:image
The og:image URL is publicly accessible.
I also tested using linkPreview and linkPreviewHighQuality, but the behavior is exactly the same.
The issue only affects messages sent through WAHA. If I manually paste the exact same URL into the WhatsApp Channel using the official WhatsApp client, the preview is displayed correctly on both Android and iPhone.
Question: Is this a known WEBJS limitation for WhatsApp Channels, or could WAHA be missing some metadata (for example thumbnail data, image dimensions, or another field) when generating link previews?