New Outlook no longer shows preview cards when you paste a web link
Reviewed by Helen Jones
Microsoft has retired the link preview feature in new Outlook for Windows and Outlook on the web. When you insert or paste a web address into an email, Outlook no longer builds a visual preview card. The address stays a normal clickable link. The change is already live worldwide, including GCC, GCC High, and DoD, according to Message Center item MC1479516 published on 25 September 2026. Microsoft said administrators do not need to do anything, but should tell people who compose mail. Classic Outlook is not part of this retirement. Existing hyperlinks still work. Microsoft did not offer a replacement preview surface.
In new Outlook and Outlook on the web, pasting a URL used to produce a small card with a title and thumbnail. That card did some of the explaining for you. Recipients could see what the page was without reading the raw address, and senders often treated the paste as finished work. That automatic card is gone. A pasted link now looks like any other underlined text. Messages that used to feel complete after a paste can now look sparse, especially in busy inboxes where people scan rather than click. The rest of your mail workflow is unchanged, but the compose habit of 'paste and send' no longer carries a visual cue.
Analysis
This is a small composing change, not a reason to switch clients or rebuild rules. Before you send the next mail that depends on a pasted URL, add one plain sentence naming the page and why the reader should open it, so the link still earns a click without the old card.
Source note
Pulse published by Collab365 Spaces, reviewed by Helen Jones on . Cite as "New Outlook no longer shows preview cards when you paste a web link", Collab365 Spaces. 1 source referenced.