Ability to add hyperlinks to private messages

Hi @jillrossco & @Fescholz.

Again sorry for the delay, but it hope it was worth the wait: My colleagues have confirmed to me now that you are able to use hyperlinks in private messages again. Depending on where you want to send a hyperlink, there are two ways how to add a hyperlink.

In a regular private message

You can use bbcode to enter a hyperlink. Simply use this format and it will work:

[url="https://google.com"]Here's a link[/url]

In a rank up notification

Here you need to use HTML:

<a href="url">link text</a>

Of course I’d like us to make this more straightforward and easier to use in the future, but personally I am quite happy that this has been restored so that we can send better looking private messages again!

Also copying in @Monique & @LPortalupi as I think you will find this relevant and I don’t want you to miss out on it. ;)

@dan_at_community @Sairam FYI, you can now add hyperlinks in PMs using bbcode or HTML.

Please-please-please let us add URLs to private messages that will look as hyperlinks right away 

It’s a pain at the moment   

I feel kind of dumb to ask this...but how does the bb code work in a PM? Am I suppose to be able to copy text or use something to add into PM to make it work? Definitely feel like a link feature in PM would be VERY helpful...

I feel kind of dumb to ask this...but how does the bb code work in a PM? Am I suppose to be able to copy text or use something to add into PM to make it work? Definitely feel like a link feature in PM would be VERY helpful…

Just following up (to myself, mostly but in case others find it helpful) that I googled bbcode and it worked in messages. I used: 

[url=”http://linktourl.com] Visit this link[/url]

Hey @Casstastr0phee , thanks for sharing that. Are you using this workaround via the front end ? It doesn’t work for me. 

Hi @Gabolino! 

Yep, I use this in the front end (only in Direct Message) and it works. I made a mistake in my above code by adding a “ in the url (@Julian think you can edit that out?). 

When I need to add a url in a Direct/Private message, I do:

[url=link] words that will be hyperlinked [/url]

Hope that helps! 

@Julian are their plans to provide a better experience soon? found out too late that link don’t go through is a clickable manner :(

@Julian do you know of any updates here? thanks!

@beneditacss I literally just started typing too, just tried the html workaround and it failed (url got broken) because it includes “&” that was translated in the process to ;38 or something. 

the link i was trying to send:

https://www.sysaid.com/video?videoId=qy75jq2lp4&videoChannel=wistia

the link really sent when hyperlinked: 

https://www.sysaid.com/video?videoId=qy75jq2lp4#38;videoChannel=wistia

@Maayan K these workarounds seem to have a lot of nuances. It would be amazing to have it natively accepting URLs 😄  I am new to the platform and as I saw that 2 years ago the status was moved to “Partially delivered” I would love to know if this will move forward or not. Hopefully Julian or other Insider can give us an update 🙏

I have not yet tried the HTML workaround but tried the bbcode and although it worked, I see 2 problems already mentioned:

• the color it does not underline so people might not click on it
• we cannot share the workaround with members who send private messages to each other

Hi @beneditacss! 

Definitely agree that there could be a more elegant solution to this! I know that this doesn’t solve your issue entirely, but a few thoughts: 

• the color it does not underline so people might not click on it
• we cannot share the workaround with members who send private messages to each other

For the first, you could bold or underline the URL text, so that it appears to pop more, and indicate that it’s clickable. 

For the second (again, NOT an elegant solution), you could create a how-to for sending private messages – like...when to use PMs between members, best practices, rules, etc. and include a tutorial for how to create a clickable link.

However, I am curious to know why you might encourage your members to send clickable links to one another? Personally, as a Community Manager, this makes me nervous because it’s harder to control what goes off your community, and potentially puts your members at risk for “bad behavior”, like linking to malicious sites? 

Just chiming in to share that this would be a really helpful improvement. Feels unintuitive and frustrating that URLs aren’t auto-hyperlinked by default, and that you don’t have the same WYSIWYG editor options via PMs that you have in community posts/replies. Thanks for considering!

Hi, wondering why this is parked? This should be out of the box functionality, it is really frustrating we can not hyperlink in private messages. Some of our private messages for that reason will make no sense. Please reconsider, this is a must have for us, as we use private messages actively to engage low touch customers. @olimarrio 

I’m shocked that this idea is still not fully implemented. Gainsight, please please please prioritize this! 

100% agree!