How do you make it possible to share your content directly via instant messenger apps?
A lot of content is nowadays shared not only through Facebook, Twitter…, but also in private chat conversations in one of the different messenger apps for smartphones.
So it makes sense to remind the readers of your blog or visitors of your website about these options. Most messenger apps provide an URL or URI scheme to easily set up a predefined message. So the only thing your reader has to do is click a link or button to share your content in their favorite messaging app.
Table of Contents
Add to your website
All messengers in this post provide a simple URL where you have to change something. The beauty of this is that you don’t need to add some Javascript code or image to your site, you need to set a link. So you have the freedom to decide how to embed this. For example as a simple text link or a share button. If you want you can put some more time in and add the option, that the messenger link is only displayed if it is viewed on a mobile device or in a certain country.
The downside of this is that you don’t get any statistics or numbers out of the box, how often your content was shared. But you also don’t need to worry about privacy and GDPR.
Messengers
You can add all the links to your website. The {Replace} you need to exchange for your desired content, link or message. You also need to replace the {}. Keep in mind to use only URL-encoded text.
Wrong
You should read this article - https://viarami.com/programming/messenger-url-schemes/
Right
You+should+read+this+article+-+https%3A%2F%2Fviarami.com%2Fprogramming%2Fmessenger-url-schemes%2F
WhatsApp Messenger / WhatsApp is a free messenger and is owned by Facebook. It offers applications for Android, iOS, macOS and a has a web app.
The user base exceeds 2 billion users worldwide and has become the main means of communication in many countries and places, including large parts of Europe and Africa, Latin America, the Indian subcontinent.
You can not only define a message but also a phone number. The message will be sent to this phone number. This option makes sense if you want to get contacted by the person.
The link works on mobile and on the desktop.
Code
Text message
https://wa.me/?text={Replace}
Text message to a certain number
https://wa.me/{Replace phone number}?text={Replace}
Facebook Messenger
Facebook Messenger is a messaging platform by Facebook. It was created in 2008 as Facebook Chat. Facebook offers it for Android, iOS, Windows 10, macOS and as a browser version. Messenger has a user base in the billions.
I couldn’t find a way to create a link that creates a message and let the user choose the recipient, at least under Android, for Facebook messenger.
Code
Start chat with your Facebook page
http://m.me/{Replace page pame}
Line
Line is a app from the Line Corporation. It originated from Japan in the year 2011 and has now more than 700 million users. It is popular in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and other countries in Asia. But also has quite a lot users in India and Spain.
Send message
https://line.me/R/msg/text/?{Replace}
Send message to a specific Line user
https://line.me/R/oaMessage/{Replace LINE ID}/?{Replace}
Tencent QQ
Tencent QQ is a messaging software for the Chinese company Tencent. It is available for Android, Windows and iOS. In China it has millions of users.
Code
Send link with title and summary
https://connect.qq.com/widget/shareqq/index.html?url={REPLACE}&title={Replace title}&summary={Replace summary}
Telegram
Telegram is a messaging software. It has clients for Android, iOS, Windows, macOS and Linux. It was launched in 2013 by Nikolai and Pavel Durov, the founders of the “Russian Facebook” VK, and has currently more than 400 million users.
Telegram offers a good URL scheme to create your own share buttons.
https://t.me/share/url?url={Replace URL}&text={REPLACE text}
Threema
Threema is a messenger developed by the Swiss company Threema GmbH. It puts a special focus on security. The paid app is available for Android and iOS. There is also an app for the browser available. In April 2017 Threema had around 4,5 million users. It’s main user base is in German speaking countries.
Threema offers URL actions for opening a chat, but this is only possible to a pre-defined user ID.
Code
Send message to a specific ID
https://threema.id/{Replace User ID}?text={REPLACE}
Zalo
Zalo is a messaging app from the Vietnamese company VNG Corporation. It is available for Android and iOS and popular in Vietnam.
Zalo currently not offering a deep link scheme to create messages.
Signal
Signal is an messaging service developed by the Signal Foundation and Signal Messenger LLC. IT has apps for Android, iOS and desktop. The software is open-source and has a focus on privacy and security.
Signal currently not offers an URL scheme to send messages.
Kik
Kik Messenger is a messenger by the Canadian company Kik Interactive. It is free for Android and iOS.
According to my research there is currently no working URL scheme for Kik.
WeChat or 微信 /Wēixìn) is a messaging and social media app from China. It is as same as QQ also developed by Tencent. WeChat is not only used for communication but also for payments. It has over 1 billion monthly users and is available for Android, iOS and Desktop.
WeChat currently doesn’t offer an URL scheme to create a message and send it to a user. What you can do is create an button that let’s the user copy your desired message or link to their clipboard and then a second button that opens WeChat. The URI for this is weixin://.
Skype
Skype is mainly used for video chat and audio calls. The 16-year-old company, now owned by Microsoft, also has a text message feature.
According to my research, Skype does not offer a simple link to share content. However, you can have a share button created on the website. But for the integration you have to load CSS and JS content from Skype.
Updates
If there are any new updates, that are not reflected in this article, or you have any other feedback, let me know.