Fetches link previews when a URL is shared in a WhatsApp chat.
| robots.txt token | WhatsApp |
| Respects robots.txt | Treats shares as user-triggered fetches |
| Verification | Fetches originate from Meta infrastructure or the sender's device |
| Our recommendation | Allow — The world's biggest messenger rendering your links properly is pure upside. |
Block WhatsApp with robots.txt
User-agent: WhatsApp
Disallow: /robots.txt is a request, not a wall — requests claiming to be WhatsApp from unverified networks should be treated as bad bots. How to verify crawlers by network →
See every WhatsApp request hitting your site — live, with per-bot allow / block / tarpit controls. Try TrafficDATA free (100K page views)