Under macOS, iPadOS and iOS, Apple is trying to make the formatting of links richer. You can see this especially in the Messages app, when you receive a link in it, the content is more or less displayed. This is also the case with previews of URLs in Mail.
When you add a link to an email in Mail, it will automatically be converted into a rich preview. This is clearer for the sender, but also for the recipient. However, this formatting can be annoying and if desired, you can disable the preview of links for Mail.
Disable preview links Mail
- Open Mail for Mac
- Navigate to the menu bar and click on ‘Mail’
- Select ‘Settings’
- Open the ‘Compose’ tab
- Disable the ‘Add link previews’ option
On an iPhone or iPad you can turn this off via Settings ▸ Mail ▸ Turn off the ‘Add link previews’ option
Now when you add a link to an email message it will no longer be displayed richly, but as a regular link. The recipient will also receive it as a regular text url and not with an image.
Only for Apple
It is good to realize that richly formatted links are only displayed on Apple devices that support this display, such as an iPhone, iPad or Mac. Are you sending the email to a Windows user? Then they will most likely receive the email with a regular link instead of a preview.