Sharing a chat sends empty content to WhatsApp/email/Snapchat

Category: Bugs Priority: P2 Severity: minor Area: sharing Reports: 3 Status: Open

Summary: Three users across at least two months report that the chat share button produces an empty payload: WhatsApp either does nothing or rejects it with the toast "can't send empty message", Snapchat opens with an empty chat box, and choosing email opens Gmail/Mail with no message or link pasted. The share intent/activity is apparently being fired without the chat-link text attached. Beyond breaking the app's word-of-mouth loop, it also blocks the support workflow: Abdellatif routinely asks users for a shared-chat link to debug AI answers, and in one thread (Sino, June) the user could not send the link precisely because share-via-email pasted nothing, forcing a screen recording instead. Confirmed on Android by two reporters; the June report's platform is unstated (classified iOS), so both platforms should be checked.

What users say

mehmet zengin ertugrulzengin92@gmail.com — 2026-08-14, English, 19ffeb80070bfa23 — Abdellatif replied: yes

On Android, tapping WhatsApp in the share sheet does nothing, and the email option opens the Gmail app with no message or link included. Abdellatif said he'll work on fixing it.

when i click Whatsapp it doesn't work then I tried email and ther was no message or link it opened the gmail app I'm on android

Jonas Hansen johanx36912@gmail.com — 2026-08-05, English, 19fd3d5699d5c875 — Abdellatif replied: yes

Cannot share a Qaf chat: sharing to a specific WhatsApp chat or to WhatsApp in general errors with "can't send empty message", and Snapchat opens with an empty chat box. He followed up with a screenshot of the error toast and a step-by-step description.

When I try to use the share button and choose a specific WhatsApp chat or WhatsApp in general I get the error message "can't send empty message" and on Snapchat it just opens the chat but the chat box is empty.

Sino Mukhamedov mukhamedovsino@gmail.com — 2026-06-13, English, 19ebd3ff674492eb — Abdellatif replied: yes

While trying to send Abdellatif the link to a chat where the AI misquoted a hadith (the primary topic of the thread — wrong Arabic vowel markings/i'rab, tracked separately under ai-answers), he found the share button broken: share → email pasted nothing into the message, so he resorted to a screen recording.

I couldn't share the chat I don't know why I clicked on the share button and then email but he didn't paste anything, could you open the recording?

Details / repro

• Repro (Jonas, Android): open a chat → tap the share button in the top right → system share sheet opens → pick a WhatsApp contact → share sheet closes and a toast at the bottom shows "can't send empty message". Screenshot of the toast attached in thread 19fd3d5699d5c875 (share button circled in red).
• Same behavior variants: WhatsApp target silently does nothing (mehmet), Snapchat opens with an empty chat box (Jonas), email/Gmail opens a compose window with empty body — no message or link (mehmet, Sino).
• Two reporters explicitly on Android; Sino's device is not stated in the email (member data classifies it as iOS) — verify the share payload on both platforms.
• Oldest report is 2026-06-13, newest 2026-08-14: the bug has persisted through at least two months and multiple app updates.
• Likely cause: the share intent / activity items are populated without the chat URL text (e.g. empty EXTRA_TEXT / activityItems).

Threads

• 19ffeb80070bfa23 — mehmet zengin: WhatsApp share does nothing, email opens Gmail with no message/link (Android)
• 19fd3d5699d5c875 — Jonas Hansen: WhatsApp "can't send empty message", Snapchat opens empty (screenshot of toast)
• 19ebd3ff674492eb — Sino Mukhamedov: share-via-email pasted nothing while reporting a hadith-citation bug