Link sharing is a very common practice in the workplace, especially in the hybrid workplace. For example, you can share a link to a Power BI dashboard with a team member, or a link to an external website where the entire team needs to sign up.

A simple URL is usually pretty plain and unconventional, so Microsoft is currently testing a feature in Outlook called link expansion.

Link opening popped up in Teams a few months ago. This allows URLs to display richer, actionable preview cards. For this to work for app references, developers need to update their app’s manifest with some minor changes. Meanwhile, for other links, such as those pointing to websites, web authors should use schema.org’s structured metadata and tags for their websites. The same UX enhancement is now available to some users in Outlook.

Expanding links offers a number of benefits, including clarity, providing context, and allowing recipients to take action directly from the card preview instead of opening the link. You can see this in action in the demo below, where the buyer can see more information about their order via a link, as well as change the order quantity without opening the URL in a special browser tab:

Link deployment in Outlook is currently available in public preview for Microsoft 365 Targeted Release program or Office Insiders program members who have installed Outlook for Windows from the beta channel. Just a few days ago, Microsoft started rolling out the new Outlook for Windows to all Office reviewers. Source