SkypeUriPreview user agent
Operated by Microsoft
SkypeUriPreview is the Microsoft fetcher that builds link previews in Skype and Microsoft Teams chats.
The SkypeUriPreview bot at a glance
- SkypeUriPreview is operated by Microsoft and reads page titles, descriptions and images to build link previews.
- The robots.txt token for SkypeUriPreview is SkypeUriPreview.
- Blocking a social preview bot has no effect on search rankings.
- SkypeUriPreview robots.txt support: Not documented.
- Recommendation for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): Allow.
What is SkypeUriPreview?
SkypeUriPreview reads a shared page’s title, description and image for the preview card.
Microsoft has not published a crawler page for this user agent.
Should you block SkypeUriPreview?
Allow SkypeUriPreview unless it causes a measurable load problem.
| Effect on search rankings | Blocking a social preview bot has no effect on search rankings. |
|---|---|
| Effect on AI visibility | No direct effect on AI answers, but shared links lose their title, image and description, which usually lowers clicks from social and chat apps. |
| Follows robots.txt | Not documented |
| Recommendation | Allow |
How to block or allow SkypeUriPreview
Put the robots.txt rule in the file at the root of every domain and subdomain, for example https://example.com/robots.txt. The token SkypeUriPreview is matched case-insensitively. robots.txt alone may not stop SkypeUriPreview, so add the Nginx, Apache or Cloudflare rule as well.
robots.txt: block
# Block SkypeUriPreview
User-agent: SkypeUriPreview
Disallow: /robots.txt: allow
# Allow SkypeUriPreview
User-agent: SkypeUriPreview
Allow: /robots.txt: partial
# Keep SkypeUriPreview out of private areas only
User-agent: SkypeUriPreview
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /my-account/
Allow: /Nginx
# Nginx: return 403 to SkypeUriPreview
if ($http_user_agent ~* "(SkypeUriPreview)") {
return 403;
}Apache
# Apache .htaccess: return 403 to SkypeUriPreview
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} (SkypeUriPreview) [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]Cloudflare WAF
# Cloudflare > Security > WAF > Custom rule, action: Block
(http.user_agent contains "SkypeUriPreview")How to verify real SkypeUriPreview traffic
Microsoft publishes no IP list or reverse DNS pattern for SkypeUriPreview, so the user agent cannot be verified. Anyone can send the same string. Rate-limit unusual volume instead of trusting the name.
How to find SkypeUriPreview in your server logs
Search the web server access log for the token. The command below counts SkypeUriPreview requests per URL on Nginx or Apache.
grep -i "SkypeUriPreview" access.log | awk '{print $7}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -20For a full report per AI bot, upload the log to the AI Log File Analyzer, a free tool by Justin Hà.
SkypeUriPreview user agent string
The full user agent Microsoft publishes for SkypeUriPreview. Version numbers such as Chrome/W.X.Y.Z change over time, so match the token, not the whole string.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64) SkypeUriPreview Preview/0.5SkypeUriPreview FAQ
SkypeUriPreview identifies itself with the robots.txt token "SkypeUriPreview". A typical request header reads: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64) SkypeUriPreview Preview/0.5
Microsoft has not documented how SkypeUriPreview treats robots.txt. Add a robots.txt rule and back it with a server rule if the traffic matters to you.
Blocking a social preview bot has no effect on search rankings. No direct effect on AI answers, but shared links lose their title, image and description, which usually lowers clicks from social and chat apps.
Add two lines to the robots.txt file at the root of each domain and subdomain: "User-agent: SkypeUriPreview" followed by "Disallow: /". The token is case-insensitive. Changes can take up to 24 hours to be picked up.
Not reliably. Microsoft publishes no IP list or reverse DNS pattern for SkypeUriPreview, so anyone can send the same user agent. Rate-limit unusual volume instead of trusting the name.
Search your server access log for "SkypeUriPreview", for example with: grep -i "SkypeUriPreview" access.log. The AI Log File Analyzer by Justin Hà counts visits per AI bot from an uploaded log file.
Sources: Public bot registry. Last reviewed by Justin Hà.
See which of these bots actually reach your website
The AI Log File Analyzer by Justin Hà counts visits from GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and other AI crawlers in your server log, for free. The GEO Technical Package sets up robots.txt, llms.txt and crawler access for AI search.
