When I text only a functional .onion URL to an iMessage recipient, Apple is somehow able to add the correct favicon/apple-touch-icon to the message despite the fact that the content should not be accessible at all to anyone when I’m connected to my provider or my home WiFi.
What have I missed here?
No. But even if it is, how would the icon appear if I have never visited the .onion site?
You don’t mean like a pre-existing list of potential .onion sites that iOS users may one day visit, right?
I can’t say for sure, but I message could easily visit the website to get the icon. This is how signal works when you send a website, it visits the website to also share the website name and a screenshot.
This is exactly how Apple and almost all messaging apps work for almost all
http:andhttps:. But there are no Apple-developed TOR-protocol products.Apple has easy access to Google’s icon if I message a link to, say,
https://google.com/; how can Apple emulate that behavior if I message a link tohttp://fully-functional-domain-with-identifiable-branding.onion/?