Question: Suppose you have an app with graphical components like this:

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/tSM2b.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/tSM2b.png)

You want to share this with your friend. 

Most apps just send a link.

But suppose you can't send a link (because it is applet based) and you want to add more info than just a link. Will you use HTML5 in the email share to make it more appealing and in context in contrast to just text?

Answer: 
**Sharing with a link is the simplest form to share between apps**. Removing the simplest functionality and adding extra content has some other considerations:

1. **The original app decides which is the content to share**: This only works if you are sending it through an app which allows this kind of content being sent, like an email. What if the user just wants to send a link because he is not satisfied with the content resume you made for him?
2. **The user decides which is the content to share**: This implies that the user is in more control of what to share. Similarly to [Evernote Web clipper](https://evernote.com/intl/es/webclipper/). Now it adds an extra step of an editor. If you want to use an editor, I would still give the user the simple link copy.
3. **The app where it is viewed decides which is the content to share**: Some apps do this such as WhatsApp, when you share a link to a YouTube video, the app adds a thumb image and the title. Will your destination app (email in your case) add anything extra? If so it can be mixed with this point.

Proceed with caution. Check that adding content from your side doesn't conflict with destination app. **Let the user be in control** either letting him remove the extra content or having a simple copy link. Measure the success or failure of the approach.
Personally, I'm very cautious on clicking the links in the emails because of security reasons (phishing, etc.).

Unless your goal is not purely to lure the user into your website, I would present the content in the email directly (technically it can be a dynamically generated image, hot-linked image, HTML5) and making the content itself the link to some more information.

To sum it up:

* your app (where the user needs to register) has the option "Share with friend"
* upon clicking you can chose friend's email from your contacts
* an email is sent from a central server and you hope it doesn't end in the recipient's spam box
* the recipients receives a neat email titled "AsafBO shared the weather with you" and the picture and "...more weather..." click prompt.

In such case the link would not diminish my cautiousness on clicking the links in the emails, but I would value the service for sending some information anyway and not being "click or you get nothing" type.