diff --git a/ts/components/GroupDescriptionText.tsx b/ts/components/GroupDescriptionText.tsx
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..b1eff4a9492
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ts/components/GroupDescriptionText.tsx
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+// Copyright 2021 Signal Messenger, LLC
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: AGPL-3.0-only
+
+import React, { FunctionComponent } from 'react';
+import { RenderTextCallbackType } from '../types/Util';
+import { AddNewLines } from './conversation/AddNewLines';
+import { Emojify } from './conversation/Emojify';
+import { Linkify } from './conversation/Linkify';
+
+type PropsType = {
+  text: string;
+};
+
+const renderNonLink: RenderTextCallbackType = ({ key, text }) => (
+  <Emojify key={key} text={text} />
+);
+
+const renderNonNewLine: RenderTextCallbackType = ({ key, text }) => (
+  <Linkify key={key} text={text} renderNonLink={renderNonLink} />
+);
+
+export const GroupDescriptionText: FunctionComponent<PropsType> = ({
+  text,
+}) => <AddNewLines text={text} renderNonNewLine={renderNonNewLine} />;
diff --git a/ts/components/conversation/GroupDescription.stories.tsx b/ts/components/conversation/GroupDescription.stories.tsx
index f9aa74d646b..7817b88236b 100644
--- a/ts/components/conversation/GroupDescription.stories.tsx
+++ b/ts/components/conversation/GroupDescription.stories.tsx
@@ -30,3 +30,37 @@ story.add('Long', () => (
     })}
   />
 ));
+
+story.add('With newlines', () => (
+  <GroupDescription
+    {...createProps({
+      text: 'This is long\n\nSo many lines\n\nToo many lines?',
+    })}
+  />
+));
+
+story.add('With emoji', () => (
+  <GroupDescription
+    {...createProps({
+      text: '🍒🍩🌭',
+    })}
+  />
+));
+
+story.add('With link', () => (
+  <GroupDescription
+    {...createProps({
+      text:
+        'I love https://example.com and http://example.com and example.com, but not https://user:bar@example.com',
+    })}
+  />
+));
+
+story.add('Kitchen sink', () => (
+  <GroupDescription
+    {...createProps({
+      text:
+        '🍒 https://example.com this is a long thing\nhttps://example.com on another line\nhttps://example.com',
+    })}
+  />
+));
diff --git a/ts/components/conversation/GroupDescription.tsx b/ts/components/conversation/GroupDescription.tsx
index f58ce93557a..dc1b19038d8 100644
--- a/ts/components/conversation/GroupDescription.tsx
+++ b/ts/components/conversation/GroupDescription.tsx
@@ -1,10 +1,14 @@
 // Copyright 2021 Signal Messenger, LLC
 // SPDX-License-Identifier: AGPL-3.0-only
 
-import React, { useEffect, useRef, useState } from 'react';
+import React, { useLayoutEffect, useRef, useState } from 'react';
 import { Modal } from '../Modal';
 import { LocalizerType } from '../../types/Util';
-import { AddNewLines } from './AddNewLines';
+import { GroupDescriptionText } from '../GroupDescriptionText';
+
+// Emojification can cause the scroll height to be *slightly* larger than the client
+//   height, so we add a little wiggle room.
+const SHOW_READ_MORE_THRESHOLD = 5;
 
 export type PropsType = {
   i18n: LocalizerType;
@@ -21,13 +25,16 @@ export const GroupDescription = ({
   const [hasReadMore, setHasReadMore] = useState(false);
   const [showFullDescription, setShowFullDescription] = useState(false);
 
-  useEffect(() => {
+  useLayoutEffect(() => {
     if (!textRef || !textRef.current) {
       return;
     }
 
-    setHasReadMore(textRef.current.scrollHeight > textRef.current.clientHeight);
-  }, [setHasReadMore, textRef]);
+    setHasReadMore(
+      textRef.current.scrollHeight - SHOW_READ_MORE_THRESHOLD >
+        textRef.current.clientHeight
+    );
+  }, [setHasReadMore, text, textRef]);
 
   return (
     <>
@@ -38,11 +45,11 @@ export const GroupDescription = ({
           onClose={() => setShowFullDescription(false)}
           title={title}
         >
-          <AddNewLines text={text} />
+          <GroupDescriptionText text={text} />
         </Modal>
       )}
       <div className="GroupDescription__text" ref={textRef}>
-        {text}
+        <GroupDescriptionText text={text} />
       </div>
       {hasReadMore && (
         <button
diff --git a/ts/components/conversation/GroupV2Change.stories.tsx b/ts/components/conversation/GroupV2Change.stories.tsx
index bac1f2a711c..8b5b5e6602c 100644
--- a/ts/components/conversation/GroupV2Change.stories.tsx
+++ b/ts/components/conversation/GroupV2Change.stories.tsx
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-// Copyright 2020 Signal Messenger, LLC
+// Copyright 2020-2021 Signal Messenger, LLC
 // SPDX-License-Identifier: AGPL-3.0-only
 
 /* eslint-disable-next-line max-classes-per-file */
@@ -1368,7 +1368,7 @@ storiesOf('Components/Conversation/GroupV2Change', module)
               {
                 type: 'description',
                 description:
-                  'This is a long description.\n\nWe need a dialog to view it all!',
+                  'This is a long description.\n\nWe need a dialog to view it all!\n\nIt has a link to https://example.com',
               },
             ],
           },
@@ -1381,7 +1381,7 @@ storiesOf('Components/Conversation/GroupV2Change', module)
               {
                 type: 'description',
                 description:
-                  'This is a long description.\n\nWe need a dialog to view it all!',
+                  'This is a long description.\n\nWe need a dialog to view it all!\n\nIt has a link to https://example.com',
               },
             ],
           },
@@ -1393,7 +1393,7 @@ storiesOf('Components/Conversation/GroupV2Change', module)
               {
                 type: 'description',
                 description:
-                  'This is a long description.\n\nWe need a dialog to view it all!',
+                  'This is a long description.\n\nWe need a dialog to view it all!\n\nIt has a link to https://example.com',
               },
             ],
           },
diff --git a/ts/components/conversation/GroupV2Change.tsx b/ts/components/conversation/GroupV2Change.tsx
index 2c44def4bc0..c8b6dad97bb 100644
--- a/ts/components/conversation/GroupV2Change.tsx
+++ b/ts/components/conversation/GroupV2Change.tsx
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-// Copyright 2020 Signal Messenger, LLC
+// Copyright 2020-2021 Signal Messenger, LLC
 // SPDX-License-Identifier: AGPL-3.0-only
 
 import React, { ReactElement, useState } from 'react';
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ import React, { ReactElement, useState } from 'react';
 import { ReplacementValuesType } from '../../types/I18N';
 import { FullJSXType, Intl } from '../Intl';
 import { LocalizerType } from '../../types/Util';
-import { AddNewLines } from './AddNewLines';
+import { GroupDescriptionText } from '../GroupDescriptionText';
 import { Button, ButtonSize, ButtonVariant } from '../Button';
 
 import { GroupV2ChangeType, GroupV2DescriptionChangeType } from '../../groups';
@@ -55,10 +55,10 @@ export function GroupV2Change(props: PropsType): ReactElement {
     setIsGroupDescriptionDialogOpen,
   ] = useState<boolean>(false);
 
-  const groupDescriptionChange = change.details.find(
+  const newGroupDescription = change.details.find(
     (item): item is GroupV2DescriptionChangeType =>
       Boolean(item.type === 'description' && item.description)
-  );
+  )?.description;
 
   return (
     <div className="module-group-v2-change">
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ export function GroupV2Change(props: PropsType): ReactElement {
         // eslint-disable-next-line react/no-array-index-key
         <div key={index}>{item}</div>
       ))}
-      {groupDescriptionChange ? (
+      {newGroupDescription ? (
         <div className="module-group-v2-change--button-container">
           <Button
             size={ButtonSize.Small}
@@ -86,14 +86,14 @@ export function GroupV2Change(props: PropsType): ReactElement {
           </Button>
         </div>
       ) : null}
-      {groupDescriptionChange && isGroupDescriptionDialogOpen ? (
+      {newGroupDescription && isGroupDescriptionDialogOpen ? (
         <Modal
           hasXButton
           i18n={i18n}
           title={groupName}
           onClose={() => setIsGroupDescriptionDialogOpen(false)}
         >
-          <AddNewLines text={groupDescriptionChange.description} />
+          <GroupDescriptionText text={newGroupDescription} />
         </Modal>
       ) : null}
     </div>
diff --git a/ts/components/conversation/conversation-details/ConversationDetailsHeader.tsx b/ts/components/conversation/conversation-details/ConversationDetailsHeader.tsx
index 7d8533a3b6a..2800d54f48f 100644
--- a/ts/components/conversation/conversation-details/ConversationDetailsHeader.tsx
+++ b/ts/components/conversation/conversation-details/ConversationDetailsHeader.tsx
@@ -79,6 +79,10 @@ export const ConversationDetailsHeader: React.ComponentType<Props> = ({
         <button
           type="button"
           onClick={ev => {
+            if (ev.target instanceof HTMLAnchorElement) {
+              return;
+            }
+
             ev.preventDefault();
             ev.stopPropagation();
             startEditing(false);