diff --git a/lib/widgets/content.dart b/lib/widgets/content.dart
index 5f39808fdf..f8df933967 100644
--- a/lib/widgets/content.dart
+++ b/lib/widgets/content.dart
@@ -749,9 +749,7 @@ class RealmContentNetworkImage extends StatelessWidget {
     this.cacheHeight,
   });
 
-  /// An absolute URL string for the image.
-  // TODO: Take a [Uri] object, not a String
-  final String src;
+  final Uri src;
 
   final double scale;
   final ImageFrameBuilder? frameBuilder;
@@ -780,10 +778,8 @@ class RealmContentNetworkImage extends StatelessWidget {
   Widget build(BuildContext context) {
     final account = PerAccountStoreWidget.of(context).account;
 
-    final Uri parsedSrc = Uri.parse(src);
-
     return Image.network(
-      parsedSrc.toString(),
+      src.toString(),
 
       scale: scale,
       frameBuilder: frameBuilder,
@@ -806,7 +802,7 @@ class RealmContentNetworkImage extends StatelessWidget {
       isAntiAlias: isAntiAlias,
 
       // Only send the auth header to the server `auth` belongs to.
-      headers: parsedSrc.origin == account.realmUrl.origin
+      headers: src.origin == account.realmUrl.origin
         ? authHeader(email: account.email, apiKey: account.apiKey)
         : null,
 
@@ -823,10 +819,9 @@ class RealmContentNetworkImage extends StatelessWidget {
 /// Resolve `url` to `account`'s realm, if relative
 // This may dissolve when we start passing around URLs as [Uri] objects instead
 // of strings.
-String resolveUrl(String url, Account account) {
+Uri resolveUrl(String url, Account account) {
   final realmUrl = account.realmUrl;
-  final resolved = realmUrl.resolve(url); // TODO handle if fails to parse
-  return resolved.toString();
+  return realmUrl.resolve(url); // TODO handle if fails to parse
 }
 
 InlineSpan _errorUnimplemented(UnimplementedNode node) {
diff --git a/lib/widgets/lightbox.dart b/lib/widgets/lightbox.dart
index e68e15a64d..829b7ab527 100644
--- a/lib/widgets/lightbox.dart
+++ b/lib/widgets/lightbox.dart
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ class _LightboxHeroTag {
   _LightboxHeroTag({required this.messageId, required this.src});
 
   final int messageId;
-  final String src;
+  final Uri src;
 
   @override
   bool operator ==(Object other) {
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ class LightboxHero extends StatelessWidget {
   });
 
   final Message message;
-  final String src;
+  final Uri src;
   final Widget child;
 
   @override
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ class LightboxHero extends StatelessWidget {
 class _CopyLinkButton extends StatelessWidget {
   const _CopyLinkButton({required this.url});
 
-  final String url;
+  final Uri url;
 
   @override
   Widget build(BuildContext context) {
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ class _CopyLinkButton extends StatelessWidget {
       onPressed: () async {
         // TODO(i18n)
         copyWithPopup(context: context, successContent: const Text('Link copied'),
-          data: ClipboardData(text: url));
+          data: ClipboardData(text: url.toString()));
       });
   }
 }
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ class _LightboxPage extends StatefulWidget {
 
   final Animation routeEntranceAnimation;
   final Message message;
-  final String src;
+  final Uri src;
 
   @override
   State<_LightboxPage> createState() => _LightboxPageState();
@@ -205,7 +205,7 @@ class _LightboxPageState extends State<_LightboxPage> {
 Route getLightboxRoute({
   required BuildContext context,
   required Message message,
-  required String src
+  required Uri src,
 }) {
   return AccountPageRouteBuilder(
     context: context,
diff --git a/lib/widgets/message_list.dart b/lib/widgets/message_list.dart
index 28331bbae7..e38bc382e8 100644
--- a/lib/widgets/message_list.dart
+++ b/lib/widgets/message_list.dart
@@ -482,10 +482,7 @@ class MessageWithSender extends StatelessWidget {
       : resolveUrl(author.avatarUrl!, store.account);
     final avatar = (avatarUrl == null)
       ? const SizedBox.shrink()
-      : RealmContentNetworkImage(
-          avatarUrl,
-          filterQuality: FilterQuality.medium,
-        );
+      : RealmContentNetworkImage(avatarUrl, filterQuality: FilterQuality.medium);
 
     final time = _kMessageTimestampFormat
       .format(DateTime.fromMillisecondsSinceEpoch(1000 * message.timestamp));
diff --git a/test/widgets/content_test.dart b/test/widgets/content_test.dart
index 3bf6021807..03c407ea4a 100644
--- a/test/widgets/content_test.dart
+++ b/test/widgets/content_test.dart
@@ -121,7 +121,7 @@ void main() {
   group('RealmContentNetworkImage', () {
     final authHeaders = authHeader(email: eg.selfAccount.email, apiKey: eg.selfAccount.apiKey);
 
-    Future<String?> actualAuthHeader(WidgetTester tester, String src) async {
+    Future<String?> actualAuthHeader(WidgetTester tester, Uri src) async {
       final globalStore = TestZulipBinding.instance.globalStore;
       addTearDown(TestZulipBinding.instance.reset);
       await globalStore.add(eg.selfAccount, eg.initialSnapshot());
@@ -144,20 +144,20 @@ void main() {
     }
 
     testWidgets('includes auth header if `src` on-realm', (tester) async {
-      check(await actualAuthHeader(tester, 'https://chat.example/image.png'))
+      check(await actualAuthHeader(tester, Uri.parse('https://chat.example/image.png')))
         .isNotNull().equals(authHeaders['Authorization']!);
       debugNetworkImageHttpClientProvider = null;
     });
 
     testWidgets('excludes auth header if `src` off-realm', (tester) async {
-      check(await actualAuthHeader(tester, 'https://other.example/image.png'))
+      check(await actualAuthHeader(tester, Uri.parse('https://other.example/image.png')))
         .isNull();
       debugNetworkImageHttpClientProvider = null;
     });
 
     testWidgets('throws if no `PerAccountStoreWidget` ancestor', (WidgetTester tester) async {
       await tester.pumpWidget(
-        const RealmContentNetworkImage('https://zulip.invalid/path/to/image.png', filterQuality: FilterQuality.medium));
+        RealmContentNetworkImage(Uri.parse('https://zulip.invalid/path/to/image.png'), filterQuality: FilterQuality.medium));
       check(tester.takeException()).isA<AssertionError>();
     });
   });