Can we use featured image as third party website image URL

Question

There are plugins that could be used to achieve this.
To do it manually add the following code to your theme’s function.php

// Check if URL is image
function url_is_image( $url ) {
    if ( ! filter_var( $url, FILTER_VALIDATE_URL ) ) {
        return FALSE;
    }
    $ext = array( 'jpeg', 'jpg', 'gif', 'png' );
    $info = (array) pathinfo( parse_url( $url, PHP_URL_PATH ) );
    return isset( $info['extension'] )
        && in_array( strtolower( $info['extension'] ), $ext, TRUE );
}

// Add the URL textbox in Fratured image
add_filter( 'admin_post_thumbnail_html', 'thumbnail_url_field' );

function thumbnail_url_field( $html ) {
    global $post;
    $value = get_post_meta( $post->ID, '_thumbnail_ext_url', TRUE ) ? : "";
    $nonce = wp_create_nonce( 'thumbnail_ext_url_' . $post->ID . get_current_blog_id() );
    $html .= '<input type="hidden" name="thumbnail_ext_url_nonce" value="' 
        . esc_attr( $nonce ) . '">';
    $html .= '<div><p>' . __('Or', 'txtdomain') . '</p>';
    $html .= '<p>' . __( 'Enter the url for external image', 'txtdomain' ) . '</p>';
    $html .= '<p><input type="url" name="thumbnail_ext_url" value="' . $value . '"></p>';
    if ( ! empty($value) && url_is_image( $value ) ) {
        $html .= '<p><img style="max-width:150px;height:auto;" src="' 
            . esc_url($value) . '"></p>';
        $html .= '<p>' . __( 'Leave url blank to remove.', 'txtdomain' ) . '</p>';
    }
    $html .= '</div>';
    return $html;
}

// Save the thumbnail with post
add_action( 'save_post', 'thumbnail_url_field_save', 10, 2 );

function thumbnail_url_field_save( $pid, $post ) {
    $cap = $post->post_type === 'page' ? 'edit_page' : 'edit_post';
    if (
        ! current_user_can( $cap, $pid )
        || ! post_type_supports( $post->post_type, 'thumbnail' )
        || defined( 'DOING_AUTOSAVE' )
    ) {
        return;
    }
    $action = 'thumbnail_ext_url_' . $pid . get_current_blog_id();
    $nonce = filter_input( INPUT_POST, 'thumbnail_ext_url_nonce', FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING );
    $url = filter_input( INPUT_POST,  'thumbnail_ext_url', FILTER_VALIDATE_URL );
    if (
        empty( $nonce )
        || ! wp_verify_nonce( $nonce, $action )
        || ( ! empty( $url ) && ! url_is_image( $url ) )
    ) {
        return;
    }
    if ( ! empty( $url ) ) {
        update_post_meta( $pid, '_thumbnail_ext_url', esc_url($url) );
        if ( ! get_post_meta( $pid, '_thumbnail_id', TRUE ) ) {
            update_post_meta( $pid, '_thumbnail_id', 'by_url' );
        }
    } elseif ( get_post_meta( $pid, '_thumbnail_ext_url', TRUE ) ) {
        delete_post_meta( $pid, '_thumbnail_ext_url' );
        if ( get_post_meta( $pid, '_thumbnail_id', TRUE ) === 'by_url' ) {
            delete_post_meta( $pid, '_thumbnail_id' );
        }
    }
}

add_filter( 'post_thumbnail_html', 'thumbnail_external_replace', 10, PHP_INT_MAX );

function thumbnail_external_replace( $html, $post_id ) {
    $url =  get_post_meta( $post_id, '_thumbnail_ext_url', TRUE );
    if ( empty( $url ) || ! url_is_image( $url ) ) {
        return $html;
    }
    $alt = get_post_field( 'post_title', $post_id ) . ' ' .  __( 'thumbnail', 'txtdomain' );
    $attr = array( 'alt' => $alt );
    $attr = apply_filters( 'wp_get_attachment_image_attributes', $attr, NULL );
    $attr = array_map( 'esc_attr', $attr );
    $html = sprintf( '<img src="%s"', esc_url($url) );
    foreach ( $attr as $name => $value ) {
        $html .= " $name=" . '"' . $value . '"';
    }
    $html .= ' />';
    return $html;
}

Refer this answer for more details – https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/a/158568/110516

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