diff --git a/src/webxdc.rs b/src/webxdc.rs
index 9ac6a1d2e..dca2fb3bf 100644
--- a/src/webxdc.rs
+++ b/src/webxdc.rs
@@ -847,8 +847,11 @@ fn parse_webxdc_manifest(bytes: &[u8]) -> Result<WebxdcManifest> {
 }
 
 async fn get_blob(archive: &mut SeekZipFileReader<BufReader<File>>, name: &str) -> Result<Vec<u8>> {
-    let (i, _) =
+    let (i, entry) =
         find_zip_entry(archive.file(), name).ok_or_else(|| anyhow!("no entry found for {name}"))?;
+    if entry.dir()? {
+        bail!("'{name}' is a directory not a file.")
+    }
     let mut reader = archive.reader_with_entry(i).await?;
     let mut buf = Vec::new();
     reader.read_to_end_checked(&mut buf).await?;
@@ -903,7 +906,28 @@ impl Message {
             ));
         }
 
-        get_blob(&mut archive, name).await
+        let result = get_blob(&mut archive, name).await;
+        // not found and no extension, then assume directory and try index.html
+        // this mimics how webservers behave.
+        if result.is_err() && !name.contains('.') {
+            let base = if name.ends_with('/') {
+                name.to_string()
+            } else {
+                format!("{name}/")
+            };
+            // ignore first slash. So that requesting "" for index.html works
+            let base = base.trim_start_matches('/');
+            let fallbacks = [format!("{base}index.html"), format!("{base}index.htm")];
+            for fallback in &fallbacks {
+                let result = get_blob(&mut archive, fallback).await;
+                if result.is_ok() {
+                    return result;
+                }
+            }
+            result // return orginal error to the path that was requested, not the fallback
+        } else {
+            result
+        }
     }
 
     /// Return info from manifest.toml or from fallbacks.
diff --git a/src/webxdc/webxdc_tests.rs b/src/webxdc/webxdc_tests.rs
index 12f0b9e13..0ed00c1ce 100644
--- a/src/webxdc/webxdc_tests.rs
+++ b/src/webxdc/webxdc_tests.rs
@@ -1144,6 +1144,49 @@ async fn test_get_webxdc_blob_with_subdirs() -> Result<()> {
     Ok(())
 }
 
+#[tokio::test(flavor = "multi_thread", worker_threads = 2)]
+async fn test_get_webxdc_blob_indexhtml_fallback() -> Result<()> {
+    let t = &TestContext::new_alice().await;
+    let chat_id = create_group(t, "foo").await?;
+    let instance = {
+        let mut instance = create_webxdc_instance(
+            t,
+            "indexhtml-fallback.xdc",
+            include_bytes!("../../test-data/webxdc/indexhtml-fallback.xdc"),
+        )?;
+        let instance_msg_id = send_msg(t, chat_id, &mut instance).await?;
+        assert_eq!(instance.viewtype, Viewtype::Webxdc);
+        Message::load_from_db(t, instance_msg_id).await?
+    };
+
+    // "../" links that go back should work
+    assert!(instance.get_webxdc_blob(t, "").await.is_ok());
+    // test falling back to index.html
+    assert!(instance.get_webxdc_blob(t, "/alpha").await.is_ok());
+    assert!(instance.get_webxdc_blob(t, "/alpha/").await.is_ok());
+    // test falling back to index.htm
+    assert!(instance.get_webxdc_blob(t, "/beta").await.is_ok());
+    assert!(instance.get_webxdc_blob(t, "/beta/").await.is_ok());
+    // test that original error is still there when there is no index.htm(l) file
+    assert!(instance.get_webxdc_blob(t, "/control").await.is_err());
+    println!("{:?}", instance.get_webxdc_blob(t, "/control/").await);
+    println!(
+        "{:?}",
+        instance.get_webxdc_blob(t, "/control/were.html").await
+    );
+
+    assert!(instance.get_webxdc_blob(t, "/control/").await.is_err());
+    assert!(
+        !instance
+            .get_webxdc_blob(t, "/control/")
+            .await
+            .expect_err("error expected because there is no index.html")
+            .to_string()
+            .contains("control/index.html")
+    );
+    Ok(())
+}
+
 #[tokio::test(flavor = "multi_thread", worker_threads = 2)]
 async fn test_parse_webxdc_manifest() -> Result<()> {
     let result = parse_webxdc_manifest(r#"key = syntax error"#.as_bytes());
diff --git a/test-data/webxdc/indexhtml-fallback.xdc b/test-data/webxdc/indexhtml-fallback.xdc
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..fb5069fe3
Binary files /dev/null and b/test-data/webxdc/indexhtml-fallback.xdc differ