I've been reading a few things about shortening URLs to the App Store so instead of having a really long, unattractive url, you can like: AppStore.com/MyAppOrMyCompanyName
I found that type of url here and there are several ways of linking to dev pages directly in older iOS here...
I'm hoping to use the Appstore.com/ or appsto.re/ scheme to make the URL look better and more readable, as well as cutting out the redirect from safari and link straight to the App Store either from my social media (as well as in my games by pressing a button).
There is some discussion here about shortening the URLs but I can't see how to use this to a developers page (so it shows all apps) instead of a single application.
Where can I find this/how can I get my company url?
You can now make short link URLs in the form of apple.co/#####
In September 2020, Apple released new marketing tools:
App Store Marketing Tools
Search for your app, and then you can generate a short link, QR code, and download app artwork.
Here's the info from the Apple Technical Q&A. Make sure you convert all letters to lowercase and remove all spaces.:
There are three types of App Store Short Links, in two forms, one for iOS apps, another for Mac Apps:
Company Name
iOS: http://appstore.com/<companyname> for example, http://appstore.com/apple
Mac: http://appstore.com/mac/<companyname> for example, http://appstore.com/mac/apple
App Name
iOS: http://appstore.com/<appname> for example, http://appstore.com/keynote
Mac: http://appstore.com/mac/<appname> for example, http://appstore.com/mac/keynote
App by Company
iOS: http://appstore.com/<companyname>/<appname> for example, http://appstore.com/apple/keynote
Mac: http://appstore.com/mac/<companyname>/<appname> for example, http://appstore.com/mac/apple/keynote
Related
I need to open my particular UIViewController when the following link is clicked on the Safari browser:
http://my.sampledomain.com/en/customer/account/resetpassword/?id=24&token=8fbf662617d14c10f4a11f716c1b2285
When this link is clicked on the browser, I need to open my application on a particular screen and retrieve the data from this url. For example:
id = 24
token = 8fbf662617d14c10f4a11f716c1b2285
...and pass it to that particular UIViewController.
How can i do that?
What you are describing is called Deep Linking. It's a very common app feature to implement — most apps have it — and conceptually, it seems like an easy thing to build. However, it's complicated to get right, and there are a lot of edge cases.
You basically need to accomplish two things:
If the app is installed: open the app and route users to the correct content inside it.
If the app is NOT installed: forward users to the App Store so they can download it. Ideally, also route users to the correct content inside the app after downloading (this is known as 'deferred deep linking').
While not required, you'll also probably want to track all of this activity so you can see what is working.
If the app is installed
Your existing custom URI scheme fits into this category. However, Apple has decided that custom URI schemes are not a good technology, and deprecated them with iOS 9 in favor of Universal Links.
Apple is right about this. Custom URI schemes have a number of problems, but these are the biggest:
There is no fallback if the app isn't installed. In fact, you get an error.
They often aren't recognized as links the user can click.
To work around these, it used to be possible to use a regular http:// link, and then insert a redirect on the destination page to forward the user to your custom URI scheme, thereby opening the app. If that redirect failed, you could then redirect users to the App Store instead, seamlessly. This is the part Apple broke in iOS 9 to drive adoption of Universal Links.
Universal Links are a better user experience, because they are http:// links by default and avoid nasty errors. However, they are hard to set up and still don't work everywhere.
To ensure your users end up inside the app when they have it installed, you need to support both Universal Links and a custom URI scheme, and even then there are a lot of edge cases like Facebook and Twitter which require special handling.
If the app is NOT installed
In this case, the user will end up on your http:// fallback URL. At this point, you have two options:
Immediately forward the user directly to the App Store.
Send the user to your mobile website (and then use something like a smart banner to give them the option of going to the App Store).
Most large brands prefer the second option. Smaller apps often go with the first approach, especially if they don't have a website.
To forward the user to the App Store, you can use a Javascript redirect like this:
<script type="text/javascript">
window.onload = function() {
window.location = "https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1121012049";
};
</script>
Until recently, it was possible to use a HTTP redirect for better speed, but Apple changed some behavior in Safari with iOS 10.3, so this no longer works as well.
Deferred deep linking
Unfortunately there's no native way to accomplish this last piece on either iOS or Android. To make this work, you need a remote server to close the loop. You can build this yourself, but you really shouldn't for a lot of reasons, not the least of which being you have more important things to do.
Bottom line
Deep linking is very complicated. Most apps today don't attempt to set it up by building an in-house system. Free hosted deep link services like Branch.io (full disclosure: they're so awesome I work with them) and Firebase Dynamic Links can handle all of this for you, and ensure you are always up to date with the latest standards and edge cases.
See here for a video overview an employee at Branch made of everything you need to know about this.
I am planning to use app link from FBSDK to invite using my iOS app via email.
I know if my iOS app was installed on the device it will be opened when I select the link and handle invite token in URL.
But how about if my app was not installed?
After user install it from App Store can I handle invite token also?
Hope anyone used to work with this scenario can help me.
There are a lot of reasons why what you're trying to do won't come out the way you want it to. Let's dive in...
App Links don't work anymore
Facebook created App Links in 2014 as an open standard to solve the limitations of URI scheme deep links. App Links have two main components:
A set of meta tags to add to the web page destination of a standard http:// link. These tags specify the custom URI scheme location of corresponding content inside the native app, and the behavior that should occur if the app is not installed.
A routing engine for use inside apps that support opening links. This engine checks the destination URL for App Links tags before opening it, and then launches the corresponding app or executes the specified fallback behavior.
App Links were supposed to be an open-source standard to change the world, making app-to-app deep linking simple and universal. Unfortunately Facebook has decided they actually don't want that world (it's much better for them to keep users inside the Facebook app — see Instant Articles if you don't believe me), meaning the App Links standard is essentially dead. It's no longer supported on the iOS Facebook app, and Applinks.org isn't even a separate website now.
App Links were not designed to work with email (or essentially any app except Facebook)
Even if it were still supported by Facebook, the App Links standard has a critical flaw: it requires work by both the origin and destination apps. While the meta tags component saw wide adoption, the only major implementations of the routing engine were in the core Facebook and Messenger apps.
To function as you want, where deep linking can occur from links in emails, the routing engine component would need to be implemented in any email app where your link could possibly be clicked. This was never going to happen for apps like the default iOS Mail app from Apple, or the Gmail app, for example.
App Links had no meaningful support for deferred deep linking
Deferred Deep Linking (Deep Linking refers to using a link to open your app directly to a specific piece of content, and Deferred means that it works even if the app isn't installed first) requires a remote server to close the loop. You can build this yourself, but you really shouldn't for a lot of reasons, not the least of which being you have more important things to do. You'll notice that neither of the two App Links components included a remove server to retain link data through install, so deferred deep linking was never properly supported in the core App Links standard. Facebook ads make use of the partial support for deferred deep linking offered by the FBSDK in conjunction with App Links, but this only works when the link/ad is clicked within a Facebook app and the receiving app has the FBSDK integrated.
Deferred deep linking is tough anyway
Moving on from App Links, deferred deep linking is still complicated. URL schemes don't work, because they always fail with an error if the app isn't installed. Apple's newer Universal Links in iOS 9+ get closer in that they at least don't trigger an error if the app isn't installed, but you'd still have to handle redirecting the user from your website to the App Store. You can't pass context through to the app after install with Universal Links, so you wouldn't be able to send the user to the correct item, and they actually aren't supported in a lot of places.
Deep linking out of email on iOS is very hard
Almost all email links involve some sort of click tracking, which is always implemented as a link wrapping redirect. This isn't technically a problem if the user doesn't have your app installed, but if they do, Universal Links don't work with wrapped links. If you're building it yourself, you'll either need to completely disable click tracking in your emails, or accept that deep links won't work there.
Bottom Line
App Links were never the solution you needed. A free service like Branch.io (full disclosure: they're so awesome I work with them) or Firebase Dynamic Links is what you need. Both services support deferred deep linking, out of Facebook or almost any email app. Branch is more powerful and offers far more features, and works with major email senders to offer a solution for deep linked email (the only one on the market today).
The use case is, essentially, this:
the user create some content and uploads it to our server.
our server responds with the URL.
the user sends the URL (eg via text message) to another user.
the other user clicks on the URL. If they have the app installed, they should be taken to the content in the app. If they don't have it, they should still be able to view the content on our site (eg in safari).
This is easy enough, and we have that working, except our URLs are long and we'd like to use shortened URLs. With shortened URLs, the problem is it always opens in Safari, instead of the app, unless we setup a custom domain. (This is described in many places, including here: iOS Universal Links and URL Shorteners).
The docs for google URL shortener indicate that they have overcome this somehow:
Even though App Indexing for iOS is available only in limited release, you can still enable iOS app deep links with goo.gl by implementing App Indexing for iOS. While these deep links may not begin appearing in Search results, they will start working with goo.gl links.
So I installed the app indexing for iOS into our app on a test device and ran it. Then I created a short link but it still opens in my browser, not my app.
Does this really work as advertised? Do I have to wait longer? Install the indexer on more apps? Will a created link open in the app right away, or does the content have to be indexed?
...Or am I missing something else?
Related:
Google app indexing for iOS and universal links
UPDATE:
The only way I can see this actually working without a custom domain is if Google added every app they indexed to their apple site association file. All I see is google apps there, so obviously that's not the case.
Stack overflow won't let me link it because it thinks it's a link shortener, but it's close to this:
https://goo. gl/apple-app-site-association
You are exactly right: for this to work, Google would need to add your app to their apple-app-site-association file. Unfortunately that would be impossible even if Google wanted to do so, because Apple puts a size limit of 128 kb on that file.
Integrating the App Indexing SDK was a good thought, but doesn't solve this issue either.
What you need is a (free) service like Branch.io (full disclosure: I'm on the Branch team). This is specifically designed for exactly what you're trying to accomplish, and takes care of all the housekeeping tasks you are running into. You'll be able to create branded short URLs that take you to your app (if installed) or website fallback (if not installed), and the AASA file will be generated automatically for the short URL domain.
Is it possible to read the contents of another application installed on an iPhone? What about from an extension or keyboard?
I'm trying to come up with something that 'checks' other apps to see if they have any deep links (like Twitter's Twitter://timeline that takes users straight to the timeline in the Twitter app).
Is there any smart way to check a given app for deep links?
Is it even possible to peek at another app's contents from within my app? I suspect no.
If no, what about making a keyboard or extension of some sort that I can access from an app like Twitter and see its contents, such as a URL deep link?
You don't have much options, you may use -canOpenURL:, but, since iOS9, must include special credentails listing all the custom schemes you want to check.
You can't read other app's contents on a non-rooted device unless this app is sharing a keychain (so it can exchange data via the shared keychain). The same thing goes with extensions.
iOS has some high bars on security, so, don't expect much or even, anything.
Something you may want is IntentKit. Also there are ideas around the web about standard url query format like MobileDeepLinking.
It is possible to launch another app (such as youtube, AppStore,Map, etc) from my iOS app & give it keyword for searching?
For example, I would like provide to user ability search cartoon video from my app & show the results in Youtube app.
Please share your though/
Thanks,
Huy
The only way to communicate with other apps is through URLs. Have a look at communicating with other apps. To answer your question, just create a URL that contains the search terms.
Since tagged app-store in your question, I'm sure you find this useful: How to link to apps on the app store.
A tip is to use itms:// instead of http://, then it'll open in the app
store directl