I have setup my AASA JSON file to open the app when someone visits myDomain.com/ShowInTheApp/*
This works from Notes App, Email, Gmail App, Gmail web on safari and basically any other websites other myDomain.com .
When myDomain.com/chooseAppORweb.html contains a link to myDomain.com/ShowInTheApp/ , safari always opens it in the same tab, app wont get launched. I can tap and hold the link to show the context menu that contains an entry "Open In [My app name]" which will indeed launch my app. But not by single tapping on the link.
When I do the exact same steps from another domain, NOTmyDomain.com/chooseAppORweb.html always launches the app without issues.
Has anyone succeeded in launching the app consistently from the same domain using UL ?
Also, if there is an Apple's document that explains any of these behaviours, please share the link.
I'm not sure when Apple added this to their documentation, but it's explained on their Support Universal Links page, in the first note:
In iOS 9 and later, universal links let users open your app when they tap links to your website within WKWebView and UIWebView views and Safari pages, in addition to links that result in a call to openURL:, such as those that occur in Mail, Messages, and other apps.
When a user is browsing your website in Safari and they tap a universal link to a URL in the same domain as the current webpage, iOS respects the user’s most likely intent and opens the link in Safari. If the user taps a universal link to a URL in a different domain, iOS opens the link in your app.
For users who are running versions of iOS earlier than 9.0, tapping a universal link to your website opens the link in Safari.
(Emphasis added)
Essentially, once a user reaches a page hosted on your domain in Safari, any links they follow on your domain will be opened in Safari, even if they're defined as Universal Links by your app.
As st.derrick mentioned above, this is the in-place behavior for Universal links. If you have previously been taken to the App from the link, but then choose to be taken to the website when prompted with a long press, the functionality to open the App will break. You can remedy this by long-pressing again and choosing to open in-app. It's not an ideal solution, but it is the only way I've seen it be fixed. I hope this helps!
Related
I run into an issue with Universal Link that once the Universal Link is opened by Safari, it won't able to open by its app.
Seem iOS does remember the last app used to open the link.
But when I copy the link into iOS Notes app, long-press, select Open in "App Name" and the issue is gone! (Check the screenshot)
Does anybody know how to force to open an app like iOS Notes app?
Or does anybody know how to check whether the URL has been remembered to open by Safari by iOS?
I did try by open(_:options:completionHandler:) & specific options [.universalLinksOnly: true] but it doesn't work
Thanks all 🙏🏿
This article may help.
When a user browses your website in Safari and taps a universal link in the same domain, the system opens that link in Safari, respecting the user’s most likely intent to continue within the browser. If the user taps a universal link in a different domain, the system opens the link in your app.
I have implemented universal links in my application by uploading "apple-app-site-association" to my server and enabling "associated domains" in my project(by adding applinks). My app opens whenever I click on my server weblink from Safari browser.
1) Its not working on any other browser
2) I need to open my app from other apps as well, i.e. Instagram, Twitter etc.
How can I achieve the above scenarios using universal links. If not, is there any other way of achieving the same.
Not all apps will open universal links in you app. You can read a little more here:
"Pasting a Universal Link directly into the Safari URL field doesn’t cause the app to open automatically. If you do this, you will have to manually pull the website down so that a prompt will appear at the top asking you to open the respective app.
But, if you paste links in Facebook(app), Twitter(app), Mail(app) or even if you go to Facebook on Safari and then click on a universal link, the app opens directly.
Universal links will not works for all the apps in iOS. If you click on a universal link from any of the “BLACK LISTED” apps, it will not open the app. Go to this link to know more.
As in step one, for the first time you will have to manually pull down the website and click “open” to open the link using the respective app. The iOS will “remember” to open the app instead of opening the safari if the universal link with the registered domains are clicked."
https://medium.com/#abhimuralidharan/universal-links-in-ios-79c4ee038272
https://docs.branch.io/pages/deep-linking/universal-links/#appsbrowsers-that-support-universal-links
The company I work for told me to ask the following:
When a universal link is tapped in other apps (native Apple apps, Slack, etc.) our app is opened, but if the same link is tapped in any Google app (Hangouts, Inbox, etc.) the universal link is not opened directly by our app.
We set the Google app to not open links inside it and we don't have Chrome installed on devices where the app was tested.
Does anyone have the same problem? Is there any solution for this?
Unfortunately this is the expected behavior. Universal Links do not work directly from within most Google apps — you need to have the link open a web page containing a button or other link within. That button or link can be a Universal Link, which then opens the app.
Here is more information about where Universal Links currently work and do not work.
From Apple's guide in Support Universal Links:
When you support universal links, iOS 9 users can tap a link to your website and get seamlessly redirected to your installed app without going through Safari. If your app isn’t installed, tapping a link to your website opens your website in Safari.
But i'm confused that if my app is not installed,and I tap a universal link of my app in another app's UIWebView,will the system launch Safari app to load my website,or still load it in the UIWebView?
I test some app's universal links when the app is not installed,and they never launch Safari to load the next page ,they still load it in the UIWebView.
I want to konw if it's possible to launch Safari,but not stay in UIWebView.Do I need any configuration in apple-app-site-association file?
Actually I want to trace where my app was installed from by using cookie.I can store a cookie in Safari with informations of the download page,and get the cookie with SFSafariViewController when my app is installed and opened,and present different views according to the cookie.
What you are trying to build is called 'deferred deep linking'. This (plus a lot more) is exactly what we provide at Branch.io. If you want to avoid the headache of configuring it all yourself, give this a look. Apps like Pinterest, Airbnb, and Tinder all use us for this reason.
Apple's documentation is referring to the default behavior with the standalone Safari browser. Handling links inside an app with UIWebView supersedes this, and there is no way to automatically bounce out of the origin app into the main Safari app.
The workaround is to store data on your own backend. As you've discovered, relying on a cookie pass-through on the device itself won't work in many cases.
Deeplinks working perfectly when using chrome iOS app. But in safari it stopped working and it always redirect to the appstore page even the app is installed or sometimes pop a alert saying "safari cannot open the page because the address is invalid". Everything works perfect few days back. so my guess is this happens after the ios 9.2 update. Any solution for this?
UPDATE
I have tried using a new phone(Which app not installed before) and installed the app.
Deep links works for both browsers (Safari and Chrome).
If you push the bnc.lt forward button it opens App Store for both Safari and Chrome.
Next time you open a link deep link:
Safari: It asks if you want to open the link in app store
Chrome: It asks if you want to open app and at the same time redirects to app store. If you click open in app next time you click a deep link it will open in app.
So in other words you can still open the app from Chrome after clicking the bnc.lt forward link in staus bar. This is because Chrome asks for opening the app and not app store.
For Safari i end up in an irreversible state where the deep link always open app store and not the app.
Alex from Branch here: this is the expected behavior. Unfortunately our fallback options are rather limited at the moment, due to the changes to Universal Links in iOS 9.2.
TL;DR: it's a bit of an edge case that most users wouldn't encounter, but you can easily work around it by making use of our Deepviews functionality.
Basically, here's the logic behind what you're seeing:
When you open the link on a device without the app installed, you end up on our bnc.lt server, and we redirect you to the App Store so you can get the app. This is good.
When you open the link on a device with the app installed for the first time, your device detects the Universal Link and opens the app immediately. All this happens locally on your device, and you never even get to our bnc.lt server. This is also good.
When you push the bnc.lt forward button, you're telling your device 'I don't want you to immediately open the app...show me the web content for this link instead'. In the case of a Branch link, this 'web content' is simply a redirect to the App Store. At this point, Branch has no way to know whether you the app is installed or not, so we have to assume it isn't and you get the same treatment as 1. above. This is not so good, but right now we don't have any better options due to the way Apple has designed the system.
The next time you open a link, your device remembers that you pushed the bnc.lt button in the past and just takes you straight to the web content. I'm not sure why Safari does it this way, because I can't imagine many situations where this would be desirable and it is leading to a lot of confusion for users.
The real problem here is that when you press bnc.lt to bypass the app, your device remembers this preference and executes it every time it sees a bnc.lt link in future. Chrome still 'works' because it is proactively confirming the preference each time in 4., whereas Safari just plows forward. There are a few options for what happens next:
In Apple's ideal world, you'd end up on a normal webpage where you could simply scroll up and use the Open in app button to reverse this preference. But since Branch is immediately redirecting you to the App Store, this isn't an option. You could consider using our Deepviews feature, since this does provide some real web content in place of the immediate App Store redirect you're seeing right now.
In most situations, you can still long-press on the link and select Open in app, but this doesn't help users who don't know the option is there.
In the worst-case scenario, you end up on the App Store page and just press the Open button (instead of Install). Thanks to Branch's magic, you'll still end up in the right place!
Now from iOS 9.2, Apple no longer supports URI schemes for deep
linking, developers must implement Universal Links in order to deep
link properly on iOS.
Universal links let you replace custom URL schemes with standard HTTP or HTTPS links. Universal links work for all users: If users have your app installed, the link takes them directly into your app; if they don’t have your app installed, the link opens your website in Safari.
To learn all about universal links, see
How to support Universal Links in iOS App and setup server for it?
Example
https://github.com/vineetchoudhary/iOS-Universal-Links
UPDATE [1]
How Branch links work (Branch.io)
If you take a lock at fundamentals of Branch's contextual deep links. You found Branch.io also using traditional deep-linking
1. Creating links
When you’ve integrated the Mobile SDK, you can create a Branch link every time a user clicks to share or invite another user from within your app. Your app makes a call to Branch.io, and Branch.io return a Branch link.
2. Tying data to links
3. Clicking links
4. Using data
Check the Clicking links step, Branch.io just map your website URL with your app URI scheme but URI schemeno longer supported by Safari. So, move to Universal Links is only the option in order to deep linking in iOS 9.2 or you can wait for some solution by Branch.io. Thanks.