Deep linking and app marketing glossary

Android App Links are https links that Android has verified as belonging to your app, so a tap opens the app directly instead of asking which app to use. They work on Android 6 and later on devices with Google services, and need an intent filter with autoVerify plus an assetlinks.json file on your domain.

The apple-app-site-association (AASA) file is a JSON file on your domain that tells iOS which apps may open which links there. It lives at /.well-known/apple-app-site-association, must be served over HTTPS without redirects, and lists each app by its Team ID and bundle ID together with the paths it handles.

assetlinks.json is the Digital Asset Links file that proves to Android your domain trusts your app, so verified App Links open the app directly. It sits at /.well-known/assetlinks.json, is served over HTTPS as JSON without redirects, and lists your package name with the SHA-256 fingerprints of your signing certificates.

A deep link is a link that opens a specific screen inside a mobile app, such as a product page, an article or a saved cart, instead of a web page or the app’s home screen. It can be a custom URI scheme, an iOS Universal Link, an Android App Link or a deferred deep link.

A deferred deep link is a deep link whose destination survives the app install. Someone without the app taps it, goes to the store, installs, and on first launch the app opens the screen the link promised, such as a product, an invite or a promo code, instead of the home screen.

An intent URL is a link format for Chrome on Android that starts with intent:// and names an app’s scheme and package. If the app is installed, Chrome opens it on the right screen. If not, Chrome opens the web address given in browser_fallback_url, or the app’s Google Play page when there is none.

Universal Links are Apple’s https links that open an installed iOS app directly instead of the website, available since iOS 9. They need the Associated Domains entitlement in the app, such as applinks:example.com, and an apple-app-site-association file on the domain. Without the app, the same link simply opens the website.

A URI scheme is a custom prefix such as myapp:// that an app registers so that links starting with it open the app, for example myapp://product/42. It is the quickest kind of deep link to set up, but nothing checks who owns a scheme, and nothing happens when the app isn’t installed.

A dynamic link usually means Firebase Dynamic Links, Google’s deep linking service that sent people to the app, the store or a website from one link. Google deprecated it in 2023 and shut it down on August 25, 2025, and old links stopped working. In general, it’s any link whose destination is decided at click time.

A dynamic QR code holds a short link instead of the final destination. Scanning it goes through a redirect, so you can change where it points after printing and count every scan. A static QR code holds the content itself: it never expires, but it can’t be edited or tracked.

An in-app browser is the built-in browser that apps such as Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and LinkedIn use to open links without sending people out of the app. Because it keeps them inside, Universal Links and App Links often don’t open your app from there, and people land on a web page instead.

Parameter forwarding means carrying the query parameters on a smart link, such as UTM tags, coupon codes or referral IDs, through to wherever the link sends people: the app store, the website and the deep link. One link can then serve every campaign variant without a new link for each one.

A Smart App Banner is Apple’s built-in banner that promotes your iOS app at the top of your website. You switch it on with one meta tag, apple-itunes-app. Tapping it opens the app if it’s installed or its App Store page if not. It only appears in Safari on iOS.

A smart link is one link, often with a matching QR code, that checks the device tapping it and sends each person to the right place: iPhones to the App Store, Android phones to Google Play or another store, desktops to your website, and straight into the app when it’s already installed.

Web-to-app is the practice of moving people from your mobile website, emails or desktop pages into your app. The usual tools are app banners, smart links, QR codes on desktop pages and deep links that open the same page the person was looking at, so nobody has to start over.

Alternative app stores are Android app stores other than Google Play, such as Huawei AppGallery, Samsung Galaxy Store, Xiaomi GetApps and RuStore in Russia. Some phones, like Huawei devices without Google services, can’t use Google Play at all, so a Play Store link leaves their owners with nowhere to install from.

An App Store campaign link is an App Store URL with three extra parameters, pt (provider token), ct (campaign token) and mt=8, so App Store Connect can report impressions, product page views, downloads and sales for each campaign. The numbers are aggregate: they show how a campaign did, not who installed.

An app store link is the address of an app’s page in a store. On the App Store it looks like apps.apple.com/<country>/app/<name>/id<number>; on Google Play, play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=<package>. The scheme versions, itms-apps:// and market://, open the store app itself instead of a web page.

A custom product page is an extra version of your App Store product page with its own screenshots, promotional text and app previews. You can create up to 70 of them. Each has a unique URL with a product page ID, so ads and links can send people to the version that matches the campaign.

Bot clicks are visits to a link made by software, not people: link-preview crawlers from WhatsApp, iMessage, Slack and Facebook, search engine bots, and email or security scanners that check links before delivery. They inflate click counts, so good link analytics keep them apart from real clicks.

Fingerprinting matches an app install to an earlier click by combining signals such as IP address, device model and operating system version, instead of a real identifier. Apple’s rules forbid fingerprinting for tracking, even when the user has agreed to tracking, and privacy regulators look at it closely.

The install referrer is the referrer value from a Google Play link, which Google Play passes to your app after installation through the Play Install Referrer API. The app reads it once on first run, and it stays available for 90 days. It gives deterministic install attribution on Android; the App Store has no equivalent.

Mobile attribution is working out which ad, campaign or link brought an app install or an in-app action, such as a sign-up or a purchase. It can be deterministic, based on a click ID, the install referrer or the link that opened the app, or probabilistic, based on statistical matching.

A postback is a server-to-server message that reports an app install or an in-app event, such as a purchase, to an ad network or to your own server. When it goes to your own server, it’s usually called a webhook. Postbacks are often signed, so the receiver can check they are genuine.

UTM parameters are five tags you add to a link, utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_term and utm_content, so analytics tools know where a visit came from. Apps add a catch: the App Store drops them, and Google Play only keeps them inside its referrer parameter.