Deep linking
What is a deep link?
Short answer
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.
How a deep link works
Every deep link carries a path the app understands. When the phone hands the link to the app, the app reads that path and shows the matching screen. The simplest form is a URI scheme such as myapp://product/42. Universal Links on iOS and App Links on Android use ordinary https addresses on a domain that has proven it belongs to the app.
Where it breaks
A plain scheme link does nothing useful when the app isn’t installed. The tap fails or shows an error, and the person is gone. That’s why marketing links rarely point at a scheme directly.
A smart link checks the device first, opens the app when it can and sends everyone else to the App Store, Google Play or your website. If the promised screen should still open after a fresh install, you need a deferred deep link. On Appy’s paid plans, a link can open the installed app through its URI scheme or its own https link.
myapp://product/42Related terms
- Universal Links
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.
- 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.
- URI scheme
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.
- Smart link
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.
One link for every phone
Create a free smart link and QR code that sends iPhones to the App Store, Android phones to Google Play and desktops to your website.