What is web-to-app?

The pieces

On a phone, a banner or button on your site opens the app, or the store if the app is missing. In an email, a smart link does the same job. On a desktop, a QR code lets someone carry on with their phone. In every case, the deep link should bring along the page they were on, the product or the article, into the app.

What usually goes wrong

Everyone lands on the app’s home screen, and the product they wanted is lost. The banner only shows in Safari on iOS. People who already have the app get sent to the store page.

Test each path on an iPhone, an Android phone and a desktop before you put the button live, and measure the paths separately so you can see which one actually brings people into the app.

Related terms

• Smart App Banner

  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.

• 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.

• 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.