浏览器可以在用户的​​手机上启动应用程序吗？

Question

I am implementing a server. There is no client, just the user's browser.

For one functionality I have, until now, always redirected to a URL and let the user's browser handle it.

However, now someone wants me, as a result of user action, to "launch an app on the user's smartphone".

Forgetting for the moment that the user might not even have the app installed, is this possible?

If I returned a web page with some JavaScript, would it be allowed to launch an app? This would seem to have some security implications and I doubt that it can be done.

I dimly remember once reading from a PC's serial port from a web page, but I had to jump through hoops with an ActiveX control and a COM DLL to do that. Since that required Internet Explorer & Windows, it's no longer an acceptable solution. My question pertains to all browsers and to Android & iOs (although a solution which also works for Windows, Linux & Mac would be nice to have).

I am asking here, seeking a definitive answer.

Answer 1

I am not sure if you are talking about the default web browser or one created by you.

Usually when you want to launch an app from a browser you have to define this in your manifest using intent filter :

<intent-filter>
  <data android:scheme="http" android:host="mysite.com"/>
  <action android:name="android.intent.action.MY_ACTION" />
</intent-filter>

So if you are talking about the default browser you can not , but if it is a browser coded by you then you can start an activity like always with intents.

EDIT
I am not sure if this works, but try to make your links look like this and have a test:

<a href="intent:#Intent;action=my_action;end">Link to my app</a>