Deep link into iPhone app without custom scheme

Question

Is there a way to register an iPhone app with a specific URL without a custom scheme? We would like people to be able to post links like this:

https://www.ourcompany.com/OurProduct/DeepLinks?param1=a&&param2=b

So that if the link is clicked on from an iOS device which has our application installed, our application would be opened and have the URL passed to it, and in the case where it was clicked on from a device that doesn't have our application on it, it would simply open the link in a browser.

Ideally we could detect if the user agent is an iOS device and in that case redirect them to the app store.

Answer 1

Have you looked at branch.io yet? https://branch.io

It allows you to setup deep links pretty easily (without much of a headache) and covers your requirement as far as I can tell. ie it features the ability for you to pass parameters with your link and also specify where the user should be directed in the event that they click the link on a device that does/doesn't have the app installed or has been shared on Facebook or somewhere else.

Answer 2

Universal Links are what you want. Unfortunately they only work on iOS 9+, and not everywhere even then ( see here for a list). I work with Branch.io and our goal is to help solve this problem!

With Universal Links, when a user opens a link from your website (eg https://www.ourcompany.com/OurProduct/DeepLinks?param1=a&&param2=b ) in most situations (iOS 9+, your app installed, opening the link in an app that supports Universal Links) your app will immediately launch. You can then parse the incoming URL to determine which in-app content to show.

If the user does not have your app installed, they will simply end up on your website and you can send them to the App Store. The problem here is after they download the app and open it, the trail is lost. You have no way to know which product they were looking at.

Branch can help close this loop. When a user without your app lands on your website, they'll click a button to download the app. That button will 'fingerprint' this user and then after installing, Branch will return data you can use to immediately display the correct content. You can use our pre-configured Smart Banner or build your own solution .

Since you already have a live website on your domain, Branch can't automatically configure the apple-app-site-association entitlement file for you. You'll need to handle this yourself. We have a guide for that here .