Linking¶

Deep link¶

Good tutorial on how to achieve this.

Check App installation¶

With javascript we could redirect the navigation window object to a specific url of the app & if it doesn’t work we would just run the app store url of the app.

setTimeout(function () { 
// Won't execute first due to timeout function
window.location = "https://itunes.apple.com/appdir"; }, 25);

window.location = "appname://";

SO Link

Universal Links¶

Supporting Universal links on iOS requires you to have access to Apple developer account, website domain, subdomain, write file access to public folder, SSL certificate for website to host over https.

It is a time consuming process but when configured properly it is seamless to work with. Since you won't have to worry about checking if the app is installed on the user device. Apple takes care of those underlying logic. With Deep linking apple first opens the URI callback on default web browser - Safari and then makes the call to open the app if installed. This requires very less effort. But with Universal links apple is able to directly open the link on the app if supported.

Setting up Universal links Source: Branch-IO

Apple documentation

Allowing apps and websites to link to your content
Supporting universal links in your app
Supporting associated domains Note If your site uses multiple subdomains (such as example.com, www.example.com, and support.example.com), each requires its own entry in the Associated Domains Entitlement, and each must serve its own apple-app-site-association file.

Subdomain help https://asbelita.medium.com/manage-universal-links-with-multiple-associated-domains-in-ios-97bda851b654

Testing¶

Opening links without typing it in simulator for testing can be easily achieved using Xcode CLI.

Use this command to launch website or URL on simulator

xcrun simctl openurl booted "https://reddit.com/"

xcrun simctl openurl booted "com.trackvia://"

https://isapozhnik.com/articles/6-ways-of-launching-deeplinks-on-ios-simulator/