Mobile App Deep Linking

This feature is intended for mobile app developers.

This feature only available on our Pro instances. For example here.

Taking the example of a YouTube link - your mobile operating system will suggest an option to open that resource inside of the YouTube mobile app. This is called Mobile App Deep Linking and it is possible to implement this same behavior for your own mobile app. Details could be found here:

If you successfully implemented the above solution then you will have OS-specific association files hosted on your site: (Use of HTTPS protocol for these files is important!)

Mobile App Deep Linking with short URLs

At this point you will have Mobile App Deep Linking behavior for long URLs on your domain (like https://www.example.com/watch?v=_n5eE8jCuCY). The final task is getting the same behavior from branded short links hosted on the branding->service_name()?> service (https://examp.le/cool).

The remaining steps to take:

  1. Configure a copy of association file for your short domain
  2. Add your short domain as trusted to your mobile application
  3. Implement automatic sync between association file on main domain and association file on short domain

1. Configure a copy of association file on your short domain

Go to your Domain management page. Open "Redirect" settings for your custom shortening domain. Tell us the links to your main domain association files. Save your domain config.
Now when mobile OS requests an association file on short domain (https://examp.le/.well-known/apple-app-site-association), our server will serve a copy of the original association file (https://example.com/.well-known/apple-app-site-association).

2. Add your short domain as trusted to your mobile application

iOS (version 9 and above)

Add “Associated Domains”capability to your app in Xcode and include an entry to associated domains list and your short domain name prefixed with “applinks:” (for example, applinks:examp.le).

Because your association file is only fetched once when the user first installs or upgrades the app, short domain setup must be complete before your app is released. This also means that you can’t add new deep linking url patterns to your app until you push out a new app update to force users to refresh the file.

Android (version 6 and above)

Edit your app manifest file and include your short domain in a list of linked hosts. Details of linking to multiple hosts are found here.

3. Implement automatic sync between association file on main domain and association file on short domain

Our system will handle this part.
A copy of your main association file https://example.com/.well-known/apple-app-site-association is stored on our server for 24 hours. And automatically updated after that.