Deep links

One link, the right screen

A short link that opens your iOS or Android app at the screen the campaign is about, and your web page for everyone without it.

On Pro and Business
1

Register the app once

In Settings › Mobile apps. For iOS, the app's URL scheme and its App Store link; for Android, the package name, the URL scheme and the Play Store link. One record holds both.

2

Point a link into it

On the link's Routing tab: the app, a path such as /offers/autumn, and where a phone without the app goes, the store listing or your web page.

3

Read it in the same numbers

The click is counted before the phone is sent on, with its country, device and system, so app traffic sits in the link's analytics beside every other click.

What a tap does

The order every deep link follows. Nothing about the phone is guessed before the click is counted.

  1. 1TapSomeone taps go.northwind.com/autumn on a phone.
  2. 2ChecksSafety, status, dates and password, as for any link. A flagged or disabled link stops here.
  3. 3RoutingTargeting rules and A/B variants pick the web destination, as they always do.
  4. 4CountedThe click is recorded: country, device, system, referrer. Then the phone is sent on.

Android

An intent:// redirect. Chrome opens the app at /offers/autumn, or the fallback when the app is not installed.

iPhone

A one-tap page: Open in the app, or Continue without it to the fallback.

Everyone else

The web destination, as usual, after the link's pixels if it has any.

What an iPhone sees: the short link's own page, one tap from the app.

Set it per link

Three fields: the app, the path, the fallback. The console has them on the link's Routing tab, the API at the same route, and the app records live in Settings › Mobile apps. Sending no app removes the deep link.

What the API does 
app       Northwind (iOS and Android)
      path      /offers/autumn
      fallback  the App Store or Play Store page

What actually happens on a phone

The parts that catch people out, written down rather than found in production.

Android

An intent:// redirect. Chrome opens the app at the path; without the app it follows the fallback, the Play Store listing or your web page. The Android record needs a URL scheme: without one, Android visitors get the web page.

iPhone

A one-tap page on the short link's own domain: Open in the app, or Continue without it. iOS will not open an app's URL scheme without a tap, so the page is always shown.

No association files

Brevily does not publish apple-app-site-association or assetlinks.json on your domain. With them the system would open the app before the short link loads, and the click would never be counted.

One click, counted once

The click is counted at the tap, with one first-party cookie on the short link’s domain, like any other. Whether the app then opened is not recorded: your store and app analytics know that.

Installs that convert

On a Pro and Business link with conversion tracking, a Play Store fallback carries the click as the install referrer, so your app can report a sign-up or a purchase after a fresh install. The App Store has no such channel.

Small print

A path starts with /, up to 1,024 characters, no spaces. Switching an app off sends every link into it to the web. On a plan without deep links the setting stays but is not used.

Deep links come with Pro and Business

Pro is $29.99 a month and Business $99.99, in USD. Dodo Payments, the merchant of record, adds any tax at checkout.

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