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Android App Linking

The ultimate developer guide to Android application linking methods

The main objectives of this guide are to explore the most common deeplinking methods available on Android and evaluate their pros and cons.
The source code of the AppLinks Android app is available on the corresponding GitHub repository.

Method	Link	App not installed	Offline	Referrer	Deeplink	Deferred deeplink
Web url	Test	❌	✔️	❌	✔️	❌
App Links	Test	❌	✔️	❌	✔️	❌
Custom scheme	Test	❌	✔️	❌	✔️	❌
Intent scheme	Test	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	❌
App scheme	Test	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	❌
Firebase Dynamic Links	Test	✔️	❌	❌	✔️	✔️
Play Store url	Test	✔️	✔️	✔️	❌	✔️
Market scheme	Test	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️

Web url

http://smarquis.fr/action?key=value#data

Android

Uri	Value
scheme	http
host	smarquis.fr
path	/action
query	?key=value
fragment	data

Features

Feature	✔️ / ❌
App not installed	❌
Offline	✔️
Referrer	❌
Deeplink	✔️
Deferred deeplink	❌

Pros and Cons

• Initial disambiguation dialog
• Doesn’t work on the same domain
• Some (in-app) browsers might directly handle these links and prevent the app to launch

App Links

https://smarquis.fr/action?key=value#data

A JSON verification file needs to be available at https://smarquis.fr/.well-known/assetlinks.json containing the application’s package name and keystore fingerprint

To test an existing statement file, you can use the official Statement List Generator and Tester tool.

During app install/update, an Android service will verify if the App Links configuration complies with the server side assetlinks.json file.
The results will be sent to logcat, with these tags: IntentFilterIntentSvc and SingleHostAsyncVerifier

Click to see logcat content

Valid App Links configuration

Invalid App Links configuration (missing or malformed assetlinks.json file, missing package_name or sha256_cert_fingerprints )

Android

Same as Web url but with https only and android:autoVerify=»true» attribute.

Uri	Value
scheme	https
host	smarquis.fr
path	/action
query	?key=value
fragment	data

Features

Feature	✔️ / ❌
App not installed	❌
Offline	✔️
Referrer	❌
Deeplink	✔️
Deferred deeplink	❌

Pros and Cons

• No more disambiguation dialog
• No potential app hijacking

• Doesn’t work on the same domain
• Some (in-app) browsers might directly handle these links and prevent the app to launch

Custom scheme

link://smarquis.fr/action?key=value#data

Android

Uri	Value
scheme	link
host	smarquis.fr
path	/action
query	?key=value
fragment	data

Features

Feature	✔️ / ❌
App not installed	❌
Offline	✔️
Referrer	❌
Deeplink	✔️
Deferred deeplink	❌

Pros and Cons

• Some browser doesn’t handle non-http links

Intent scheme

intent://smarquis.fr/action?key=value#data#Intent;scheme=link;package=fr.smarquis.applinks;S.key=value;S.market_referrer=my%20referrer%20data;end

Extra parameters can be added to the link and will be transfered as extras Bundle in the Intent :

• String: S.key=value
• Boolean: B.key=value
• Integer: i.key=value
• Long: l.key=value
• Float: f.key=value

• S.browser_fallback_url is the fallback URL if the corresponding link doesn’t work of if app isn’t available (will be removed from the Intent ).
• S.market_referrer will trigger a com.android.vending.INSTALL_REFERRER Broadcast once the app is installed.

Android

The url will be rewritten by the parseUri() method from the Android source code.
The new url will be link://smarquis.fr/action?key=value#data

And will contain additional parameters in the Intent .

Uri	Value
scheme	link
host	smarquis.fr
path	/action
query	?key=value
fragment	data

Extra	Value
key	value
market_referrer	my referrer data

Referrer
my referrer data

Features

Feature	✔️ / ❌
App not installed	✔️
Offline	✔️
Referrer	✔️
Deeplink	✔️
Deferred deeplink	❌

Pros and Cons

• Some browser doesn’t handle non-http links

App scheme

android-app://fr.smarquis.applinks/https/smarquis.fr/action?key=value#data#Intent;S.key=value;S.market_referrer=my%20referrer%20data;end

Extra parameters can be added to the link and will be transfered as extras Bundle in the Intent :

• String: S.key=value
• Boolean: B.key=value
• Integer: i.key=value
• Long: l.key=value
• Float: f.key=value

• S.market_referrer will trigger a com.android.vending.INSTALL_REFERRER Broadcast once the app is installed.

Android

The url will be rewritten by the parseUri() method from the Android source code.
The new url will be https://smarquis.fr/action?key=value#data

And will contain additional parameters in the Intent .

Uri	Value
scheme	https
host	smarquis.fr
path	/action
query	?key=value
fragment	data

Extra	Value
key	value
market_referrer	my referrer data

Referrer
my referrer data

Features

Feature	✔️ / ❌
App not installed	✔️
Offline	✔️
Referrer	✔️
Deeplink	✔️
Deferred deeplink	❌

Pros and Cons

• Some browser doesn’t handle non-http links

Firebase Dynamic Links

https://mr7f2.app.goo.gl/Tbeh

Create the link from the Firebase console.

Android

Same requirements as App Links.
And add the Firebase Dynamic Links dependency in the app-level build.gradle file:

Then in your Activity ‘s onCreate method, use this code to get the link if the user came from a Firebase Dynamic Link:

Uri	Value
scheme	https
host	smarquis.fr
path	/action
query	?key=value
fragment	data

Features

Feature	✔️ / ❌
App not installed	✔️
Offline	❌
Referrer	❌
Deeplink	✔️
Deferred deeplink	✔️

Pros and Cons

• Ugly progress dialog when fetching link data

Play Store url

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=fr.smarquis.applinks&url=link%3A%2F%2Fsmarquis.fr%2Faction%3Fkey%3Dvalue%23data&referrer=my%20referrer%20data

Very similar to the Market scheme.

This url contains additional query parameters that will be handled by the Play Store app:

• url is the forwarded url
• referrer will trigger a com.android.vending.INSTALL_REFERRER Broadcast once the app is installed.

Android

The url will be rewritten by the Play Store to link://smarquis.fr/action?key=value#data

Uri available in deferred deeplink only

Uri	Value
scheme	link
host	smarquis.fr
path	/action
query	?key=value
fragment	data

Referrer
my referrer data

Features

Feature	✔️ / ❌
App not installed	✔️
Offline	✔️
Referrer	✔️
Deeplink	❌
Deferred deeplink	✔️

Pros and Cons

• Some (in-app) browsers might directly handle these links and prevent the Play Store app to launch
• When app is installed, it still opens the Play Store app and completely ignores the deeplink

• Changes the «Open» button in Play Store to «Continue»
• Triggers a notification with «Tap to continue»

Market scheme

market://details?id=fr.smarquis.applinks&url=link%3A%2F%2Fsmarquis.fr%2Faction%3Fkey%3Dvalue%23data&referrer=my%20referrer%20data

This url contains additional query parameters that will be handled by the Play Store app:

• url is the forwarded url
• referrer will trigger a com.android.vending.INSTALL_REFERRER Broadcast once the app is installed.

Android

The url will be rewritten by the Play Store to link://smarquis.fr/action?key=value#data

Uri	Value
scheme	link
host	smarquis.fr
path	/action
query	?key=value
fragment	data

Referrer
my referrer data

Features

Feature	✔️ / ❌
App not installed	✔️
Offline	✔️
Referrer	✔️
Deeplink	✔️
Deferred deeplink	✔️

Pros and Cons

• Changes the «Open» button in Play Store to «Continue»
• Triggers a notification with «Tap to continue»

Referrer Receiver

Add the Broadcast Receiver in AndroidManifest.xml

And in the Receiver’s onReceive() method, you can get the referrer value

Deeplinking

You can get the deeplink Uri in your Activity ‘s onCreate() method as well as the corresponding properties:

Deferred deeplink

When using Play Store url or Market scheme or Firebase Dynamic Links methods, the regular Play Store Open button will be replaced by a Continue button.
Furthermore, a notification will be displayed with Tap to continue content.
These two actions are essential to the Deferred deeplink method as they provide the initial data to the app.

Regular Deeplink	Deferred Deeplink

Url redirections

Adb Activity Manager

To try links with adb, use the Activity Manager (am) command:

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