[Discussion] Chrome for iOS does not support Universal Links

[MrSnoozles]

Hi,

I've implemented universal links and got it working on Android and iOS using Safari.
On Chrome for iOS it does not work. If I got it right that's because Chrome does not support Universal Links. As a workaround it is recommended to display a intermediary website and redirect to the app using URL schemes.

That would mean that https://github.com/nativescript-community/appurl is not totally deprecated, as it's still required to make linking into an app work on most devices.

Do I get this right?

[farfromrefug]

@MrSnoozles not sure what we are talking about really. Could you share a sample projhect?

[MrSnoozles]

On iOS Universal Links work in Safari, but not in Chrome. That's no fault of the plugin, hence the [Discussion] tag.

See for example:
https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/738243
or https://stackoverflow.com/questions/76098213/universal-link-works-in-safari-browser-but-not-in-chrome

One workaround that's suggested would be:
Example: the Universal Link goes to https://mydomain.com/share/8xgdf
On that website we could check the user agent and if it's iOS and a browser other than Safari, we could do a redirect to myapp://8xgdf. Apparently an AppLink still works for opening the app.

[farfromrefug]

On iOS Universal Links work in Safari, but not in Chrome. That's no fault of the plugin, hence the [Discussion] tag.

See for example: https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/738243 or https://stackoverflow.com/questions/76098213/universal-link-works-in-safari-browser-but-not-in-chrome

One workaround that's suggested would be: Example: the Universal Link goes to https://mydomain.com/share/8xgdf On that website we could check the user agent and if it's iOS and a browser other than Safari, we could do a redirect to myapp://8xgdf. Apparently an AppLink still works for opening the app.

Ok nothing can be done here? We could add a note to the readme. And i did not understand the point about the old plugin appurl?

[modos189]

That would mean that nativescript-community/appurl is not totally deprecated, as it's still required to make linking into an app work on most devices.

Actually, the universal-links plugin does support yourapp:// links, even though this isn't mentioned in the readme. I tested it in my own project and the plugin works with them just like any other links - it depends on the developer to declare which links they want to handle in the Android manifest or iOS configuration.