Facebook iOS app not launching my app for Applinks enabled link

8
votes

I have added the following meta info in the head portion of my test web page.

<html>
<head>
  <meta property="al:ios:url" content="schemeregisteredinapp://hereGoesTheURL" />
  <meta property="al:ios:app_store_id" content="12345" />
  <meta property="al:ios:app_name" content="Applinks Supporting App" />
</head>

<body>
<p>Opening a link to this page in Facebook iOS app should launch my "Applinks Supporting App".
</p>
</body>
</html>

I have added the custom url scheme schemeRegisteredInApp in my iOS app's info.plist. If I type a url of the format schemeRegisteredInApp://the/rest/of/the/path in iOS Safari browser, it successful launches my app.

But if I tap on a link to the webpage containing above mentioned HTML in Facebook app or Mailbox app (both are supposed to support applinks protocol) on iOS, the page just opens in a web view inside the Facebook app. My iOS app is never launched. I can't figure out what is going wrong. Applinks simply refuses to work as advertised. This is on iOS 8. Is Applinks broken?

4
iosfacebookapplinks
Can you post an example url where you use the above meta-tags with the exact and correct values? – Roemer
I have a sample page hosted at anilgiri.github.io with actual values. – Anil
@Flaxfield, were you able to test and verify the issue? Could you please provide your inputs on this? We need to take a call on whether to drop this or go ahead. – Anil

4 Answers

14
votes

Add the following to your website meta data and the Facebook iOS app will open your app directly.

<meta property="al:web:should_fallback" content="false" />

If that doesn't work then you still have other issues with your meta data. Best way to debug is to go to developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/og/object and type in your url and select 'Show existing scrape information'. If there are any errors it won't work. Fix the problems and hit the 'Fetch new scrape information' button. Then kill the Facebook iOS app and relaunch it. Then the AppLink will work as expected next time you press the item in the FB feed.

0
votes

I tested on iOS 7. Before I updated to the latest Facebook app, I can see a popup at the bottom of the Facebook browser which leads me to my own app. Right after I updated the Facebook app to latest version, the popup doesn't show anymore. Same doesn't work on iOS 8. Maybe a bug in newest Facebook version. Hope to see they fix it or find a workaround.

0
votes

I just checked the example you provided. For me it correctly shows a popup to install your app, but when installed it doesn't recognise it as being installed.

I inspected your app's plist and it seems that you haven't registered the URLSchema there. That is needed for Applinks to check if the app is installed or not.

Can you test this with a project where you have defined the Appschema in your app's plist?

0
votes

If you want that link works in optional way when it launches app or open web page if app is not installed you need to add following meta-tag:

<pre>
<meta property="fb:app_id" content="[facebook app id]" />
</pre>

It does matter whether facebook app id exists or not. It will work properly in iOS only if it is exists. However Facebook on Android will open web view first still but allow to launch app from this page.

Following meta tag must be removed:

<pre>
<meta property="al:web:should_fallback" content="..." />
</pre>