Create Deep Links

Overview

You can use Deep Links on your Journeys, Universal Ads links, Quick Links, and Universal Email. In this guide, we will walk you through how to configure your default and custom link behavior, as well as how to create short and long links.

Default link behavior

Your app is not installed

• User clicks on a Branch deep link

• Device navigates to the fallback (e.g. an app store or website)

  • App Stores Supported:
    • Apple App Store
    • Google Play
    • Huawei App Store
    • Vivo App Store
    • Oppo App Store
    • Baidu Mobile Assistant

• User installs and opens your app

• Branch passes deep link data into your app

Your app is installed

• User clicks on a Branch deep link

• Device opens your app or navigates to expected link behavior

• Branch passes deep link data into your app

Expected link behavior

Mobile

• Expected link behavior is dependent on whether or not the app supports deep linking

• *Able to force app open using $uri_redirect_mode or enabling a Deepview

Desktop

• Expected link behavior is dependent on whether or not the app supports deep linking

• By default, we attempt to launch the apps via URI schemes and load the desktop redirect fallback in the background

• *Only launches background desktop web fallbacks using $afterclick_desktop_url

Custom link behavior

Pass data from link to app

• Add link data to each deep link

• Add key-values pairs to your Quick Links

• Append query strings https://example.app.link/fzmLEhobLD?$custom_data=123&hello=world

Fallback to a specific URL

• Determine where a deep link will navigate to if either

  • Your app is not installed

  • [or] Another app prevent links from deep linking outside their app

• Fallback overrides (ordered by precedence)

  • Add query string https://example.app.link?$ios_url=https://example.com
  • Add link data $ios_url = 'https://example.com' (docs)
  • Add link data for a deep view $ios_deepview = 'deepviewId' (docs)
  • Enable a Deep View globally on the Branch Dashboard
  • Add link data $fallback_url = 'https://example.com' (docs)
  • Add iOS/Android Custom URL on the Branch Dashboard
  • Add Default URL ($fallback_url) on the Branch Dashboard

Open web instead of app

• Your app is not installed
  • Device navigates to the fallback (e.g. an app store or website)
• Your app is installed
  • iOS: need to override Universal Links
    • Add $web_only = true (docs)
    • Add redirect $ios_url = 'https://google.com' (docs)
    • [or] Append /e/ to the deep link
      • e.g. https://example.app.link/fzmLEhobLD -> https://example.app.link/e/fzmLEhobLD
  • Android: need to override App Links
    • Uncheck Enable App Links and then hit Save on the Branch Dashboard
    • Add redirect $android_url = 'https://google.com' (docs)
    • Add a broken URI Scheme with $android_deeplink_path = 'random' (docs)
• Add -web in the link domain: e.g. branch.app.link -> branch-web.app.link
  • Does not work with custom link domains when used in conjunction with a custom alias.

Social link behavior

• Use OG Tags to display content as a preview card in Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, iMessage, etc.
  • Basics are $og_title, $og_description, and $og_image_url
• Use Deep Views to display content as a website
  • Increases install attribution
  • Completes deep linking experience in certain apps

UTM Behavior

❗️

Enabled by Default

To disable this functionality, go to Link Settings -> Advance Settings -> Analytics mapping with UTM.

• When redirecting to a web URL, Branch automatically passes through any values from the following Branch link analytics tags as UTM parameters:
  • ~campaign -> utm_campaign
  • ~channel -> utm_source
  • ~feature -> utm_medium
• This applies to web URLs defined using any of the following $fallback_url, $ios_url, $android_url, $desktop_url, $original_url, and $canonical_url.
• If these UTM parameters are already detected on the URLs being redirected to, Branch will not overwrite them.
• For more information about UTM parameters, please read Google Analytic's Custom Campaigns article.

Create deep links

Short links

• Short links are the most common deep link
• You can customize the subdomain of example.app.link, or change to your own personal domain (links.yoursite.com)
• You can tailor the appearance of the short code to a custom alias during creation
  • Aliases can be short strings, e.g. https://example.app.link/october-sale
  • Or can be full link path, e.g. https://example.app.link/product/id1234
• Short links encapsulate link data inside them on link creation
  • e.g. existing link https://example.app.link/fzmLEhobLD
• Short links can have additional data appended to them
  • e.g. dynamic link https://example.app.link/fzmLEhobLD?content_id=123
• Methods of creating short links
  • Use Quick Links for fast link creation and easy tracking
  • Use our App SDK to create and share links within your app
  • Use our Web SDK to create links which help convert your web users to app users
  • Use our HTTP API to programmatically create links from your server
  • Use our Chrome Extension to generate links from your browser

Long links

• Long links can be created without a network call to Branch
• Long links need link data to be added as a query string. Be sure to URI encode any urls in the link.
  • e.g. existing link https://example.app.link/fzmLEhobLD?foo=bar&baz=456&$fallback_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbranch.io%2F
  • e.g. dynamic link https://example.app.link/?foo=bar&baz=456&$fallback_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbranch.io%2F
• Long links need a /a/ and a Branch Key if you use a custom link domain
  • e.g. existing link https://link.example.com/5NPh/p4M09KRLrD?foo=bar&baz=456&$fallback_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbranch.io%2F
  • e.g. dynamic link https://link.example.com/a/key_live_kaFuWw8WvY7yn1d9yYiP8gokwqjV0Swt?foo=bar&baz=456&$fallback_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbranch.io%2F
• Long links need a /a/ and a Branch Key if you use a bnc.lt
  • e.g. existing link https://bnc.lt/5NPh/p4M09KRLrD?foo=bar&baz=456&$fallback_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbranch.io%2F
  • e.g. dynamic link https://bnc.lt/a/key_live_kaFuWw8WvY7yn1d9yYiP8gokwqjV0Swt?foo=bar&baz=456&$fallback_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbranch.io%2F
• When adding tags to a dynamic link, enter each tag separately
  • e.g. https://example.app.link/?foo=bar&~tags=tag1&~tags=tag2

Configure deep links

You're free to add any of your own key-value parameters to a Branch link. These parameters will be passed to your app via the Branch SDK, however some keys will have specific extra effects.

Reserved prefixes

• Branch adds additional properties to your deep link data to explain the link

Keys for Reporting Analytics

• These labels allow you to filter and organize your deep links

• These labels allow you to customize attribution windows for a single link

Custom data

• Pass any custom data to be read inside your app

Redirections

• Navigate to different locations based on device information
• Navigation URLs must be websites, not deep links

Forced redirections

• Prevent error messages from other apps when Branch deep links are clicked

• OS level redirect modes can be enabled by utilizing the parameters $ios_uri_redirect_mode and $android_uri_redirect_mode.

• Supported Apps

  • Facebook newsfeed iOS
  • Instagram iOS
  • Twitter iOS
  • Safari iOS
  • Firefox iOS & Android

Deep linking

• Navigate to different locations based on device information

Content

• Handle content properties

Deepview

• Enable / control active deepview properties

• Control passive deepview templates

Link appearance

• Customize the apperance of your short link

Open Graph

• Handle Facebook properties

Twitter

• Handle Twitter properties

Other Reserved Keys

Custom Tags

• Handle custom meta tags

• Valid dictionary example: "{"twitter:player:stream": "https://branch.io\"}". This will result in the following meta tag: <meta property="twitter:player:stream" content="https://branch.io" />
• If you create the link via the Dashboard, don’t worry about stringifying the dictionary. It will be done automatically.
• apple_touch_icon is a special key in the dictionary. If you set it, we will add a <link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="<url>" /> tag to the scraped HTML page. This will allow you to show a custom icon for previews in iMessage, Safari Bookmarks, Slack, etc.

Universal Object

• Properties for the Branch Universal Object within your app integration

BUO Best Practices

• Do
  • Set the canonicalIdentifier to a unique, de-duped value across instances of the app
  • Ensure that the title, contentDescription and imageUrl properly represent the object
  • Initialize the Branch Universal Object and call logEvent with the VIEW_ITEM event on page load
  • Call showShareSheet and createShortLink later in the life cycle, when the user takes an action that needs a link
  • Call the additional object events (purchase, share completed, etc) when the corresponding user action is taken
• Do not
  • Set the same title, contentDescription and imageUrl across all objects
  • Wait to initialize the object and register views until the user goes to share
  • Wait to initialize the object until you conveniently need a link
  • Create many objects at once and register views in a for loop.

Read deep links

• Deep link data gets sent from your link to your app integration

Data structure

• Example deep link data structure

{
          "randomized_bundle_token": "427469360685348303",
          "link": "https://example.app.link?%24randomized_bundle_token=427469360685348303",
          "session_id": "429691081177874743",
          "data": {
            "$canonical_identifier": "item/1503684554354.28",
            "$canonical_url": "https://example.com/home?utm_campaign=test&deeplink=value",
            "$desktop_url": "http://example.com/home",
            "$randomized_bundle_token": "427469360685348303",
            "$og_description": "My Content Description",
            "$og_image_url": "http://lorempixel.com/200/200/",
            "$og_title": "46D6D28E-0390-40E4-A856-BD74F34D24C8",
            "$publicly_indexable": 1,
            "+click_timestamp": 1503684563,
            "+clicked_branch_link": true,
            "+is_first_session": false,
            "+match_guaranteed": true,
            "custom": "blue",
            "random": "FE848A5B-78F7-42EC-A253-9F795FE91692",
            "added": "1503684554354.33",
            "~campaign": "new launch",
            "~channel": "facebook",
            "~creation_source": 3,
            "~feature": "sharing",
            "~id": 429691043152332059,
            "~referring_link": "https://example.app.link/X7OsnWv9TF",
            "~stage": "new person",
            "~tags": [
              "one",
              "two"
            ]
          }
        }

Callback values

• Additional properties read from the initSession within your app and website integrations