Android Deep Linking issue ! How to use Custom Url scheme myapp://some_data

Question

i have tried link1, link2,link3, link4, link5, link6

Here's everything described about DeepLinking

What i want is the custom uri myapp://some_data, opens the native application installed in the device that requires some_data to initialise the application.

There are 2 scenarios in which the custom url can be clicked.

1) from within the SMS app, when user taps the link it should automatically open the installed otherwise open the googleplay store where the app is hosted

2) from within the body of a email message.

I have tried all the above listed links, but none of them works for me. I m having major problem with the scheme part.

Here's my AndroidManifest.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<uses-sdk
    android:minSdkVersion="8"
    android:targetSdkVersion="18" />

<application
    android:allowBackup="true"
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
    android:label="@string/app_name"
    android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >
    <activity
        android:name="MainActivity"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
         android:exported="true" >
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />

            <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
            <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />

            <data android:scheme="inderbagga" />
        </intent-filter>
    </activity>
</application>

and here's the MainActivity.java

TextView tvText=(TextView)findViewById(R.id.tvid);

    if (getIntent().getAction() == Intent.ACTION_VIEW&&getIntent().getScheme().equals("inderbagga")) {
        Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), ""+getIntent().getScheme(), Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
        Uri uri = getIntent().getData();
        // do stuff with uri
        tvText.setText(uri.toString());
    }
    else tvText.setText("NULL");

To be more specific, i want to open the native application when u url of type inderbagga://a1b22c333 is clicked, Either from sms application or gmail/yahoomail email message body.

in order to achieve the same, i 've used intent filters to set the scheme. and getIntent() to read the data that equals to a1b22c333 in the MainActivity.

Answer 1

click link means this code will work

          <intent-filter>
      <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
      <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
      <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
       <data android:scheme="http"
      android:host="domain.com(google.com)"android:pathPrefix="/wp/poc1/(sufexes)" />

    </intent-filter>

get url data

        //get uri data
     Uri data = getIntent().getData();
     //get schma
     String scheme = data.getScheme(); // "http"
     //get server name
     String host = data.getHost(); // Ipaddress or domain name
    //get parameter
     String urltextboxname=data.getQueryParameter("name");
     //set value in textview
     name.setText(urltextboxname);

Answer 2

To be more specific, i want to open the native application when u url of type inderbagga://a1b22c333 is clicked, Either from sms application or gmail/yahoomail email message body.

There are many SMS and email applications available for Android. Precisely none of them know to convert inderbagga://a1b22c333 into clickable entries. You could build a list of all of those apps, contact each of their development teams, and ask them to add it.

Or, you could have your app watch for a particular http:// URL instead. While the user would be presented with a chooser, to view that URL within your app or a Web browser, at least it will be clickable.

Answer 3

You might also want to try out this library which facilitates declaring deep links and extracting out the parameters you need:

https://github.com/airbnb/DeepLinkDispatch

It allows you to declare the URI you're interested in and the parameter you'd like to extract through annotations, without having to do the parsing yourself.

Answer 4

Few things I have understood based on my knowledge and after reading all the answers and comments.

Implementing Deep Link

The OP's AndroidManifest.xml implementation is correct. Adding <data android:scheme="inderbagga" /> will add deeplink for all URLs starting with "inderbagga". So inderbagga://something.com will work.

Testing Deep link

Instead of testing your implementation by tapping links on SMS app try to follow this ADB command mentioned on Android Deeplink documentation.

$ adb shell am start
    -W -a android.intent.action.VIEW
    -d <URI> <PACKAGE>

Why testing link on Browser/SMS might not work?

Based on my experience most chat apps (including WhatsApp) won't convert custom schemed URL into tappable links. Also sending custom schemed URLs on Gmail won't work. Plus, entering inderbagga://something.com on Google Chrome (Android) will do a Google search instead of sending an intent to your app.

What works then?

• Test your implementation using ADB cmd (link)
• Create a HTML webpage <a href="YOURSCHEME://something.com/" target="_blank">. Try this w3school code snippet if you like (link)

Answer 5

It looks like the problem you are having is that your email and SMS client are not parsing the URI scheme and path correctly. Most do not allow you to enter in a URI scheme directly. Additionally, if the app is not installed, you need to fallback to the Play Store so the user is given a good experience.

In order to do this, you need to call the URI scheme in client side JS. You can setup a simple web host and use this script:

<script type="text/javascript">
    window.onload = function() {
        var method = 'iframe';
        var fallbackFunction = function() {
            if (method == 'iframe') {
                window.location = "market://details?id=your.package.name";
            }
        };
        var addIFrame = function() {
            var iframe = document.createElement("iframe");
            iframe.style.border = "none";
            iframe.style.width = "1px";
            iframe.style.height = "1px";
            iframe.src = "inderbagga://a1b22c333";
            document.body.appendChild(iframe);
        };
        var loadChromeIntent = function() {
            method = 'intent';
            document.location = "intent://a1b22c333#Intent;scheme= inderbagga;package=your.package.name;end";
        };
        if (navigator.userAgent.match(/Chrome/) && !navigator.userAgent.match("Version/")) {
            loadChromeIntent();
        }
        else if (navigator.userAgent.match(/Firefox/)) {
            window.location = "inderbagga://a1b22c333";
        }
        else {
            addIFrame();
        }
        setTimeout(fallbackFunction, 750);
    };
</script>

Or, you can use a service like branch.io which automatically assembles this client side JS for you in addition to working on desktop and iOS as well.