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I have been looking at how deeplinking works but I am not still sure whether it could be applied to my case.

I have an app on apple store. Different people through different paths (imagine through different specific webistes) will be forwarded to the itunes page to download this same app. Imagine a user sees a link on a specific website to download my app on itunes. What I need is to let the user download the app through the link on the website and once the app launches for the first time, the app knows which website the user is coming from so I can customize the app's look and feel for that specific user. Basically I would like to send a parameter (like the website address) to the app using the same link which opens the app download page on itunes.

I was wondering if anyone can help me understand how to do it and whether or not deeplinking is something which can help with this. If there is a specific link which explain exactly what I am looking for, I would be very much thankful if you could share it with me.

amistres
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  • I am pretty sure that is not possible. Your app gets installed on the device and that is it. Your app does not even run until the user taps the icon for the first time, which could happen anytime after the actual installation. You as a developer have **no** control over the installation process. There should be no way for you to determine via what way the app-user got to the app on the appstore. – luk2302 Nov 13 '15 at 09:41
  • You should have a look to conversion tracking, it generally uses IDFA to attribute app installs to a given campaign, maybe there is a way to retrieve which campaign was used at runtime and associate it somehow to the source website. I don't know if it's possible but at least, this is a track you can follow :) – Cyril Nov 13 '15 at 09:57

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What you are looking for is deferred deep linking: The basic idea there is that you generate a fingerprint of your visitor's device when he clicks the link on your webpage and store it in your database. When your visitor then opens your app for the first time, you generate again a fingerprint of the visitor's device and use it to look up the origin of your visitor...

This answer decsribes it in more detail...

There are various third-party services that offer deferred deep linking if you do not want to implement it by yourself: have a look at e.g. branch.io or Shortcut Media (disclaimer: I currently work at Shortcut Media).

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severin
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