What's the term for when you replace "http://" with "myapp://" and have it open an external app?

Question

Sites like Steam and Rhapsody use steam://xxx and rhapsody://xxx in web pages, and when you click on them they cause specific actions in their (locally installed) client applications.

I would like to do this for something I'm working on and I just don't know what the search term is so it's hard to get started. What is this called?

score 6 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 07 '21 at 05:54

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The part before :// is called the URI Scheme. Historically, they were often called the protocol as their primary purpose was to setup communication (e.g. HTTP, FTP, TCP). These days, URI Schemes are used for a variety of purposes (launching apps; making payments; creating appointments).

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), best known for their role in allocating IP-addresses and managing the DNS root zones, also manages the list of well-known URI Schemes.

Besides the well-known URI Schemes, most platforms allow developers to register their own schemes:

edited Oct 07 '21 at 05:54

Community

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answered Jan 06 '16 at 14:39

Martin Devillers

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No, “URI” refers to the *whole* thing, not just the part before `://` (that’s usually called the “p̶r̶o̶t̶o̶c̶o̶l” … err, what Philippe said: “scheme”). – Konrad Rudolph Jan 06 '16 at 14:40
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The part before '://' is called the "scheme". – Philippe Signoret Jan 06 '16 at 14:41
Not sure why you're getting the down votes, this is what I'm looking for. Thanks. I can't accept it for another few minutes. – SidF Jan 06 '16 at 14:45
@SidF Easily explained: look at the [first version of the answer](http://stackoverflow.com/revisions/34635743/1). – Konrad Rudolph Jan 06 '16 at 19:54

What's the term for when you replace "http://" with "myapp://" and have it open an external app?

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