CODEWITHSUNDEEP
iosdeep-linkingios-universal-links
Allan Jiang
Allan Jiang

Reputation: 11331

Universal links for iOS apps - how it works?

I am new to adding universal links to iOS applications. I have read some materials but still have a few questions below. Any pointer will be greatly appreciated!

  1. When exactly Apple will crawl my domain and inspect the [domain]/apple-app-site-association content? I have a new domain, and I'm wondering how Apple's crawler can discover it?

  2. What's the recommended way to test universal links locally before publishing the first version of my app?

  3. Is version control for universal links not possible? For example, the app 1.0 version only supports \item universal link, but app 2.0 version supports one more schema \details . If I specify both paths in apple-app-site-association, then the 1.0 app will break when user navigate to \details. (Edit: I noticed that if the app appropriately set it to be unhandled, then we can still fall back to browser.)

Thanks!

Upvotes: 2

Views: 390

Answers (1)

clayjones94
clayjones94

Reputation: 2818

  1. When a device downloads an app, it looks for an entitlements file to list out your associated domains. When it finds that your app has associated domains, it will check those domains for the aasa and download it onto the device. The aasa for that app will only be downloaded on install and update so changes you make will not effect all of your apps.

  2. For testing you can host your AASA on a testing domain or on your production domain. It's up to you but you have to remember to update your entitlements file when you push it to production to ensure that you have the right domain configured. Every time you rebuild the app, it should re-download the aasa so testing shouldn't be too difficult. Always remember to paste the link in notes and not type it into Safari. Universal links only work when they are tapped, not typed in.

  3. For your example you should make sure your new AASA is published at the exact time you publish your app. You should probably use a separate testing domain to host your AASA. You can just include both domains in your entitlements.

  4. Branch actually has testing environment and AASA hosting built in if you'd prefer not to handle all of that on your own. They also leverage URI schemes in cases where Universal Links don't work.

Upvotes: 1

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