Deep Linking & Smartbanners

Links are the bridges between your marketing campaigns and the app. This guide explains how to ensure your users land in the right place, whether they come from a newsletter, a QR code, or a social media post.

1. How Links Work (Universal Links)

Our app uses “Universal Links” (iOS) and “App Links” (Android). This feature is enabled automatically for all our apps.

Ideally, almost every link to your webshop can automatically open the app if it is installed.

• Scenario A (App Installed): The user clicks shop.com/shoes -> The Operating System recognizes the link belongs to the app and opens the “Shoes” category natively.
• Scenario B (App Not Installed): The user clicks shop.com/shoes -> The Mobile Website opens.

This creates a seamless fallback experience without error messages.

The Technical “Handshake”

It is important to understand that the App itself does not decide when to open.

1. The Operating System (iOS/Android) checks the link you clicked.
2. It compares the link with the Shop Domain stored in the app’s secure configuration.
3. If they match, the OS launches the app.

This implies that if a user uses a specialized browser settings or aggressive privacy tools that block this “Handshake,” the link might fall back to the website.

The “Blacklist”

There are specific pages that we intentionally do not open in the app because they require features the app doesn’t support or are legally required to be web-based.

• Examples: Specific landing pages from third-party partners e.g. for complex external payment processes.
• Behavior: These links will automatically force the mobile browser (Safari/Chrome) to open, even if the user is currently inside the app.

2. Newsletters & Email Clients

A common issue reported by marketing teams is: “I clicked the link in the newsletter, but it opened in the browser instead of the App.”

This is often not a bug, but a restriction of the operating system or the email app.

• The Problem: Newsletter Tracking Tools use “Redirect Domains” to count clicks.
• The Effect: If the link first goes to tracking.newsletter-tool.com and then redirects to shop.com, the phone often loses the “trigger” to open the app and stays in the browser.
• Solution: Your newsletter provider must configure the “Association Files” on their tracking domains to explicitly allow app opening. Please consult your technical contact if this issue persists.

Tip

Browser & App Dependencies On iPhones, Universal Links work most reliably when tapped inside Safari or Apple Mail. Third-party browsers or apps sometimes “trap” the user within their internal browser.

Example: If a user opens your newsletter in the Gmail App but has set Firefox as their standard browser, the link will likely open in the Firefox browser instead of directing to the app. This is a system behavior we cannot override.

3. Marketing & Tracking Links (Adjust)

To measure the success of your campaigns (e.g., “How many installs did my Facebook Ad generate?”), simple web links are not enough. We recommend using Adjust.

Why Adjust?

• Smart Routing: It detects the user’s device. You can use one single link for your campaign. iPhone users go to the App Store, Android users to the Play Store.
• Deferred Deep Linking: If a user installs the app after clicking the link, the app can still remember “he wanted to see the red sneakers” and opens that product immediately after the first launch.

Smartbanner in Webshop

You likely have a banner on your mobile website promoting the app.

• Responsibility: This is managed by our Frontend Team (not the App Team).
• Recommendation: Use a combined Adjust Link here. This ensures that every download coming from the mobile shop is tracked correctly in your reports.

Note

Safari Smartbanner: On iOS, you might see a plain, grey “Open” banner at the very top. This is provided automatically by Apple Safari simply because the app is installed. We cannot design, disable, or track this specific banner.