Purple App Experience

Deferred deep linking

4min

Summary 

Deep links are external links that refer to specific content within your app. This links can be used as part of newsletters or banners, referring your readers to content you would like to point your readers to. There are three ways to configure deferred deep linking:

  • Reader opens link on a smartphone and doesn't have your app yet: Your reader will first be redirected to their OS's App Store (either Google's Play Store or Apple's App Store), where they can first download your app. After the app is installed, readers will land directly at the content defined in your deferred deep link.
  • Reader opens link on a smartphone and has your app installed: Your reader is directly led to the content defined in your deferred deep link.
  • Reader opens link on a desktop computer: A page with the app's name, icon, and links to download the app for Google's Play Store and Apple's App Store will be displayed.

Preconditions

  • Have an associated domain prefix prepared. The prefix should consist of 5 to 20 lowercase letters and digits. 

How to set up deferred deep links 

  1. Go to Purple Manager -> 'Apps' -> 'Overview' and make sure your app is on Build Template 8.3. or higher
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2. Click 'Basic settings' in the menu bar and scroll down to 'Associated Domain Prefix'.

3. Write the Prefix into the field 'Associated Domain Prefix' ('myprefix' in our example).

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4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the 'Save' button. 

5. Go to https://simplycalc.com/base64url-encode.php and paste 'purple://app/info/open' into the field 'Data'.

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6. Copy the created link from the field 'Result' and keep it for later use. 

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7. Copy the base64url encoder result and create the deferred deep link (e.g. in a text document on your computer) starting with https://myprefix.purple.to/?deeplink=  and add the previously copied Result you encoded in base64: cHVycGxlOi8vYXBwL2luZm8vb3Blbg==  

The final result should look like this: https://myprefix.purple.to/?deeplink=cHVycGxlOi8vYXBwL2luZm8vb3Blbg==  

8. You can now use this link anywhere to refer your reader to app-specific content.