A simple, privacy respecting service to create a link that redirects to the App Store, Google Play, or Microsoft Store based on the user's platform.
Consider a case where you have an app available on multiple platforms. You want to provide a single link that will redirect the user to the appropriate store based on their platform. AppLink.dev allows you to create such a link.
AppLink.dev is designed to execute entirely in the browser, without any server-side processing. This ensures that no data is collected or stored.
Of course, requesting the page may still expose the visitor's IP address to the server hosting the page.
Created with ❤️ by Konstantin.
Create a link to applink.dev and pass the necessary parameters to redirect the user to the appropriate stores.
| Query parameter | Description | Configuration |
|---|---|---|
apple |
The numeric part of App Store app identifier | Simple link |
google |
The Google Play app package identifier | Simple link |
ms |
The Microsoft Store app identifier | Simple link |
t |
The complete url to a Applink target configuration file | Applink Targets |
Applink supports parsing a URL with parameters to create a link that will redirect the user to the appropriate store based on their platform. This approach is less flexible that using Applink Targets.
The following link would redirect a user to their respective app store based on their platform:
https://applink.dev/?apple=6444602274&google=org.joinmastodon.android&ms=9ncbcszsjrsb
You need to include the platform-specific parameters in the URL:
- For the App Store, include your app ID:
apple=1234
- For Google Play, include your app package name:
google=package-name
- For the Microsoft Store, include your app Store ID:
ms=app-id
The same app ID will be used for all App Store platforms (iOS, macOS...).
A target is a link to a specific app store. A target definition includes one or more filter rules that determine which target should be used. The filter rules are based on the user's platform.
Targets are defined as JSON-LD objects that can be embedded on your website. This approach is more flexible than using Simple link as it allows the inclusion of query parameters to each store link as well support for custom app stores.
You can pass the domain where we can find the applink target file as a query parameter:
https://applink.dev/?t=https://example.com/applink
Example:
{
"@context": "http://schema.org",
"@type": "CreativeWorkSeries",
"hasPart": [
{
"@type": "SoftwareApplication",
"provider": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Apple"
},
"potentialAction": {
"@type": "ViewAction",
"target": {
"@type": "EntryPoint",
"urlTemplate": "https://apps.apple.com/app/id12345"
}
}
}
]
}-
At the root, define a CreativeWorkSeries under which you can define the
hasPartproperty for each target. -
Each target is defined as a SoftwareApplication with the
providerproperty set to the vendor's name. Currently, we can distinguish betweenApple,Google, andMicrosoft. More granular targeting based on the user's system are currently in the works. -
To define a url for this target, add a
potentialActionproperty with a ViewAction object that has aurlproperty.
Currently, the following platforms are supported:
| User agent platform | Matching target "provider" | Store |
|---|---|---|
| Detected Apple device | Apple | App Store |
| Detected Google Play device | Google Play | |
| Detected Windows device | Microsoft | Microsoft Store |
| Unknown device | Unknown | Fallback |
Using the provider field you can add or more instances of SoftwareApplication which will be matched from first to last.
ℹ️ Detection of the browser and platform of the visitor can be quite tricky (especially if we consider older browsers). For now, detection is done explicitly only using the user agent string. This enables us to respect the user's choice if they have opted to modify the user agent string.
We strongly recommend that you include a fallback option so that users on unknown platforms are not left without a clear indication of what to do next.
{
"@type": "SoftwareApplication",
"provider": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Unknown"
},
"potentialAction": {
"@type": "ViewAction",
"target": {
"@type": "EntryPoint",
"urlTemplate": "https://example.org"
}
}
}Our goal is to offer a simple and privacy protecting way of identifying the best store for the user. To achieve this, only client side information is used. There is no third party tracking, data collection or geolocation of any kind.
In some cases, it may be required to know the country from which the user is accessing the link (e.g. in order to offer an alternative app store). You can define an app target specific to the European Union by using the audience property:
{
"audience": {
"@type": "Audience",
"geographicArea": {
"@type": "Place",
"name": "European Union"
}
}
}We determine the user's location based on their Timezone as reported by the browser. This is not 100% accurate, but it should be good enough for most cases.
When using the applink target file definition, you're free to provide a link to alternative stores and platforms. This can be useful for apps that are available on platforms like F-Droid, AltStore and others.
To do so, use the provider and audience fields to offer a potentialAction for the store you're linking to.
Please note that the name of the provider organization must always be one of the supported values listed above.
For Applink target
If the user's platform is unknown, or none of the provided targets were a match we will display an error message. Please try to avoid this scenario by defining "Unknown" target. Otherwise it will leave users without a clear indication of what to do next.
For simple link
If the user's platform is unknown, or none of the provided targets were a match we will display all available app store links with their corresponding badge.
Feel free to check the currently open issues. If you have a suggestion or feature request, please open a new ticket 💜!
-
The component is built using Vite and tests are written using Vitest.
-
The component is written in JavaScript and uses JSDoc for type checking enabled by adding
// @ts-checkat the start of every file. (This was inspired by Kitten). -
Since this is a static web page, there is no server-side processing.
The decision to build this as a JavaScript component was made to ensure that no data is collected or stored. The component runs entirely in the browser and does not require any server-side processing.
Type checking is done using JSDoc and TypeScript checks are enabled using // @ts-check which is more than enough for a small project like this.
applink.dev is hosted as a GitHub page and publicly available for anyone to use for free. Just follow the above guidelines to create the necessary query parameters.
If you prefer to self-host it as a static page, you're welcome to clone/fork and deploy this to any static hosting provider as described in the Vite documentation.
As we also use GitHub pages for hosting, there is a GitHub Action that builds the project and deploys it. You can find the workflow in .github/workflows/deploy.yml.
This project is licensed under the BSD-3-Clause license. For more information, please refer to the LICENSE file.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS “AS IS” AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.