Deep linking a necessity

So now that @copilot has gotten deployment for mobile apps squared away so that we Bubblers can get our apps in the iOS and Play stores, we need to start working toward getting deep links working with Bubble.

Obviously it would be ideal when someone navigates to a URL in my domain that it opens the app or sends them to the Play or iOS store.

How do we get there?

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Not necessarily an answer, but this is a really fun question to see.

Prior to my journey in Bubble, I was an early employee for the company that coined the term deep linking. As a search engine, the company’s goal was to be able to link users into a deep state within an app (similar to what google had done for the web). Being able to solve this was a ridiculously complex task (especially from the search engine side) but we made great headway.

When we started talking about this in the early 2010s, the idea of linking to deep states in apps was such a foreign concept. But now, it’s mainstream.

You may enjoy reading some content from the company below. (Note: the company I worked for is no longer in business. But I’d claim Branch is the current leader in the deep linking space). May yield some ideas for the Bubble community.


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Not sure if this was solved, but I noticed the following on deep linking. I have been exploring this area and I thought I would give you my experience on trying to make a consistent experience for browser and native versions, so far failed.

For this example, we will use Facebook as the app would we like to open from our app.

According to StackOverflow post it is suggested to use:

fb://profile

i.e fb://profile/240995729348595

If your app is web based only, upon clicking this link within your application, it will request permission to open the Facebook app with the profile link.

But if using native, i.e bubble app in a wrapper, it does not open the Facebook app, basically stuck loading. I read that particular with IOS, they prevent these links as other apps could also use the same deep link registered within the app and they prefer devs to create universal links with their main URL

From my understanding Apple, basically encourage developers to add something to their existing URL, so that it is recognised by IOS to look for the App on the device.

I.e using https://facebook.com from safari or native opens the Facebook App.

But if you append a profile, i.e https://facebook.com/wegetdesign, the link will open within same page and not open the Facebook App.

Basically is this a facebook issue URL wise, or has anyone managed to resolve this?

Just a quick update, @gaurav bdk native plugin handles this very well. Able to use the deeplinks via Native or open websites via a model.

But concerning Facebook, they make it difficult to open the app with a traditional user name and instead you have to get the user to sign up via social login to get the FB Id. It seems easier to do https://facebook.com/wegetdesign than fb;//profile/{{fbID}}

Hey @wegetdesign - (CC @gaurav) do you have experience with the bdk native plugin? I have a bubble app wrapped in a webview on Android and iOS, I purchased the BDK native plugin, added the option to open link as a workflow step when a button is clicked, set it up with 5-6 different configurations per documentation item #12 (Notion – The all-in-one workspace for your notes, tasks, wikis, and databases.) and cannot even send a person anywhere, whether the example given of instagram://camera or https://www.google.com. I.E. the plugin action does nothing, which is confirmed when running in preview/test mode. Any help is appreciated if you’re able! Thanks. Joe

Screenshot of setup attached - does not work on Android or iOS.

This is the UI https://forgottenapp.com/version-test/mobileappling, only the Footwear link is using the BDK plugin workflow action for ‘open link’ at the moment on the test version.

Hi @joemanier,

Just to make sure we are on the same page, the Native apps (bdk) plugin is not built to work with 3rd party wrappers as indicated in the plugin notes. Additional notes here.

It would work when you preview your app using the ‘Preview mode’ in the BDK Native app though. In case this is what you’re trying already and seeing any issues feel free to DM me via the chat on either of the links above and I’ll be happy to help :slight_smile:

Hi Gaurav,

Thanks for the reply. I don’t see it working here on the app either though – https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1591833010429x593200739888159700/video-1591832653.mp4? This is a galaxy s10.

Is it supposed to behave like that? Thanks.

Joe

Ah I think the deeplink url for instagram camera on android may be different. I tried with the same result on my device. But when I tried deeplink of other apps e.g. mailto:// or tel:// those were working