App Indexing and Deep Linking
Connecting a web result to the matching screen inside an installed app, so a tap opens the app rather than the browser.
Analogy Mental model
Finding a product in search and having the phone open the shop's app straight to that item, already signed in, ready for a fingerprint payment.
In practice What you actually do
If a native app exists, have the mobile teams configure universal links on iOS and app links on Android, mapping web URLs to in-app destinations one to one. Test the mapping against real pages, because a broken association produces an error rather than a graceful fallback.
Where people get burned Pitfalls
Visitors without the app installed must simply see the normal mobile page. Intercepting them with a wall demanding a download is a dark pattern, and mobile search systems treat it as an intrusion.
This entry was written in English from the Chinese original, not machine-translated. Read the Chinese version →