What is deep linking example?

The concept of deep linking has been around for some time now but it’s only recently that we have seen its full potential being realized. Deep linking is simply when you can link from one app or site (or even a webpage) onto another part within your own application. It creates more user experience than just having links on sites as they are not always visible if someone wants to use them.

We will cover everything about this new technology so you know exactly what it means and why it's important. We'll also show you examples of using it with both React Native and JavaScript code. Let us begin!

What does deep link mean?

A deep link allows users to navigate between parts of your app without leaving your current page. They don't need to go through multiple screens or pages to get there. This makes navigation easier and faster, which is good news for anyone who loves to be able to quickly jump around their app/website without getting lost.

It's similar to bookmarking where you save certain places in your browser and then easily return back to those locations later. You could think of Google search results where each result leads you deeper into other related content.

This feature comes particularly handy for companies whose customers may want to access different functions inside its product. For instance, if you were building an e-commerce platform, you would likely have products listed at various levels. Customers might want to see all the features available from top down rather than going through every single level before finding something useful. By creating a deep link, you allow people to skip past these steps and find what they're looking for much quicker.

There are several ways to do this depending upon whether you're developing a native Android app or a mobile website. We will focus here on explaining how to implement deep linking in Android using a simple example. The process should apply across the board regardless of your chosen development tool.

Let me explain further...

Is deep linking effective?

Yes, absolutely. Users love the ability to stay on topic instead of jumping off and landing somewhere else entirely. If done right, it will help make your app stand out from competitors while making things simpler for everyone involved. Here are three reasons why deep linking works well.

1. Your app gets noticed.

When someone uses a deep link to enter your app, it gives you more chances to catch their eye because they've already gone through the effort of finding the relevant information. When people visit your app organically, it's far less likely that they'll leave without taking action. Also, since they went through the extra step to reach your app, they won't mind following up once they land. In short, you're going to generate more traffic and therefore sales.

2. It builds trust and loyalty among your audience.

By giving people easy access to the information they want, they feel reassured that you care enough to put forth such efforts. People tend to become loyal fans if they have confidence that you understand and appreciate their needs. A great way to build brand loyalty is by providing helpful resources that solve problems and provide value. Giving your users direct access to what they actually want will keep them coming back for more.

3. It reduces bounce rates.

If you have a lot of visitors clicking away from your website after a few seconds, it shows that they didn't enjoy the experience. Many times, they left because they weren't interested in anything you had to offer. That's why it's vital to give them quick access to what they came for.

Now let's take a look at how you'd set up a deep link structure for Android.

What is deep linking in Android example?

In order to learn more, I created a small project called myapp. It contains two sections - main menu and settings. On the first section, you'll notice there are five buttons labeled "Home", "Settings", "About Us", "Contact Me" and "Review". Each button takes you to a separate tab. Clicking any of these tabs reveals more options.

You can add additional tabs to the bottom of the main menu or include them anywhere throughout the app. You can choose whatever suits best for your purpose. So, if you wanted to add more tabs to the bottom of the main menu, you wouldn't place them under the About Us button. Instead, you would move Settings below Home, Review above Contact Me and so on.

On the second section, you'll notice four icons labeled 1, 2, 3 and 4. These represent the four sub-tabs found in the main menu. Again, you can change the names however you please.

To create a deep link, follow these simple steps:

Create a folder named deeplinks within the res directory. Inside this folder, create a file named index.html. Paste the code below into it. Note that the URL must match the name of the corresponding tab.

Go ahead and run the project again. Now open the home screen. Tap on the hamburger icon next to MyApp. Then tap on Add Content. Finally, select the deeplink file located in the res/deeplinks folder.

Once you click Open App, you'll notice that the selected tab opens as expected. From here, you can click on any of the sub-tabs to reveal more info. As long as you remember the name of the linked tab, you'll never lose your place.

That's pretty cool. But what happens if you forget the name of the tab? Well, that's where the magic of deep linking shines through. Next, let's explore how to fix this issue.

How to prevent accidental clicks on deep links

As mentioned previously, creating a deep link requires naming each tab correctly. However, sometimes your team members will accidentally type the wrong name. Or perhaps you decided to rename the tabs during testing. Either way, it's possible that a user will end up opening the wrong tab unintentionally. To avoid this scenario, you should add a special case to ensure that no matter what goes wrong, the correct tab is opened.

Here's how to do it:

Add a function named handleTabClick() to the root component of the app. Make sure to import the TabNavigator module before doing so.

Inside the function, check whether the clicked element matches the name of the actual tab. If yes, proceed with the default behavior otherwise, call closeActiveTab().

I hope you enjoyed learning what deep linking is and how to accomplish it. Hopefully, this article helped clear up any confusion you might have over the subject. Do you plan to start implementing deep linking soon? What kind of applications has it made for you? Share your thoughts and insights with us below!

The term "deep linking" has been around for quite some time now but it's only recently that we've started seeing more developers using this feature of Android phones. The concept is simple - when you're browsing something online (say your favorite news site), if you click a particular article, you can be taken straight to the same page within the app. It lets users get to content faster than they would have otherwise.

If you want to learn more about what deep links are and how they help us navigate our smartphones better, read on...

What are deep links with example?

A deep link is basically any URL that points back to itself. If you see a link such as 'www.example.com/page2' then that means the second page within www.example.com is linked to the first page. So when you click on 'Page 2', you'd be taken right there without having to load anything else. This makes it much easier to reach important pages within apps because all you need to do is type a few letters or tap a button. You don't really even need to open up the browser at times!

Let's say you're reading through a long list of recipes while cooking dinner one night and you realize you forgot to add half of the ingredients. Instead of going back to Google search results and searching again, just press the home button and go to the main menu of whatever app you were currently using. Tap Recipes and voila! All those missing ingredients will appear before your eyes.

You'll also notice that whenever you scroll down a webpage in Chrome, Firefox, Safari etc., you're able to access other parts of the page via these deep links. For instance, let's say you're on Facebook and someone sends you a message asking whether you're free tonight. Rather than opening a new tab or sending them a reply, simply swipe left until you find their profile picture and send them a quick response. Or maybe you're scrolling through Instagram stories and come across a post featuring a cute dog wearing sunglasses. Just tap the photo once and it opens up inside Snapchat. That way you can instantly share the story with friends who aren't already following along.

How do I create a deep link on WhatsApp?

There isn't a dedicated setting to enable deep links in WhatsApp yet but thankfully it's easy enough to set up yourself. Here's how:

1) Open WhatsApp Settings

2) Scroll down to Advanced settings

3) Enable Deep Links under Mobile network settings

4) Click Save changes

5) Now head over to Whatsapp Web and enter the address bar. Type /whatsapp:// followed by Enter.

6) Your phone should automatically launch WhatsApp on your desktop. From here, follow the instructions shown below depending on which platform you use.

On MacOS:

Click + sign next to Home to make a shortcut.

Hit Cmd+ Shift+ J to open System Preferences.

Select Applications & Windows Components.

Find whatsapp and hit Add to Desktop.

Then drag the icon onto your dock so you always have quick access to WhatsApp whenever needed.

In iOS:

Go to Messages, select Add Contact and choose WhatsApp

Once added, go to WhatsApp Web and enter the address bar. Type /whatsapp:// followed by Enter.

Your phone should automatically launch WhatsApp on your PC.

From here, follow the instructions shown below depending on which platform you use.

On Windows 10:

Right-click anywhere on your taskbar and select New Task

Enter WhatsApp Web into the Name box and Click Next

When prompted to install WhatsApp Web, click Install

Now head back to WhatsApp Web and enter the address bar. Type /whatsapp:// followed by Enter.

Your PC should automatically launch WhatsApp on your phone.

From here, follow the instructions shown above.

On Android:

Long-press the Recents button on the bottom navigation drawer

Tap More options

Choose WhatsApp Web

Follow the steps mentioned above

What is a deep link vs hyperlink?

Both deep links and hyperlinks refer to URLs that point back to themselves. They both differ in terms of where the user lands after clicking on said link. A hyperlink takes you somewhere entirely different whereas a deep link brings you back to the original location. Let's take a look at a couple examples of each:

Hyperlink Example 1: https://google.com/?q=test&hl=en

This is a typical hyperlink. When you visit google.com, it redirects you to the homepage based on your query parameters.

Deep Link Example 1: https://facebook.com/home/?next=/path/to/specific/screen/in/an/app

Here's an example of a deep link. As soon as you land on facebook.com, it directs you to its own homepage. Then it loads the path provided in the URL behind the scenes. In this case, it would direct you to /path/to/specific/screen/in/an/app.

Hyperlink Example 2:

https://reddit.com/r/android_dev/new/.json

Reddit uses this technique for comments made on posts. Whenever you leave a comment, it saves it locally in your device cache and reloads it every time you return. This improves loading speeds dramatically compared to fetching data from Reddit servers every single time you refresh the page.

Deep Link Example 2:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tweaks.piggybacking

Google Play stores all sorts of information related to your account including billing details, payment history, reviews, ratings and many others. However, since Google wants to keep everything secure and private, it doesn't show you full credit card numbers and other sensitive info unless you specifically ask for it. To accomplish this, it embeds a special code in every app in order to retrieve this information.

How do I create a deep link in React Native?

React Native allows you to build applications for various platforms. One of the most popular ones being iOS and Android. Though the process of building cross-platform apps may seem intimidating, it actually comes pretty naturally to seasoned programmers. But sometimes things get tricky and confusing, especially when working with complex frameworks like React Native.

Fortunately, there's a tool called Rambler.io that simplifies the whole process of creating React Native apps. With the help of Rambler, you can easily create a deep link for any application on your smartphone. Once you know how to generate deep links, you'll never worry about forgetting them ever again.

For starters, you must download the official Rambler CLI client. After installation, run the command rmbl.init [project name] to initialize the project. Make sure to replace "[project name]" with the name of your newly created project.

Next, copy and paste the custom deep link HTML template into a file named index.html and save it. Afterwards, run npm i --save @rambler/cli@latest to update dependencies and finally run npm start to deploy the app on your device.

You can check out the complete guide on how to integrate Rambler into your existing React Native project here.

What is deep linking example?

So far, we've discussed both deep links and hyperlinks, but not necessarily explained what exactly is a deep link. Well, according to Wikipedia, a deep link is similar to a bookmark. Both are shortcuts used at the end of a chain of events in order to quickly jump to a certain place. On top of that, deep links allow developers to create seamless experiences between websites and apps.

You've probably seen many times on your phone when you open up a particular app that it will take you straight to the homepage of that same app without having to go through any menus or screens first. This is known as "deep linking", and it's one of the most powerful features available today for developers who want their users to be able to get right where they need to go within their own apps quickly.

The idea behind deep links is simple - if someone has already opened an app but wants to find something inside it, rather than going back to the home page and searching again, they can just click a link from somewhere else (like an email) to instantly jump to whatever they were looking at before. Deep links are also great because they enable seamless navigation across multiple apps. If you're reading this article on a desktop browser, think about all the instances where you might have clicked a URL on Twitter or Facebook instead of opening those respective websites in separate tabs. That's exactly what deep links do!

Let's look at some examples of how deep links can help improve user experience, and then we'll talk more about why you should care about them.

What is a deep link in an email?

If you've ever received an email with a special webpage embedded at the end containing a link, chances are good that you didn't even realize it was there until after you'd read the entire message. It could be anything from a video presentation to a coupon code, so be sure to check out these five ways to use deep links in emails.

What is a deep link used for?

For example, say you receive an email asking you to share a product review on social media using the following link. You may not know the name of the company offering the item, but once you see the preview image and start typing its name in Google search results, you discover that it's actually the official site of the brand itself. Now imagine if you had clicked the link in the email instead of doing that search query. Instead of finding the review on social media, you would've ended up on the original website, which means you wouldn't have been exposed to any other information about the product. So, in short, deep links make it easier to reach important content in your inboxes while giving marketers better access to potential customers.

What is a deep link example?

There are several different ways to implement deep links, depending on whether or not you prefer coding over automation. Let's walk through two popular options:

1. With JavaScript

When creating a deep link, the easiest way is to simply add a piece of text called a hyperlink to the body of an e-mail. When clicking on the link, the recipient will automatically navigate to the desired destination. Here's an example:

"Click here to view my latest blog post."

2. Automated via URLs

While building a deep link manually isn't difficult, it does require extra time. A much quicker alternative is to build the link programmatically, meaning that you don't have to write any HTML yourself and can focus primarily on writing scripts for automating tasks. In fact, the process involves only three steps:

Create a unique identifier string for each individual link. For instance, let's say you want to send people to a recipe page for chicken parmesan. The best way to do this would be to assign a unique ID number to every single recipe listed on the page, such as 1, 2, 3... etc., so that you can easily identify each individual one later on.

Generate a unique URL based on the above ID number. To keep things easy, I recommend taking advantage of existing functions built into programming languages. For example, if you're working with Java, you could use HttpURLConnection.getRequestMethod() method to return GET requests.

Send the generated URL to whoever needs to follow it. As mentioned earlier, sending a link doesn't necessarily mean that the person receiving the email will automatically visit the link. They might choose to copy it and paste it into the address bar of their browser themselves, or they could choose to forward it to someone else in order to learn more about the topic. Either way, the point remains that your recipients now have a new option to explore further.

In addition to the methods described above, you can also integrate automated deep linking solutions into third party platforms like Slack, Gmail, Outlook, Zendesk, Salesforce, Hubspot, Shopify and WordPress, among others. Some of these services offer integrations specifically designed to automate the creation of custom deep links.

What is the difference between a link and a deep link?

As previously stated, deep links are essentially links that allow you to skip certain steps and immediately land on a designated location. However, in contrast to normal links, deep links always lead to the exact same place. While standard links usually direct users to a landing page, deep links typically redirect users to a specific section on said page, like the main menu or contact details sections.

Another big distinction between links and deep links is that deep links can contain variables. Variables provide flexibility, allowing you to change the final destination based on context. There are two primary types of variables:

1. Custom parameters

Custom parameters allow you to control the outcome of a deep link. These include variables that describe the type of data being referenced, like the ID number assigned to each individual recipe, along with values that indicate the contents of that data, like the ingredients needed to prepare the dish. If you wanted to display recipes that contained basil, you could add the term "basil" as a custom parameter value to the URL generated for each recipe, resulting in a variable similar to the following:

http://example.com/recipes/?recipe=Chicken%20Parmesan&ingredients[]=Basil

This allows you to specify what kind of data you want returned for each recipe, making it possible to sort or filter recipes according to the ingredients included.

2. Data attributes

Data attributes provide a cleaner approach to controlling the output of a deep link. Unlike custom parameters, data attributes represent actual pieces of data stored in your database. So, for example, suppose you created a table with columns for Recipe Name, Ingredients List, Category, Price, and Rating. Then, whenever you generate a list of recipes, you could store additional attributes alongside each entry, including the rating given by each reviewer. Your server would pull these ratings during the generation of the deep link, and then present them to the consumer accordingly.

How to set up automatic deep linking in Android

To begin setting up automatic deep linking in your Android device, head to Settings > Apps & notifications > Auto-launch apps. From here, select either Allowed or Disabled under Allow auto-start apps to run background service. Once enabled, you'll need to configure your chosen provider(s). After selecting the appropriate action, enter the necessary credentials to connect your account.