How to force URL to open in home screen app?

Question

If the mobile user has added a web app to their home screen (either iOS or Android), is there a way to force future URL clicks (e.g. from a text message) to open in that home screen app?

Answer 1

First I don't think that there is a Home App concept in iOS

In android, developer can specify the intent he wants to consume and a picker will appear to the user once that intent was fired (and the user can pick your app to open it).

this can easily be done for web links by announcing in your intent filter that you listen to them, using a filter like this:

<intent-filter>
 <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW"></action>
 <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT"></category>
 <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE"></category>
</intent-filter>

on the other hand in iOS their is no way to intercept user actions outside of your app, I remember google complaining about this when they tried to listen to call for maps app from google chrome

Daniel Graf: We want our native Chrome and Search apps to give you the opportunity to jump into Google Maps. With our new SDK, this is up to the developers to integrate into their apps if they like. Safari is out of our control. source