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I'm trying to implement the new AppLinks API for my Application to route the Facebook-Users to my mobile App.

I've set up the meta correctly, but the Facebook App opens always the URL within the internal Web-Browser (but it shows then at the top right, but that a normal User wouldn't know for what it stands for and wouldn't klick on it).

<meta property="al:web:should_fallback" content="true" />

Facebook Applinks Implementation

But if I set the should_fallback to false, the Post is opened directly in the App - But then the Fallback to the WebApp doesn't work anymore.

<meta property="al:web:should_fallback" content="true" />

So Facebook doesn't implemented the AppLinks implementation correctly (so that it doesn't make sense) or did I forget something?

Facebook Documentation

PS: On Android it works correctly: After clicking on a Applink it opens directly my native App, and if the App is not installed then it opens the normal Web-Page

For the Pinterest iOS App this way also doesn't work - but there the Implementation is better than it is in Facebook - There a Infobox is shown to the User:

Pinterest AppLinks implementation

Does it exist a better solution for iOS or have I to wait until Facebook is investigating into this (if they do)?

brokedid
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  • same problem here..got any solutions ?? – christijk Dec 08 '14 at 06:51
  • no, still waiting for a response from facebook.. – brokedid Dec 08 '14 at 18:43
  • App links only defines a communication and discovery protocol, it does not dictate behavior on the client apps. For iOS, the current Facebook app behavior is to open the web page, and provide some UI for the user to go to the app (the button is only one of the treatments). – Ming Li Dec 08 '14 at 23:08
  • Did you guys get anywhere with this? – Moss Palmer Sep 21 '15 at 08:41
  • No - but I think that facebook will change the behaviour now for iOS9 (I hope so) – brokedid Sep 22 '15 at 07:05
  • reopened a Bug on Facebook - hope I'll get now a solution from the FB-Team: https://developers.facebook.com/bugs/1550897798498972/ – brokedid Sep 22 '15 at 07:28
  • one solution is to detect iOS/Android on your web server, set `al:web:should_fallback` to `true` for Android, set to `false` for iOS – Nicholas Ng Jun 21 '16 at 02:58
  • @nicolas-ng I don't think detecting the client would work as the FB scraper which reads the al: tags is neither iOS nor Android – AndyDeveloper Sep 28 '16 at 23:02

1 Answers1

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I am not sure my comment will be useful but we met similar situation. At same time while we tried to solve issue with fall back we found that everything works well for Instagram. We compared our metatags and found that we have only one difference. It is additional metatag fb:app_id. We added it to the page and magic happened. When app is installed then fb suggest to open it. When it is not installed it does redirect to web url (og:url).

Sergey
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